Before I get started with today's topic of "ideas," here's a good one to mention first: Overtaken is now on Kindle, and for the great price of just $4.99. I'd like to invite all you e-book fans to take advantage of this new opportunity to indulge in the lush, gothic, and romantic world of my heroine, Sara Bergsen. And of course, if you're still like me and not quite ready for virtual reading, you can always order a paperback copy direct from me or any other bookseller.
Which leads me back to ideas in general. While I was submitting my e-files for this new edition of Overtaken, I was reminded of my original inspiration and motivation for writing the story in the first place. So often I am asked (as are most other authors, I'm sure): Where do you get your ideas? On the surface it sometimes seems like a standard question, one that's easy to gloss over. After all, ideas are everywhere, the hard part is winnowing through the crop to finally settle on just one. But when I really thought about it, there were definite instances, experiences, and prompts I could point to throughout my creative life that have each influenced my work and given me my ideas.
One of the main sources to thank for much of Overtaken is The International Women's Writing Guild. At one of the IWWG Skidmore College summer conferences where I was teaching a workshop on self-publishing, I had the great privilege of attending classes with authors Emily Hanlon and Marylou Streznewski. The very last page of Overtaken was written before any other part of the book in Emily's class, and one of my dream sequences I eventually assigned to Sara was written under the guidance of Marylou. So thank you, ladies!
After returning home from the conference I continued to work on the book, mainly in the form of journal entries, morning pages, and other writing exercises from both how-to books and my writing groups. Within these writing sessions I would find myself wanting to write about different times and experiences from my own life, for instance:
- London. Oh, how I love London. And just like Sara, for a while it was my home. Fortunately I've been able to go back a few times, but I still can't get enough of the place, so any excuse to set a story in London takes me back to my favorite shops, streets, museums, and galleries.
- Sara is an artist--and I try my best to follow in her footsteps. Of course she is much more highly skilled than I am (she makes her living as a professional portrait artist), but it was fun to imagine the kind of paintings and style she preferred.
- The Theosophical Society. For many years I've been intrigued and interested in the work of Helena Blavatsky and the society she founded. Even if you're inclined to regard (or dismiss) her writing as sheer myth and storytelling, it's mythology on a grand scale. The language of metaphor, symbolism, and "what if" helped me imagine the possibility of Sara and my other characters inhabiting parallel universes and realities.
- From the TS, I was introduced to the work of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, especially his costume and set designs for the Diaghilev Ballet, which then worked its way into my plot line as well.
- Editor Ellen Datlow and her great anthologies of speculative fiction. Whenever I've come across these books I've devoured them. After several volumes I was inspired to write my own paranormal tale. The result was Overtaken.
- My favorite pieces in the Datlow anthologies seemed to stem from fairy tales, and my favorite fairy tale of all time was, and is, Lona by Dare Wright. So it was natural that I asked myself the question: What if the Princess has to rescue the Prince? Hence the disappearance of Sara's new husband, Miles, and the primary story problem.
- Greece. Okay, I've never been to Greece, but I've always wanted to go and I wanted Sara to go there too. The best way I found to start my research was with magazine cut-outs and collage. Collage helped me to "feel" where Sara was once she arrived there, and how she would react to her environment. It also provided me with some specific details I would never have found just by reading about the country.
- Color; and the year my mother made hats. This is probably my most obscure motivation for writing Overtaken, but all of my life I've loved color, the more unusual the shade the better, and I think it stems from the time when I was in the first grade and my mother studied hat-making from a Hollywood dress maker. Every day after school we would go to the woman's house which was filled with the most fabulous fabrics, trims, and furbelows I have ever seen then or since. While my mother learned the intricacies of wiring Gainsborough-style brims, I got to play in the walk-in closet and try on the seemingly endless array of netted petticoats and gowns in every color imaginable: peacock blues; poison apple greens; Jezebel scarlets. I was in heaven! Now, as an author, I was able to relive that wonderful time by giving my heroine a similar immersion into her wardrobe, environment, and artistic palette.
“He doesn’t do hand-crafted models per say…”
You’re killing me. It’s PER SE.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/per+se
Yup. I do that pretty regularly. Mental block. Latin is not my friend.
Growing up I adored Jill Krementz’s A Very young Dancer was a non-fictiony look at a real dancer’s daily life told through text and photos. (She went on to write and photograph many more in that series). I was drawn to the immediacy of the images and would linger on those images studying every detail.
It would be great to see a fictional picture book use photographs of real kids (rather than, say, photos of clay/food models). I’m wondering if the lack of this pairing is because this sort of project would have to be delivered to the editor/agent as a complete packag. When a writer/illustrator subs text with illustrations there is always room to edit both text and illustrations. This would be less so for a project delivered with already shot photos. Just wondering, here. But I do love this idea and think I may just explore it myself!
Two thoughts:
1. I’m not sure how widely known it is, but fiction picture book Lost in the Woods by Carl Sams and Jean Stoick is pretty much a school library staple here in Michigan. The pair have collaborated on other titles as well – they call them “photographic fantasies”. My students love them.
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Woods-Photographic-Carl-Sams/dp/product-description/0967174880/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
2. Have you checked out the Spring list from Feiwel & Friends? Princess Zelda and the Frog by Carol Gardner and Shane Young uses photographs with illustrated backgrounds.
http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Zelda-Frog-Carol-Gardner/dp/0312603258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299081971&sr=1-1
I’d have to agree, there really aren’t that many fictional picture books/early readers that use photography. I do have one set that uses photography (Real Kids Readers by Marcia Leonard), but I’ve noticed that when the kids look at these they tend to assume the book is nonfiction.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull.
I would think that books including photographs of people would be too specific for fiction, especially if faces are shown. You can generalize a watercolor or cartoon to “stand-in” for your friends and family, but a photo only represents the person in the photo. That’s why we see animal stand-in in the first place, they can be very specific characters but still apply broadly.
Usually, I don’t like illustrations in word books. The details in the pictures are almost always wrong for me, and the dissonance is distracting. The pictures remove a level of intimacy.
Oh my goodness, Betsy. My 45-year-old original copy of EDITH AND MR. BEAR (A Lonely Doll Story) still sits on my shelf. The photography enchanted me then as it does still today.
I was so interested to see this post, just when I was thinking about this topic. I’ve been trying to convince my lovely artist/photographer sister (http://ann-mariehensleyphotography.blogspot.com/) to pursue illustration–and then I realized I was probably setting her up to do the impossible. Or at least the Pretty Darn Near.
My daughter, age 10, is the kind of kid who will always take photography over illustration. I was never like that, so it fascinates me to watch her choose books. I think she’d love fiction with artistic photo illustrations as much as she loves those “I Spy” books and wildlife field guides she reads.
I have been following this conversation with great interest because my talented photographer boyfriend and I have been collaborating on book-photography art projects (http://oliverscottphotography.tumblr.com/post/968875153/now-on-display)and we are dying to take it one step further and write/illustrate a children’s book. Know anyone who wants to give us a book deal? I’m sure I’m biased because of my involvement with the field, but I really believe that photography and video will be coming to the forefront of the illustrating world in the 21st century as technology keeps expanding. (Don’t get me wrong, I love all illustration!) At any rate, thanks for keeping this topic fresh in people’s minds!
Wiggle Giggle Tickle Train by Nora Hilb and Sharon Jennings is a combination of photography and illustration. The photographs are by Marcela Cabezas Hilb with a few from iStockphoto. We have a few preschool children that are absolutely fascinated by it.
Just thought of another one – The Handiest Things in the World by Andrew Clements (of Frindle fame, of course). It is all photographs (by Raquel Jaramillo), lots of real children (and a dog and a snowman). Its an honest-to-goodness picture book – and it rhymes!