Emma Pass On Using The Newspaper For Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Emma Pass, who grew up at an environmental studies centre near London, went to art school in Cornwall and now lives in the north-east Midlands, UK. Her YA dystopian thrillers ACID and THE FEARLESS, are available now.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

With THE FEARLESS, definitely. I attended a workshop run by UK YA author Julie Bertagna, and she was talking about how she got her ideas. She handed out some newspaper articles as examples, and the one I got was about a pill being developed to stop soldiers suffering from PTSD. I started wondering what would happen if there was a pill that didn't just stop you being affected psychologically by traumatic events, but stopped you feeling fear altogether – along with any capacity for empathy or love. What would it do to people? How would they behave?

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I started to think about how people might be forced to take this drug against their will, until vast numbers of them – now called 'The Fearless' - were invading every country in the world, forcing the drug on everyone else. It would be a bit like a zombie invasion, only far scarier as these people were still alive, with the capacity to think and plan. I imagined a small group of survivors, and what their lives might be like post-invasion. Living among them was a teenage girl, Cass. What would happen if her little brother, the only family she had left, was taken by the Fearless, and everyone else was too afraid to help her get him back? What choices would she have to make? What journey would she go on? Would she be able to survive? I've always loved post-apocalyptic, disaster stories that ask 'what would you do?', so this was my perfect opportunity to write my own.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Always! I'm not much of a planner so I don't generally have the plot firmly in place before I start a first draft. Too much planning bores me, so I like to write and discover the story as I go along – and it always surprises me! I do have to do a lot of editing with subsequent drafts, though, but I love editing (yeah, I'm weird!), so that's OK.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I don't have millions of story ideas at any one time, but there are always a few brewing. I find the one way not to get ideas is to try and consciously think them up. Instead, I try to be receptive to unusual things I might see or hear or read (OK, so that's a fancy way of saying I'm nosy, but you have to be if you're a writer, right?). Eventually, they might turn into an idea, which might turn into a story…

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I generally have one idea which is more 'ready' than the others – I might have a vague idea of the ending, or the characters might start speaking to me and insist that I write their story now. Sometimes, though, I just have to start writing and see – and if the story isn't ready, I soon find out! I don't consider it wasted, though, as I know I can come back to it another time.

I write best when it’s raining outside. Do you have a favorite weather to write with?

I like sunny days the best, because I can sit outside and look at the garden and daydream – an essential part of my writing process!

Shannon Grogan On Inspiration... From A Commercial

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Shannon Grogan, a second grade teacher who writes at night (and while her kids are at ballet and baseball) in a small logging town east of Seattle. She holds degrees in education, and graphic design/Illustration. When she isn’t writing, she's baking, reading, watching scary movies, and wishing she were at the beach.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

When I got the idea for FROM WHERE I WATCH YOU, I was revising another story. The only thing I had in place was a MC who wanted to be a baker. Then I was driving down the highway and a Campbells Soup commercial came on the radio. By the time it was done I was pulling over to jot down notes. By the time I pulled back onto the road I had my MC’s mother (a crazy lady who thinks her pea soup was blessed by Jesus and has healing powers) The rest of the story came from this point—my MC who wanted to become a baker and also wanted to escape her life and her crazy mom.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I figured my theme was leaning in the direction of escape, so I added in the baking contest, which if she won she’d get a scholarship to culinary school, and away from her mom. I also wanted something ghostly, so I decided to have her dead sister hang around so she’d want to escape this and the bad memories associated with her. I love contemporary and focused first on the betrayal, and ultimately, the forgiveness within her family, but I also love scary thrillers, and romance. So I added those elements in along the way: a stalker to escape, and a boy to love and push away/escape from (also betrayal and forgiveness).

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

I usually have the main plot really solid in my mind and it pretty much comes out on paper the same, mainly because I use a quick visual plotting method to help me. But the subplots change the most, and/or are added/deleted.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I seem to have times where story ideas come one after the other. I write them on index cards and file them away. Most of the ones that come that are total crap on their own. But one idea might combine with another idea or two to form a good story idea. When they do I give them their own page in my book idea journal.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

Ooh, this is happening to me now and I’m leaning towards the one I enjoy writing down notes on the most.

Given the choice of losing your feet or your hands, what goes?

Feet. I need my hands to type and write and draw. And eat. And hug my kids.

Randy Ribay On Rolling With The Plot Changes

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Randy Ribay, debut author of the contemporary YA novel AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES (Merit Press, October 2015). He's also a book reviewer & blogger for THE HORN BOOK and a high school English teacher. He can be found in Camden, NJ walking his dog-children, gaming, or making lightsaber sound effects with his mouth.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

I began with some vague shape of the kind of story I knew I wanted to tell. When I started writing AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES, I was coming off of writing a post-apocalyptic zombie novel (that nobody will ever read!). I like mixing things up, so I knew I wanted to go in the opposite direction and try something realistic. From there, I knew I wanted to tell the story of a nerdy kid. And as I started writing his story and building his world, I became interested in his friends and their stories. That’s how I ended up deciding to ignore every piece of writing advice ever about how to structure a story.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I’m a diverse person who has lived a diverse life. Having been starved for literature that reflected my world as a child, I knew I wanted to my characters to convey a variety of experiences. So even though I was writing about a group of nerdy friends (who found each other by playing Dungeons & Dragons), I did not want them all to be the same type of nerd with the same background and the same struggles. So I began by creating my characters, and once I knew them, I gave them each a problem they needed overcome that would be true to their character. And once they each had a problem, I gave the group a problem that they would have to collectively resolve. I wrote to help them solve those problems.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

My plot(s) kept changing right up to the final draft. Given the unique structure of my story (four parallel storylines that eventually converge), I constantly struggled with making sure that the individual plots intertwined sufficiently to necessitate that they be told jointly. On top of that, I had to ensure that the larger arc would help resolves the individual arcs. This, or course, made revision a…challenge. Every time I altered a plot point in one section, I had to then go and change every other section. Good times.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

It took me a long time to start writing because I always felt like the first thing I wrote had to be a complete masterpiece. However, once I finally realized that that was bullshit (can I curse here?), I was actually able to write. Since then I’ve been able to find new ideas all around me. A lot of the times I’ll begin with an image—usually something I see in my daily life—and simply wonder about the story behind the image.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

In between novels, I’ll do a stint of short stories. And I’ll basically keep writing short stories until something sticks, until I get to that point where I can’t stop thinking about one of the stories and its characters. So even though I always have a few bouncing around my head, it’s the one I’m most curious about that I’ll expand simply because I feel like there’s more story that I want to uncover.

Given the choice of losing your feet or your hands, what goes?

Feet, hands down (see what I did there?). My hands help me write, type, make omelets, play video games, pet puppies, build sandcastles, etc. My feet get me from point A to point B. Sometimes they kick things. I feel like they could be replaced with wheels or robot spider legs or a jet pack, and things would work out. Maybe I could even get stilts and finally be taller than Mindy McGinnis.