Kathleen's Theory of Creativity

I've decided to write up some short little articles on miscellaneous writing stuff, sort of my own frequently asked questions. I'll just refer people to my website! Sounds easy, right?

Ha.

Anyway, I considered whether I wanted to start off with the state of the market (BO-RING), the Pathetic, Whining Writer's Guide to Getting an Agent, Money (always popular), and Promotion/Publicity. But I'm tired of business-stuff right now. This business has got so…I don't know…businessy, that I feel like I'm back working for the insurance company. Rules…blah, blah, blah… branding…blah, blah, blah….money… Okay, that one perks me up. Anyway, I think I'm going to start out with writing stuff, because you know, I'm like, a writer!

A lot of fans write me about my originality and my creativity (well, okay, that happened after Diva's Guide, and I'm surprised that that's the one thing that really made the book take off, but I'm certainly not going to whine about it). My parents are happy that I've at last got an outlet for my imagination instead of talking to non-existent people (even as I child, I was always character, rather than plot-oriented). People ask, where did you get the idea for Diva's Guide? The correct answer is that it came from a ton of places. I was fascinated with the female caste system in New York, which plants gossip-columnists at the top of the food chain, I've always loved the Faust story, and hell is probably my number one fear ever. Never seen the Omen, never seen the Exorcist. And won't, either. People say the best way to exorcize your fear is to keep facing it until you master it. And thus, the story was born.

Stories are all around us. Especially the newspaper, although if you live in Dime Box, Texas, I'm not sure the newspaper is a good source. When something intrigues me, it's enough to start me going on an elaborate game of 'what's that person like?' Which is a close-cousin to the classic "what if?" game that most plot-oriented people will talk about. Close behind newspapers in character-creation are magazines (I devour Newsweek every week). I like reading book synopsis, or pitches. Not because I want to steal them, but because it never fails to get me off and running into something new and different.

Movies are a good source for me, TV, not so much, although I'm not sure why. Possibly because TV has very few solid plot-driven shows, and I definitely need plot to get me started on my "what's that person like?" game. TV seems to be more character driven, and I need no help on creating characters, and also, I only want to create new and improved characters, not people that I already now.

Oh, and speaking of people that I already now. If I'm confessing trade secrets, I'll mention that I frequently use people I know or people I see in the world as taking-off points. It's not the complete person, more like one specific trait that captures my imagination, and then I begin a game of, "How to Best torture that person." I think people believe that characters in books actually exist in real life. In some cases yes, but in most, building a character is like playing with Mr. Potato Head. You use one set of eyes, one annoying trait, one funny trait, one secret hope, one secret fear, possibly big ears, and then plug in whichever feet work best. I love just sitting and listening to people talk because it never fails to inspire me in some way.

My last morsel of wisdom is about the question: what happens when you run out of ideas? There are two sorts of writers (actually there's more than two, but in order to infuse this article with some semblance of authority, I'll stick to two): those that have one story to tell, and those that have a brain full of stories to tell. Some of the greatest books have been written by authors who were one-book wonders. Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, and well, I'm blanking on everybody else, but I'm sure there are tons more. And then there's authors who actually have "collected works." No offense to those who only have one book in them, but make sure that either, a) you write a modern-day classic, most likely optioned into film, or b) adopt a wealthy patron or c) do not let writing interfere in your quest for food and rent. Most writers who envision a career in writing have millions of bits and pieces of stories in their head, floating around like little flotsams in the sea of hypothalamic goo. If you have no little flotsams, I would suggest that you start looking for things that inspire your flotsams to be fruitful and multiply. If it's movies, go for it. Newspapers, other books, TV, people-watching, whatever it is, you nurse that sucker into your flotsams start to grow strong, feeding on other little flotsams until a full-fledged story idea is produced. I will run out of breath before I run out of ideas, which I suppose is why I'm a writer.