20: Novel Thoughts, Part 2 – Inspiration
I often wonder what inspires people. I tell myself that my mind presents this question to me from time to time so that I can understand different ways to motivate the characters I write about, but when I put this into practice, it does not end up happening the way I plan it. Instead, I find myself reaching for the things that inspired me to write in the first place.
This post is about what has inspired me to write my current work in progress. I have convinced myself that if I share what brings value, meaning, and purpose to what I am doing, maybe others can relate or at least have an understanding as to why this story is what it is.
I cannot say for certain that anything that I write here is complicated or not. My opinion is that inspiration is a combination of logic and emotion that is interpreted by an individual’s perspective. What is simple to one person can be complicated to another, and how I see these things may or may not be important or impressive enough for you. Me being me, I am going to write them anyway.
1: Origins
A particular stereotype regarding authors is that they are conflicted. This one-word description does not truly fit me or any other author because everyone goes through multiple conflicts in life. The only real difference is that storytellers have a habit of taking a conflict and creating permutations that fuel a narrative that can hopefully be understood and enjoyed by others.
The conflict that sparked the idea for my work-in-progress, whose title was formally known as Azrael, started with a crush I had on a woman in college. I have no problem saying that at that point in my life, the conflict I was having had nothing to do with liking her; it had to do with religious differences.
I have and will always respect a person’s religious beliefs and practices. In this case, the conflict presented itself as that ever-present question that every two-year-old asks: Why? In my situation, it had to do with an interfaith prohibition. My personality does not lean toward lamenting what might have been; instead, my mind searches for an explanation that can only be found by doing my own research and questioning others.
If my personality displays a complex, it would be the one where you consume information with a slight reason in mind, if there is a complex like that. When I look into a topic, I tend to learn as much as possible; sometimes, I stop when I find the answers I am looking for, but more often than not, to understand something you have to take it in as something complete and not just its contributing parts.
As far as the relationship between my crush and I went, it never left the realm of being friends. I have no regrets, and I am grateful for what I learned because all of it allowed me to develop a core concept of the story I am working on.
The entire experience taught me that it does not matter if you hold to religious beliefs or not; everyone puts their faith in something, and that faith can unite or divide people. Yes, it is one of those nothing new ideas, but in the permutations that go on in my head, I found a way to express this concept in such a way that it continues to motivate me while I write.
2: Background
I have always been fascinated by the conflict between angels and demons. It does not matter to me if anyone believes in their literal existence because every bit of writing about the topic represents the eternal struggle between good and evil that people deal with.
Stories like Paradice Lost personify the entire conflict of good and evil, but the narrative insists on drawing a line that divides the opposing sides, which provides a classical yet limiting motivational set for the characters involved. That being said, I like this epic poem because it displays a passion for what might have been and a classic depiction of morality.
Other works of classic stories that have fallen into the always-in-motion vat that is my mind are The Epic of Gilgamesh, the story of Prometheus, The Canterbury Tales, The Brother’s Grimm (NOT the mouse versions), One Thousand and One Nights, Beowulf, The Count of Montecristo, and Dracula just to name a few.
I am sure that sounds like name-dropping to most people, but each of those titles contains examples of a morality tale that can be counterintuitive, especially when compared to what people see as moral today.
I use the word morality to distinguish between the permutations of storytelling. Morals, depending on who you ask, are how someone can decide between right or wrong, good or evil, but the evolutionary path of storytelling does not end there.
Heroes such as Beowulf represent a moral code that was expected to be considered a hero during the time that the story was created; however, heroes and morality do not always mix well, so terms like antihero and the ever-vague protagonist are used instead.
What inspires me in classical fiction is that the authors always provide a clear line that never fails to point out what side the reader should be standing on. I know that is an odd way of saying that I appreciate a story where the narrative is set from the beginning, but the only reason I enjoy them so much is that I like to imagine how I could turn the direction of that narrative upside-down.
This little habit of mine reminds me that what could happen in a story has everything to do with the direction and intent of the person writing it, and that ideas, even the ones that appear counterintuitive can fit within a narrative as long as the writer does not lose the original intent or direction they started with.
When you set a story to have a background of something as hefty as good and evil, there is a universal understanding to it. The topic has been done before and it will more than likely be present in fiction for all time. If for whatever reason, you do not see why this will be the case, then I will remind you of that The Bard wrote: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
3: Contributing Elements
I might have written this before, but every conceivable trope (I do not like that word), conflict, explanation, and subject has been written before; what makes a story unique is its presentation, perspective, and how the contributing elements chain together.
NOTE: That statement is an overly simplified version of what goes into creating a story, but it is meant to acknowledge the entire process while sticking to what I would like to focus on.
I am sure it is obvious that one of the elements that I apply to what I write is that of the hero; this word tends to represent all kinds of values to all types of people, but where my inspiration is drawn from has to do with the root of the word. Hero comes from the Greek word hērōs, which means protector.
It should be an elemental truth that anyone can be a protector, but not everyone can be a hero. This is not an excuse for a character of mine to misbehave; it is a way of saying that people place ideals, hopes, and standards into a word, tie that word to a person as a title, and sometimes get disappointed when that person does not live up to the title that was given to them. A true hero story is a morality tale that I am just not interested in writing.
Terry Goodkind wrote, “Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.” I think that this is sound advice, and the way I use this quote in my writing is that I let the actions of my characters speak for themselves. I will always admire the heroic nature that people and narratives represent, but as far as what I write is concerned, feel free to judge.
Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." As a science fiction and fantasy fan, I cannot simply ignore this statement, so for this story, I decided to ask a question without expressing an opinion because I see the value of both sides. Is the supernatural a science that people have yet to understand, or is it something so beyond human comprehension that we must label it as magic? Every time I ask myself this question, I get something different, and those answers help guide the stories I tell.
To Conclude
When thinking about all the things that have inspired me to write a story, I find that there are so many things to mention that I could not condense it all into one post. I ask that you view this as a foundation of inspiration that I have built the story I want to tell upon. Until next time, I am Nolan… Ex Tenebris.
