Reader Question: Do you actively go out and seek ideas about which to write or do you rely on life to provide those possibilities?
I have been meaning to get to this question for a few weeks now, and am glad that I can sit down and take the time to finally address it.
I believe I do some of my best writing when I have experiences to draw upon, but I’m not always patient enough to wait for life to provide those opportunities. I have been known to schedule vacations, with the added goal of seeking out one or two unique locations specifically for something I am writing at that time.
In 2009, while I was working on Hunted, I made a trip to Seattle to visit one of my good friends. While I was there, I went on the Beneath the Streets Tour because I wanted to feature Seattle’s underground in that book. The tour does cover quite a bit of Seattle’s unique history, and visitors get to walk through some of the old areas of the city that have been built over. An added bonus to that trip was that I was able to experience first-hand what the weather was like in Seattle; having lived in Colorado for most of my life, I am used to almost constant sunshine. Seattle has almost as many overcast/rainy days as Colorado has sunny ones. I wanted to make my writing feel authentic, and I feel that by visiting the location I am better able to achieve that result.
Even when I am working on more traditional fantasy books, I will seek out experiences or locations that help me better understand what I want to write about. My current work in progress, tentatively titled Azera, is set largely underwater. The idea to write this came to me during our last scuba vacation, and I took video of all ten of our dives that week. I have been revisiting some of that video as I work on this project. I was hoping to have more video to review by now, but unfortunately, our dive trip this year was canceled. I am hoping that 2021 will be more conducive to travel!
I also believe that research is necessary for certain elements of my stories. A recent example (and one of my favorites, now) was while I was writing Harbinger. There was a location I created in that story featuring an abandoned medieval-style keep, and I wanted to make sure I had my terminology correct for gate mechanisms. Since it is 2020, I was not able to travel anywhere to visit a true medieval keep, so I did some google searching and found a website that had all of the information I was looking for. What I did not immediately realize was that the same site also had castle real estate listings. When I discovered this, I thought it was funny and I sent the link to my husband. He now thinks I want to buy a castle – even though I don’t.
Sometimes life does provide experiences for me to write about, though often enough, I seek them out myself. I hope this answers the question adequately. Keep sending questions my way; I am happy to answer them!