The Origin

Thank you Chris Allinotte at The Leaky Pencil for the Versatile Blogger Award!

Six months ago, I participated in the Spark Blogfest, and wrote about what gave me the spark to write. I had a blast! A big part of that was because it was SO MUCH FUN to read everyone's Spark stories. (So I'm really hoping that a lot of you are posting your story today!)

The Origins blogfest is very similar, which makes me so excited! I can't wait to read everyone's Origin story. Last time, I wrote about what gave me the spark to write. This is what gave me the spark to BECOME A WRITER.

I did NOT grow up wanting to be a writer. (In fact, I had a high school Honors English teacher who was awful and horrible and mean-spirited, and after her class, I never wanted to write even a single email in my voice ever again, let alone anything else. It was only about five years ago that I recovered from the damage that one teacher caused.)

Of course I did recover, and then came the Spark story. And then, my Origins story.

I love the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've said it before, Joss Whedon is a genius. GENIUS! Anyway, a couple friends of mine discovered, watched, loved, then worshiped the show Firefly, so I dangled Buffy and Angel in front of them. It only took the words "Joss was a genius even before Firefly," and they were sold. After sticking with both series for a total of 244 episodes, I figured they deserved to have a book written with them in it! I put them both as the main characters in that world and *ahem* I gotta say it was pretty magical.

I've always created things with my hands. Physical objects that I could hold and say, "Look what I made!" I lived off the high I got from it.

But I discovered that the creative high I got from writing exceeded everything I had ever experienced with any other creative endeavor. I was hopelessly hooked.

But wait! That's not actually what made me want to become a writer. (I'm sure that, eventually, it would have. I mean come on! It's writing!) I read MG to my kids every night, and have done so for 6 or 7 or 8 years, and I love it. After I finished the book I wrote for my friends, I read it to my kids. Because that's what I do.

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

I seriously had no idea there could be something so great in the world as reading a book to my kids that I wrote. I had no idea that the thrill of reading it to them could outshine the thrill I got writing it. From that moment, I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life writing books that I could read to my kids. And that someday they could read to their kids. As I hugged them goodnight, I made a choice to embark on a journey I knew would be painfully hard and that would take me years and years.... and there was no part of me that wasn't okay with it. I've been living off that high ever since.

I love my kiddos. Not only were they the impetus in my Origins story, but they continually offer me an insane amount of support and encouragement.

How about you? What's your ORIGINS story? If you posted one on your blog, let me know! I want to make sure I read it.

(And if you didn't sign up for the Origins Blogfest, go check it out. It's probably not too late!)

The way We Are: That WIP Spark

Think back to when you got that very first spark of an idea that later became your Work in Progress (the one you're either drafting or editing right now). Maybe it was the way someone crinkled their eyebrows, or the way a branch grew out of a tree funny, or a movie trailer, or a picture that you saw. That first little interesting thing that stuck with you and kept you thinking about it, until it became that first idea of the thousands of ideas you'd need to write a book.

We're curious to know what that initial spark is! (And by "we," I mean me and everyone who reads the comments. No, I'm not feeling all multiple-personality this morning. ;)) Usually that initial spark is such a small thing. I find it fascinating to hear what it was that inspired an entire book. Or even an entire series!

My spark came from looking at clouds from the wrong direction. I had been to Disney World with my husband and kids, and I had a window seat for our three-hour flight home. I swear the entire country was cloudy that day! I stared at the clouds the whole time, mesmerized.

Later, they became a band of compressed air that was invisible and deadly, named the Bomb's Breath.

What was your WIP spark?

Quotes and Cookies: Not be Forgotten

Many thanks to S.L. Hennessy from Pensuasion for the Versatile Blogger award and to Jillian at Writing on a Limb for the One Lovely Blog award. Thank you so much, ladies!

"If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing."

~Benjamin Franklin

Let's face it. Both writing things worth reading and doing thing worth writing take a LOT of work. But I have to admit, at least for me, it's one of the driving forces to keep working at this thing we do. Is it for you? The thought of a part of us living on forever. To have our words and our stories be alive long after we are dead. To create something of worth that will stand the test of time. Whether your goal is to have your words read by your future grandchildren / great grandchildren / great great grandchildren, or in even in the hopes of having them someday sit on a shelf in the Library of Congress, that thought can help spur you on through really tough times.

Right? It isn't just me, is it?

Speaking of doing things worth writing about, one of the most awesome people I know has a website that's definitely worth writing about! When she cooks, choirs of angels come down and sing praises. (Although I suspect it's partly because they want to get a whiff of the amazing aromas.) You know those nuggets of wisdom that you want to make sure you impart to your kids? One of mine is that if you ever get a chance to eat her food, NEVER TURN IT DOWN. Her website partner (another friend I'm lucky enough to know in real life), is a food photographer, so everything is so. darn. pretty. And coolest thing ever: they are is doing 12 Cookies of Christmas! I can't even tell you how excited this makes me! So today's cookies are brought to you by Secret Life of a Chef's Wife. I hope you enjoy staring at their truffle center as much as I do.

Choco­late Chipo­tle Truf­fle Cook­ies

Have a FABULOUS weekend, everyone!

That New Story High

I know several of you love to work on more than one project at a time-- either writing one project while editing another, or writing multiple manuscripts at the same time.

I don't.

It's not that one way is better than another. It's more of a one-way-works-best-for-you-and-another-doesn't kind of thing. I tend to put all my focus into the book I'm writing, then decide what book I'm going to write next. While I'm editing the first book, the second book percolates. When I'm mostly through editing, I pour my focus into the next book.

I've been revising for MONTHS. I love revising. I really, really love it. Revising comes with its own special high, just knowing that your book is that much better than it was before you started the revision.

But amidst the revision highs, I had almost forgotten how sweet the NEW BOOK high is. That high when you wake up in the morning already thinking about it. That high when you figure out the next scene. That high when the writing just works. That high that comes from creating a slice of the world that hadn't existed and bringing to life people to populate it. That high from creating something out of nothing. Know what I mean?

Where are you? Living off a writing-induced high? Or looking longingly at the memory of it? Or, even better, I'd imagine, living off dual editing and drafting highs? Gosh, I hope you've got either a writing high or a revising high going on, because there's just nothing quite like it.

The Way We Are: How Old Were You?

A few weeks ago, I was fascinated by all the Spark stories I read! (I bow down to Christine Tyler. It was an act of sheer genius on her part to think of doing the Sparkfest.) One of the things I loved the most was hearing the variety of ages everyone was when they first decided wanted to be a writer.

So let's hear it! Inquiring minds want to know.

poll by twiigs.com

Go ahead and mark your vote, then feel free to elaborate in the comments!

As much as I love hearing stories of people who were, I was not a kid when I decided I wanted to be an author. I wasn't even a teenager. In fact, it wasn't until my baby started Kindergarten that I figured it out. Once I made that decision, though, I attacked writing with a ferocious determination unlike anything I've ever done before. And the determination has only gotten stronger every day since.

(But for probably the ten years before this, my hubby would say, "You should write a book." I'd give him a look that was equal parts That was random, and What makes you think I can do THAT?! Apparently he believed I could do it way before I believed I could.)

So tell me your story! It'll make me a million kinds of excited to read it.

The Spark

You've probably noticed people on writing blogs everywhere sharing their stories of how they got the spark to write. After reading several on Tuesday, I decided I wanted in on the SparkFest. (Do you want in? You still have one more day. Click here to go to Christine Tyler's post.) So, to join the nearly 100 writers blogging about their spark, here's my story.

I loved books and read all the time as a kid. It NEVER gave me the spark to write, though. Not even a little bit. (It did, however, give me the spark to be a book illustrator, and I honestly thought I'd grow up to do that. Many years later, that spark sputtered, fizzled, and eventually died.)

My first inkling of a spark came in 2007, the summer the 7th Harry Potter book came out. I read the series for the first time and got to the point in book 6 where SOMEONE IMPORTANT DIES. I was struck by how powerful a thing it was that J.K. could create someone who didn't exist before, let me get to know the character, love the character, then experience the pain of losing that character. I wanted to do something that powerful! (Not powerful as in I wanted to be the next J.K. I was never that naive. Powerful as in having the ability to create people. And then possibly killing them off. ;))

A couple weeks later, I got my chance. As a group of eight friends, we buy birthday presents for each other, and one friend's birthday was coming up. A friend who is THE WORLDS BIGGEST FIREFLY FAN. I think she has single-handedly gotten more people to watch Firefly than FOX Network themselves did. I talked my friends into getting together to plot and write the previously non-existent episode 15, filling in the space between when the series was canceled and when the movie Serenity picked up.

It was, without a doubt, the most exhilarating thing I had ever done. We breathed life into a character that hadn't existed before! We created places that hadn't existed! We made things happen!

I was forever hooked. I started writing then, and haven't stopped since.

So what gave you your spark? Did you join the Spark Fest? If so, leave your blog address in the comments. I'd love to read it!