Over the past couple months, I've participated in several chats and interviews, and have come to realize that many of the same questions are asked quite often. When I was thinking of a topic for today's blog, I kept coming back to some of those questions over and over, which led me to believe that something is on my mind. Now there's a scary thought. Something's on my mind.
- When did you decide to become a writer?
- What are the main influences on your writing?
- What songs/books inspire you?
- How do you come up with your ideas?
I realized that every time these particular questions come up, that I tend to give different answers. It's not that I'm being untruthful, but more that there isn't really any set answer to these questions. Well, I didn't think there was. But today, while I was winding down from a good writing day, I started thinking about these questions.
As a very young child, I had a stout heart and a brave spirit. I was fearless.
Well, that led to me falling off the second story roof of our house. It was bound to happen. Pre-schoolers that climb ladders tend to have unfortunate accidents.
Overnight, I morphed from Little Miss Climb the Ladder on the Firetruck, to a sheep. I became the ultimate follower. Literally. I'd follow so close in other people's footsteps that when they stopped, I'd run into them. In kindergarden, I was completely dependent on my friend Lisa to get me through the school day. If Lisa wasn't at school, I left. Imagine that, a kindergardener walking away from the school. The amazing thing was the secret that was percolating inside of my skull at the time; something had been badly injured in my brain, and I'd lost almost all of my vision. This went undetected until I was in the fifth grade, when I had my first eye exam.
So, I was an odd little girl. I could read really, really well, but I couldn't do math, was really crappy at ball games, and tended to fall down a lot. The glasses helped, but I never really seemed to catch up socially. But I loved my books.
In the sixth grade, a well-meaning teacher decided to elevate our little brains, and read Tolkien's Hobbit out loud in class. Yes, it was boring, and she abandoned the project after the entire class fell asleep, but something about that book stuck. I found the Lord of the Rings not long after that, and my world abruptly changed.
My daydreams and strange thoughts suddenly had a name: Fantasy. Books became more vital, more important than ever. I sought out other authors...McCaffery, Piers Anthony, Ursula le Guin...
That's when I decided that I wanted to be a writer.
Well, of course, we can't all be what we want to be when we grow up, and eventually, that dream was shelved. Marriage passed quickly into parenthood, and just as quickly into divorce. Then came the grim reality of raising my kids on my own, completing college, and holding down a job. There was no space in my life for fantasy, except for a few minutes at night, when I dreamed of winning the lottery.
College. My first university was Humboldt State, in Eureka, California. It was a 150 mile commute to Eureka, all of it over Highway 299. Now 299 is the sort of highway that is so wicked and nasty, that people buy tee shirts to celebrate their safe passage. "I survived Highway 299."
I got stranded in blizzards and blinded by fog. I narrowly avoided some nasty accidents. I wore out my VW diesel on that highway. I majored in literature and theatre arts that first semester. When I told my advisor that I'd like to be a writer, she laughed at me. "Everybody wants to be a writer." I quietly changed my major to history in my second semester. I never met with my advisor again.
To make the three hour trek a little more tolerable, I had this old Walkman that played cassette tapes. I had one favorite tape, with Jethro Tull's Broadsword and Beast album. I'd play that over and over, just to hear the title song:
I see a dark sail on the horizon set under a black cloud that hides the sun.
Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.
Get up to the roundhouse on the cliff-top standing.
Take women and children and bed them down.
Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.
Bless with a hard heart those who surround me.
Bless the women and children who firm our hands.
Put our backs to the north wind. Hold fast by the river.
Sweet memories to drive us on for the motherland.
I built stories around that song; civilizations and wars and loves that were greater than time. I knew that someday, I'd write the book... But I never did. Time and school and work and kids growing up all got in the way.
But I never forgot the song, and one perfect weekend, I heard it again. All the stories flooded back in a rush of creativity. Stories that I'd cherished in my imagination for decades were fresh and new. I wrote for hours on end, for days and weeks and months, eventually wearing the letters off my keyboard. I took my computer to work and wrote on my breaks.
Broadsword is there on my hard drive, written in crude, rough language, waiting for me to come and clean it up. But its there...waiting...
Other stories came from that initial rush... Imperative: Missing You, and Soul Keeper. Both of those books are now published. Belle Starr came from that first wave of writing, that's now contracted at Loose Id. Fantasy, mythology, and science fiction. Sometimes I try to write contemporary, but fantasy always gets in the way, and I couldn't be more delighted!
While I was cruising around on You Tube, I found the following video, clearly created by a person after my heart. A tribute to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, set to Broadsword, by Jethro Tull. What more could a woman want? Maybe Viggo Mortensen....
So tell me, what inspires you? When did you know you wanted to write?
You can find out more about Belinda and her books by visiting her website at
My Space: www.myspace.com/belindamcbride
And my Twitter user name is Belinda_McBride
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2 comments:
Awesome post! I am glad you answered those questions, those are usually the questions I ask the most. I don't write but want to and don't know where to start so reading about how you did it helps out more than you know!
I can see how the questions posed would have different answers on different days. It would depend on what you were doing at any given time as to what exactly would be the thought at the forefront of your mind. I like how you tied it all together and NO it wasn't too long a post. I really enjoyed it Belinda!
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