If I ever have the
opportunity to ask an author a question, I usually want to know about the very
first idea. What was that first, tiny spark that turned into the massive flame
that became their completed book or series? This is especially true for authors
I admire who have written books that I love. I know a lot had to happen for me
to hold this beautiful, important piece in my hands. How did it all begin?
When I first heard the
story of how Harry Potter began for J. K. Rowling, I was fascinated. It thrilled
me, because it started with a single spark of inspiration one day on the train,
and she spent the rest of the trip mapping out the stories in her head. I
didn’t know it, but it would be a very important story for me to hear. I would
later know exactly the kind of wonderful, thrilling experience it is to have a
spark and let it totally consume you. No pencils, no paper, no writing down,
just you and your thoughts, and this magical story unfolding just for you. When
I first heard the story of J. K. Rowling’s spark, I knew I wanted it for
myself. I wanted a lightening strike, a lightbulb moment, where this story came
to me in perfect glory. It took me a little while to realise it never happens
like that.
Later in life, I’d
discover that once you have your eyes open to stories and magic and mayhem and
mischief, the sparks come from
everywhere.
I still remain fascinated
by these moments of inspiration, especially from authors I cherish. From a
personal collection of favourites, here’s a list of the sparks that lit the
flames.
1
J. K. Rowling on Harry Potter
On a train back to London
after ‘flat hunting’ Rowling described the idea ‘falling into her head’ and the
idea stayed there for the duration of the ride, for she was too shy to ask for
a pen. Something she described as having been for the best. Cute.
2
Maria V. Snyder on Poison Study
I was enthralled when I
first picked up Maria V. Snyder’s Poison
Study, first by the brilliant premise, and then by the story. In her post Ideas, Influence
and Inspiration, she talks about her idea for Poison
Study coming through while reading Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. The book highlighted how we
often focus on rulers and how we have misconceptions about the workings of
power in human societies. This brought Snyder to thinking about someone close
to power, but not the core of it themselves. She considered food taster, and the first scene that
would later become Poison Study
jumped into her head.
3
Maggie Stiefvater on The Scorpio Races
One of my favourite
authors, and I can never spell her last name by myself. I particularly adore
Maggie Stiefvater because her writing and ideas are very obscure. I can never
predict her books because her brain is entirely different from my brain, so I
thoroughly enjoy reading her books and thoughts because it’s always unexpected
and always weird, and I like all
those things. I wanted to know how Maggie came up with The Raven Boys, as it’s one of my favourite series, but that task
proved taxing with the only results being our beloved Ronan Lynch. Maggie
described Ronan Lynch and his ability
as being the heart of the novel. If anyone has that information, please share
it with me. However, Maggie Stiefvater’s Scorpio
Races was a story she herself wanted to read, so she wrote it. Having
wanted to write a book about water horses and the surrounding mythology, she
made her first attempt in her teens. She later wrote a book called The Horses of Roan, which she describes
as being closer to the book she wanted to write but not ‘Maggie Enough’. Fast
forward a couple years, books and experience later, and her story about water
horses finally became ‘Maggie enough’ in the form of The Scorpio Races, and ‘Maggie’ it very much is.
4
Jay Kristoff on Nevernight
Before I’d even read Nevernight, I caught a glimpse of
an interview
with Jay Kristoff by Harper Collins, and was fascinated by how Nevernight
began. I immediately wanted to read this book. Kristoff describes Nevernight
beginning with a single scene, based on an argument between two of his friends
on New Year’s Eve. Kristoff later paraphrased the scene for his book. If you’ve
read the book, you may have an idea of what the argument may have been about.
What I love about this interview, was hearing what happened next. He had a
scene in his head, an argument, and he describes not knowing who this girl
smoking a cigarette was, and then he built this world around her to discover it
– and Mia Corvere was born.
5
Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff on Illuminae
Amie and Jay are very
much friend goals. As described in Jay’s Writing Stuff
post, they began writing this book for fun. Neither really thought about
publishing, it was an experiment in format and storytelling. I don’t know what
the exact spark was, but from what I’ve read in their Interview
with Goodreads, I know this book was a way to push the
boundaries of what we call a novel. And push they did, and revolutionise they
did.
6
Victoria Schwab on A Darker Shade of Magic
I cannot emphasise how
much I adore Schwab and her series beginning with A Darker Shade of Magic. In her post,
Schwab describes a moment of just two characters in an alley. This was the
beginning of the fantasy series, of our beloved four Londons, our Kel, our
Lila, and two of my favourite villains; Astrid and Athos Dane. Although I love
the Shades of Magic series, it is not
my favourite of Schwab’s books, because I absolutely fell in love with Vicious. In this interview,
Schwab describes having always wanted to write about superheroes, and a certain
story and certain characters became the spark that later evolved into Vicious.
7
Sarah J Maas on Throne of Glass
On my journey to
discovering what inspires Sarah J Maas, there were a lot of mentions of music.
Now, I had once heard that Throne of
Glass was inspired by Cinderella, a retelling as if Cinderella were an
assassin, but in an interview
with Huffington Post, Maas describes listening to the Cinderella soundtrack
when this particular idea came into her head. To learn more about how A Court of Thorns and Roses came about,
I suggest watching her Video Interview
with Bloomsbury as she describes in detail the journey beginning with again, listening to a song, and having
Feyre come to life in her head. Talk about magical.
8
Brandon Sanderson on Warbreaker
Warbreaker is one of my
favourites of Sanderson’s books, but that might be just because I read it
first. Interestingly, it was inspired by his Elantris story, in which the plot revolves around a magical
society, but the magic is never fully explored. Thus, came Warbreaker, exploring the magic we didn’t see in Elantris.
9
Marissa Meyer on Cinder
Reading Meyer’s FAQ page,
I came across the story of the spark years ago, but was glad for a reason to
revisit it. Her idea for writing Cinder came from a writing prompt for a
competition she entered. The prompt: In the Future, with a Fairy-tale
Character. The result: A Sci-Fi version of ‘Puss in Boots’. Meyer loved writing
it so much, she went on to twist fairy tales into futuristic settings and,
funnily enough, with this premise in her head, lightening truck one day with
what would later become her novel, and series: Cinder.
10
Sally Green on Half Bad
Writing for The
Guardian, Green describes sitting at her desk with this story
of witches in her head, and in her interview with Huffington
Post,
she discusses the attraction to witches because they’re women and, despite her
protagonist being male, she decided to create a community made up predominantly
of powerful women.
11
Leigh Bardugo on Shadow and Bone
Leigh Bardugo’s
inspiration for her series Shadow and
Bone fascinates me, and I suggest watching the Video Interview
with Fierce Fiction, because she really puts you in the moment and mindset of
when the idea came to her. In my stilted version that does it no justice – Shadow and Bone started with Bardugo
experiencing an unsettling encounter when staying in the country after falling
asleep reading and waking up to pitch blackness. She considered how the fear of
darkness we all have never really goes away. She went to sleep asking herself
what if darkness was a place? And the monsters we imagine were real? What if
darkness wasn’t metaphorical in a fantasy book but literal? Her story and
characters developed from there.
It seems strange to
narrow down a list of inspiring authors to eleven, but I do love odd numbers,
and writing this list came straight from my writing this from my bed, with my
bookshelf across from me, and noting all the ones that stuck out. I had to
significantly cut this list for the sake of my sanity, but it’s as honest in my
favouritism as its going to get.
If I wrote a list of how
many sparks I’ve received from these
authors and their books, this list would never end.
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