Inspiration - Daily Life

Fantasy vs Reality

Every writer will be inspired by every day events in their life, but to varying degrees.  From a writing perspective, I took everything I experienced and skewed it into a Sci-Fi / Fantasy world called Alorya.  When I was in my teens, I lived inside my head.  People would see me as quiet or shy, but I just hadn't found my outlet for communicating this to other people.

A little over ten years ago, I was on a job interview for a company I can't remember.  I was perhaps the worst person for interviews on the planet, at the time, but the focal point was how I perceived it within my creativity.  I viewed it as a scene out of Star Wars.  The room was ablaze in red and green flashes of light, while I battled the IT Manager for a position with that company.  I would later go to my computer at some point and write about this lightsaber battle with a hypacritical Jedi to which I narrowly escaped with my life.

I write in the same way others would keep a diary or a journal, but through my eyes, it's all transformed into an "out of this world" experience.  My battles against ogres, romances with elves, and command of the force is my way of journaling life without the mundanity of everyday life.  Have you ever thought about a conversation you just had and wished you said something differently?  Maybe you miss your bus by a minute and think about the extra time you took taking that "shortcut"?  It is in this light that I view writing and creating as a fun experience and not a job.

Inspiration - Brothers Abroad

I spoke earlier about how the birth of my son was the event that made me pick up the pen to write Alorya, but inspiration comes in so many forms, at so many different times, that I'm going to write a few of the most inspiring things to happen which led to the creation of Alorya.  I want to set the tone for this post by saying that I am defining inspiration as an event that took place which made me run to my computer and start writing.  Of course my wife, my friends and family all inspire me to be the best that I can, but that's not what I'm talking about in this post.  Many of the events that take place in Alorya are taken from moments in my life to which I applied artistic interpretation.

Both of my brothers were serving their country in Iraq during the writing of Alorya.  Gabriel was in Iraq for three separate tours and Tim was away for one.  They were both stationed over seas when they were not in Iraq, so they were always away, but with different degrees of danger around them.  The main backdrop for Alorya was war.  I would think that if my brothers were hippies at Berkley during this time, the story would have been much different. 

Alorya contains three major characters which come from the warrior caste in a country called Bragar.  Whether they are members of an organized military or warriors in their tribe, my brothers were the inspiration behind their creation, as well as the main theme of the story.  I've had conversations about the use of bionics with my brother Gabriel so many times, that I thought it was a great idea to bring it into the story.  Gabe and I disagree on the use of bionics, so I was inspired to create a scenerio of bionic soldiers with both success and failure which is attributed to our conversation.  I also had numerous conversations with my brother Tim about the feeling of loss while you're away.  The friends, the family and the romance becomes so difficult to manage that it became tempting to just walk away.  I wrote about what I took from my conversations with both of my brothers about ultimate loss versus, something to look forward to when you return home.  Inspiration comes in so many forms that my brothers may not even know that the little 15 minute conversation we had on Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic in turn became an idea for my book.

The next post will be about inspiration which came from work.

Final thoughts as I submit my manuscript

In 2006, when I asked the nurse for a couple sheets of paper, and a pen, I knew that I should take the time to remember that moment.  It was a big moment.  Today, I feel the same way.  I wanted to get this down so that I may look back at it and either cringe or smile.  I seriously expect to cringe though.

First, let me describe my nightmares.  I've had dreams all week about searching for my book on the Internet and finding it listed as the worst flop in literature since the most interesting man in the world decided to write his memoirs in invisible ink.  (Blackadder moment)  For him, I guess Dos Equis would say that it still hit the NY Times Best-Sellers, but I'm obviously not him.  Another nightmare was that I got my proof back and found that I left random notes and highlights in the manuscript.  Were those people giggling because they saw my book trailer on Tosh.0?

I hope that I come back to this blog in the future and smile though.  I've worked hard on Alorya.  At this point, I just don't want to be embarrassed by the story I was able to get down on paper.  I say that because I know the story is amazing.  Somehow, when the story gets from my head to paper, things get a little fuzzy.  I've found myself saying, "Why did I write it that way?".  After 18 Edits (3 by Editors not personally related to me), I think I have the best possible story that I can get on paper at this time.

I'm also trying to convey my worry as best I can because I want it to be evident when I read this six months from now.