What influences your writing?

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
-Hunter S. Thompson


Well... Maybe...

damn, caffeine is a drug. So is cheap cigars and pipe tobacco.

Not to mention booze.

Sugar.

OK.

Violence, only in limited amounts.

"insanity"????


In spades.


So, yeah. That. Music? yeah, to a point. Movies? not so much.

But, you know. I've written BOOKS based on bad dreams which probably came from either one extra trip to the buffet at the Chinese restaurant or a previous life, or both.

So, hell. I have NO idea.



(evidence of above 'writing' statement: themediadesk.com/newfiles6/mirror.htm )

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What do you call a person who makes something out of everything? These questions seem like a trap for ramblers, beckoning me to ponder abstract concepts that take too many words to accurately explain. I firmly believe everything influences everything.

My academic interests show in my fiction. Natural sciences, natural history, ancient history, prehistory, metaphysics, the occult....I try not to let my analytical nature interfere with my imagination too much, but there are certain "real world" scientific tenets I like to follow for the sake of....easier logical sequencing, I guess. Mountains and deserts are defined by the plate tectonics and axial tilt of the world. Key plants and animals, including humanoid species, are given rough evolution and migration histories. In general, my plots tend to revolve around earth lore, evolutionary psychology, spiritual growth, and wilderness survival.

So as you might imagine, my stories have a lot of blood, drugs, and sex. I'll try to keep the discussion as PG-13 as possible. I'm horrible at writing romance and erotica, but I personally enjoy what I write. The most intimacy is in psychedelic rituals and medical emergencies, because I have a hot deep passion for biochemistry and physiology. Unlike a lot of other hurt/comfort fiction, I know and accept that injury isn't always sexy. But the human body is.

I also have a hard time writing action scenes and properly conveying the fast pace of combat. Slower violence like poisoning and torture is easier for me to write, probably because I'm never "present" enough for hand-to-hand combat. That is my husband's forte. Alas, he doesn't like to write, and thus may be unable to explain what he understands in a way I can accurately convey. The action scenes in my mind are reminiscent of anime though. Like Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Okay, I know Avatar isn't technically anime. The Harry Potter series, Dark Tower series, and Firestarter also appear to inspire my writing.

Like everything else I write, my action is influenced by academics. Strengths and weaknesses are mostly within reason for the mental and physical condition pf a character. I like fantastic beasts, flying castles, magic spells, psychic powers, steampunk weapons, and volcano strongholds, but I at least try to somewhat follow the laws of physics of our world. The science we know is my foundation, but I have no roof on reality. I find this approach so much easier that making my own consistent laws for the world.

Electromagnetism, plasma physics, and thermodynamics are my biggest roadbloacks in writing. No, the math skills and spacial perception needed to understand physics is my true roadblock. All I need is a metaphorical explanation of the relationships between certain units of measurements. I'll still twist the numbers to make my magic work though, there is no way a human could realistically eat enough to fuel most psychic powers. Especially pyrokinesis.

Fire, lighting, stars, and volcanoes are another major influence. Yes I am little firebug, as well as a fire safety nut. I think this has a lot to do with my dad being a firefighter. And even though I spent my holidays, summers, and weekends in the Ozarks, I grew up in a dirty dying Illinois steel mill town. The steel mill is the closest thing to a volcano in this region, unless you believe the New Madrid seismic zone still has a little steam to blow off. When Baby WastedSpace wasn't studying biology in the forest, she'd talk to the pilot light flame in the furnace at home, drawing pyroclastic flows from volcanoes before she could read....

I wouldn't be alive without music though. Bluegrass, blues, classical, gospel, oldies, polka, rock, metal, world....A little bit of everything really. Every song gives me a new idea, inspiring a plot twist or character trait. My stories also feature a lot of in-universe music, the lyrics conveyed as poetry, but devoid of the musical instruments I hear in my head. The sound of music and speech accents are also difficult for me to describe.

Is it surprising that even food inspires me? I'm an amateur gastronomist, particularly interested in "old-fashioned" food preparation and ingredients that grow together in native ecosystem. Cultural details like diet and fashion make stories stand out to me. Unless fish, seafood, arthropods, reptiles, canines, or felines are an ingredient, I test most recipes I develop for my fiction. I even dream about food....

I give such lengthy answers because I put a lot of thought and feeling into them. Perhaps it may be too much, but a lot more goes on inside my mind that will never be expressed. Oh yes it will....Who am I kidding? Every thought and feeling will always find an outlet, whether it be through the pen or the sword. People are indeed extremely complex. Perhaps the only subject too complex for me besides math, and that may be why socializing drains my brain so quickly.

"Socializing"?

THIS is about as social as I get.

ever


I have commented that I can be alone in a room with over a hundred people in it, and I do so once a week.



“As a recluse I couldn't bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.”
― Charles Bukowski



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