Ask the Author: L. Jagi Lamplighter
Answered Questions (6)
L. Jagi Lamplighter
There are two answers to this, because my current series has two parts.
1) A roleplaying game, run by my friend Mark Whipple. He made up the basic idea, the major characters (except for Rachel, Siggy, and the Princess, who were the player characters) and the overall plot.
2) The story needed a new background. My young son had come up with an idea of a magic school on the island of Roanoke, where the original colonists disappeared. I was not familiar with that area, so I made it a floating island and moved it to the Hudson Highlands in NY, because I love that area and it is almost as steeped with magic and lore as Great Britain. So it seemed like a perfect place for a school of magic.
1) A roleplaying game, run by my friend Mark Whipple. He made up the basic idea, the major characters (except for Rachel, Siggy, and the Princess, who were the player characters) and the overall plot.
2) The story needed a new background. My young son had come up with an idea of a magic school on the island of Roanoke, where the original colonists disappeared. I was not familiar with that area, so I made it a floating island and moved it to the Hudson Highlands in NY, because I love that area and it is almost as steeped with magic and lore as Great Britain. So it seemed like a perfect place for a school of magic.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
First, write! (I think we should all be writers. No better way to do this than to write. ;-)
Second, a specific warning. People talk about outlining verses not outlining. But one almost never sees a warning about the very real and terrible dangers to outlining.
Some people can outline and write. This is wonderful! If you can do it, definitely, go for it!
However, what aspiring writers are seldom told is: writing a book is hard. One of the things that pushes you to do that hard work is the burning desire to tell the story.
Some of us suffer from the phenomena that, when we finish our outline, our subconscious thinks we are done. We told the story. We laid it all out.
And it stops producing ideas.
Writer's block sets in. The book stops.
I have seen this happen to many aspiring writers. Great ideas. Great beginning. They work out their outline. Boom. Not another word.
How do I know it's the outline? Happened to me...twice. Both times, I eventually tore up the later part of the outline and began just writing from some earlier point.
I finished both those books.
Since then, I've found, for me, that once I'm more than half way, I can work out a specific outline without any trouble. But, before that...I have to be wary of pinning in my subconscious.
Or, to put it differently, the Divine Muse has ideas to send that I won't receive if I decide too earlier what the story is going to be.
So...if you can outline and then write, great! Some authors do. It saves them grief.
If you can't, be aware of this and rip up any outline that does not increase your creativity.
Second, a specific warning. People talk about outlining verses not outlining. But one almost never sees a warning about the very real and terrible dangers to outlining.
Some people can outline and write. This is wonderful! If you can do it, definitely, go for it!
However, what aspiring writers are seldom told is: writing a book is hard. One of the things that pushes you to do that hard work is the burning desire to tell the story.
Some of us suffer from the phenomena that, when we finish our outline, our subconscious thinks we are done. We told the story. We laid it all out.
And it stops producing ideas.
Writer's block sets in. The book stops.
I have seen this happen to many aspiring writers. Great ideas. Great beginning. They work out their outline. Boom. Not another word.
How do I know it's the outline? Happened to me...twice. Both times, I eventually tore up the later part of the outline and began just writing from some earlier point.
I finished both those books.
Since then, I've found, for me, that once I'm more than half way, I can work out a specific outline without any trouble. But, before that...I have to be wary of pinning in my subconscious.
Or, to put it differently, the Divine Muse has ideas to send that I won't receive if I decide too earlier what the story is going to be.
So...if you can outline and then write, great! Some authors do. It saves them grief.
If you can't, be aware of this and rip up any outline that does not increase your creativity.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
Writing. ;-)
I think the best thing of all about being a writer is getting to dwell for a time in worlds of wonder, walking beside our characters, living their lives, facing their trials.
It is a magical things, and I am eternally grateful to the Divine Muse for the ideas that allow me to live this life.
I think the best thing of all about being a writer is getting to dwell for a time in worlds of wonder, walking beside our characters, living their lives, facing their trials.
It is a magical things, and I am eternally grateful to the Divine Muse for the ideas that allow me to live this life.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
I think the advise given by author Gene Wolfe is the best I have seen: If you are truly blocked, stop communicating for a few days. Get off Facebook, off the phone. Do some kind of physical activity...hiking, yard work. Let your body work and your mind rest. After a few days of this, ideas often come in droves.
I have a trick, however, for dealing with minor writer's block. Take the scene you are stuck on and set it in a different physical local. Put it in the drawing room instead of the dining hall. At the lake instead of at the club.
Just changing the physical local, having to write a new description and have the characters interact with it in a slightly new way often turns the scene around.
I don't know why this works, but I've used it many times.
I have a trick, however, for dealing with minor writer's block. Take the scene you are stuck on and set it in a different physical local. Put it in the drawing room instead of the dining hall. At the lake instead of at the club.
Just changing the physical local, having to write a new description and have the characters interact with it in a slightly new way often turns the scene around.
I don't know why this works, but I've used it many times.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
The fourth book of the Unexpected Enlightenment series: The Awful Truth About Forgetting.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
I go skating, rollerblading actually. That time outside moving around and thinking is so valuable. Ideas tend to start flowing. I try to skate before I sit down to write, so that I have fresh ideas every time.
I also pray that I be transparent to the ideas of the Divine Muse, so that they reach the page with as little influence from me as possible.
I also pray that I be transparent to the ideas of the Divine Muse, so that they reach the page with as little influence from me as possible.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more