Category: The Writing Journey by Denise Colby

What Inspires And Influences My Writing?

I recently presented on the topic of being a published author to a group of high-schoolers at a career day event. Asked where my inspiration for my writing comes from, I didn’t have a clear-cut answer. And that made me realize I needed to pay attention to what inspires and influences my writing.

What I did tell them was read. Read, read, read. And read in the genre that you want to write in.

And that part is true.

When I read a story that I absolutely love, I’m encouraged to write a story that I would love.

At least that is what I’m finding as I’m on deadline for book number three. Since I haven’t been reading as much, I believe that is impacting my motivation. And so I went back to one of my favorite authors and started her new series, which has been in my TBR pile for a while now. I’m finding it helping to give me inspiration as I write.

What am I reading? Karen Witemeyer’s Ever After Series

But back to the original question from the high-schoolers. What inspires and influences what I write? What else could I have said to pass on inspiration to this younger generation of writers?

I think it’s going to take some time to fully create a concise answer, but I have a clearer idea now.

I write historical romance. I love to read this genre, too. But where did that love of this genre come from? Why did I decide to include a one-room schoolhouse (I do know this one – and I wrote a blog about it titled: It’s the One-Room Schoolhouse’s Fault).

But other than that I haven’t thought about this at all, really, it’s just what I enjoy.

And I’ve always been fascinated with history. I have a long, rich family history in my home town, that I love to research. My great, great, great grandfather was a mountain man (imagine finding a mention of him in Misty M. Beller’s book The Lady and the Mountain Man. Which I wrote about in another blog post called Finding Family Mentioned in A Novel.

Anyway, as you can see, many of these things have shaped my writing. And then I was in the check-out line at CVS this past weekend. And I bought this.

I had a review mention that my stories had a Little House on the Prairie vibe to it.

There was a good reason.

I grew up watching this show and reading the Little House books (I’ve read them all). Those and Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly and When Calls the Heart Series have inspired and influenced my writing even though I didn’t really realize it until recently. (interesting note: all had one-room schoolhouse’s in them).

So before I started writing this post, I brewed some tea and started to read through the magazine. I’m not even a few pages in and multiple thoughts are popping up in my brain. There’s a difference between real life and fiction. Actors and their experiences versus what their characters express in a story (move, tv, theater, book). Which is sort of what reading a book does. Escape into a different reality.

As a young girl, I had no idea about what an actor was. And it didn’t matter to me. I grew up watching Melissa Gilbert play Laura. I grew up seeing Laura as a girl near the same age as me experiencing all the emotions life brings out of us. And watching her pa encourage her, and have faith in her. Which encouraged me.

Isn’t this what our stories are about? Writing worlds and characters our readers can relate to and enjoy and want to be friends with. A chance to be encouraged, inspired, and loved on when taking a break from the real world with a good book.

It’s a good reminder as I finish this post and jump back to the next scene in my manuscript.

One of the things I have learned about myself is that I like to immense myself into my storyworld and feel all the feels, and write as if I’m the character I’m writing. I think this is why I love to have my characters write their own story a bit. They are real to me. Just like the characters in the books from Laura Ingalls Wilder inspire and influence my writing as well.

I’m glad I bought the magazine. I normally don’t. But I was looking for some extra encouragement and motivation. What I found was a reminder of what’s inside of me and where that came from. Now I need to figure out how to channel it to finish my story.

Do you know what inspires you and your writing?

Is there a specific book or show that resonated with you or that you pull from when you write?

Is there a genre of shows that influenced what you read and write?