Inspiration and Community

 

Although I'm an introvert, I gain a lot of inspiration from the people around me--writer friends and groups, my family, and, of course, my book friends (they count, don't they?). After a day of work, parenting and household chores, and writing, it's great to take a little time for myself and connect with someone(s) who will make me laugh or make me think or make me cry. All good things to fill up the creative well. 

Thanks to the FaRoFeb group

Let me begin today with a big thank you to all the FaRoFeb contributors for 2023. They gave us insights into being a writer and writing fantasy romance, thoughts on current topics, and tips and hacks we can use every day. I've learned a lot and gotten to know my fellow authors better. I'm so proud of our group and thrilled to see what FaRoFeb has in store for 2024!

Family matters

My extended family is big--I have 11 aunts and uncles (not including their spouses) and over 40 cousins, all of whom are amazing individuals and are creative in all kinds of ways! Many of my characters begin with one or more traits from a family member, as they are wonderful inspiration. As we have grown older, we see each other less often, but Facebook and family weddings (and funerals, sadly) give us opportunities to catch up. I have so many fabulous memories to remind me I'm loved and I belong. My family gives me the courage to express myself creatively and believe in myself.

Reading Women

Like all good writers, I am a confirmed bookworm. Like many of us, my childhood was filled with fairy tales, science fiction and fantasy, and world myths--a perfect training for writing fantasy romance. In addition, I have advanced degrees in English literature and teach at the postsecondary level. One of the great joys of my job is reading books and stories and calling it work.

I will read almost anything as long as it's written well and isn't misogynist or racist, etc. Now that I'm older, I've decided life is too short to waste my time and energy on hateful or toxic materials. Fill the well with good stuff, I say!

Today I read for fun and also to learn the craft and spark new ideas. I love learning about plot reveals and turns in crime fiction, creating action-packed scenes in suspense, and how to make a relationship compelling in contemporary romance. From fantasy and science fiction, I explore new worlds and societies, from historical novels I glean ideas about setting descriptions and family dynamics. Women's fiction helps me see the nuances of telling women's stories and seeing a variety of viewpoints. We can learn from everything!

Happy new year and wishing you lots of inspiration for 2024!

Inspiration & The Value of Social Media

 This Week's Topic: 3 Sources of Inspiration

Happy 2024! On this second day of the new year, some of us are reluctantly emerging from the haze of excessive consumption, questionable decisions, and the bitter confirmation that we are, in fact, too old to keep doing "this." Whether "this" is guzzling a magnum of champagne by yourself or writing 30 books in a year, you're not alone. Across the globe, people woke up not to New Year's resolutions but to New Year's realizations.

I salute you, my fellow members of Team Realization.

I realized that something I detest has somehow become something on which I...rely. 

{huge dramatic sigh} 

Social media has become the means through which I discover my inspiration. My first two sources of inspiration haven't changed no matter my age or circumstance: music and folklore. However, novels and movies have taken a step back as social media swaggered into third place. 

I know, I know. I am pained to admit it.
Yet for you, dear readers, I do confess.

Improved information accessibility via the evolutions of technology and the intense social pressure to perform for the world if one has a mote of talent (for better and worse) permit me to fall down deep, deep, deep rabbit holes chasing videos or teasers from amazing creatives whose works I discovered due to a post on social media. 99% of the time I didn't discover those artists directly from their feeds, but through others linking to a post about an article about a TikTok about a technique, a myth, a song, a story, an animation, etc.

That's the kind of viral marketing every author (and everyone selling anything) dreams of happening. It's not a pathway of discovery that the source can measure or of which they are even aware. True, this fan-based trail is typically rife with click-monetization, yet it creates a symbiosis in the discovery environment. Truer still, the creative at the end of the trail probably sees less than 0.0001% of the monetization (if any money at all). Despite that, the feat of being discovered in a sea of billions holds immense value. When talking heads speak of social media being necessary for creatives, this is why. This elusive interlinking Gordian knot of passions, fans, creatives, and products is wonderful even when the artist never knows if or how their efforts are working. 

*Note: This description of the value of fan-directed, interest-related discovery in no way supports the pirating, scraping, or theft of any works or content. Nor does it support the exploitative practice of "exposure as payment."

To my fellow authors and artists who feel like they're shouting into the void, keep posting. You never know when your talent will fuel another creative's inspiration. 

Three Places I Find Inspiration

 Happy New Year!

On this New Year's Eve day, I'm busy crunching year-end financials in preparation to go to quarterly tax-reporting. Author finances, however, are not the topic of the week at the SFF Seven. Instead we're discussing a much happier topic: sources of inspiration.

The two are somewhat tied together for me as I've spent the last two weeks refilling my creative well. I finished my revision of ONEIRA (final title to come) on December 15 and sent it off to my editor. Since then, I've taken a break from writing work - very unusual for me. The time has been consumed largely by Christmas prep, travel, visiting family, and doing business like the above crunching of year-end financials. Looking at this, I've realized that I've been relying on passive well-refilling: hoping that if I simply leave the creative well alone, that the vast water table of the universe will seep in and top that puppy off for me. 

And, to some extent, that's true.

However, I'm realizing I haven't been following my new tenet of aggressively refilling the well. That would mean finding ways to actively pour juice into that well. And that's where inspiration comes in. What are my top three?

Media

I'm putting a lot under this heading, much like my sibling-under-the-skin, Murderbot. One thing I have been doing is a full re-read of this excellent series by Martha Wells. Reading books - particularly brilliantly written ones by authors I admire - is a great source of inspiration for me. I also include listening to music under this heading. While road-tripping, I put my music library on All Songs Shuffle, which unearths interesting stuff I haven't listened to in ages. A Cat Stevens song - The Wind - turned up, so now I'm diving into a full Cat Stevens song shuffle. What an amazing songwriter, to communicate so much in so few words. Finally, I love watching movies for inspiration. I got a great idea just the other night from a movie and now I'm sizzling to write this series. Though it will have to wait, the sparkle of that excitement adds to my overall feeling of creative flow.

Nature

I'm fortunate to live in a beautiful place. My desk overlooks a spectacular view and my morning walk with the dog is replete with huge skies, distant mountains, and beauty of all kinds. I say I'm lucky to have this - and I am! - but I also sought out this place, because being outside in a beautiful place is super important to me. Just living here refills my well.

Silence

Longtime readers probably know that I'm an advocate of silence for creative flow. By this I don't necessarily mean the absence of ambient sound, though it sometimes means that for me. I'm talking primarily about the silence of the mind, the emptiness that allows creativity to flow in, that enables us to hear the voices scintillating through the veil, telling us their stories. Taking time off from the "noisier" parts of my life has been invaluable for that. 

Huh... Turns out I've been doing better at aggressively refilling the well than I thought!

Best wishes for an inspiring 2024 for us all!

How to Find Inspiration

One of the things I used to most fear when I was a young writer was running out of ideas or the motivation to work on stories. As it turns out, the ideas are the easy part. Finding inspiration, especially in a season of dryness or when the story just refuses to come, can be far harder. 

But even that can be managed. Here are some of my favorite tricks for getting the inspiration flowing again and a story back on track. 

Assess the Situation

One of the most crucial things you can do is determine the problem. If you’re tired or hungry or need a break, then working harder isn’t going to help you. If you’re dealing with burnout or emotional exhaustion, you need to address that as best you can.

Even if you are unable to fix all the situations that are causing the problems, doing something to address your actual physical or mental needs can help you get into a space where you can then continue the story. Just remember to address those needs sooner rather than later. 

Talk with a Friend

If you have author friends or a group with a safe space to chat, then talking about the story can help you spot the potential issues that could be holding you up or get you excited about the story once more. Especially if they are people who know the story. Sometimes we need a cheer session or others to believe in us or just an extra pair of eyes.  

(If you know what the actual issue or your needs with it are, do be sure to let the others know too. Especially if what you need is general excitement for the story rather than criticism.) 

Thought Release

This one helps me so much I do it every morning, even when the inspiration is flowing well. But when I am having a tough time, I will take a few extra minutes and complete it again just to clear my mind.

The basic premise is simple: sit and write whatever is in your mind for 10 – 15 minutes. And I mean whatever.

I get snippets of stories, bits of poems, tasks that need to be done, and even the occasional research note. But as I put them to paper, the act calms my mind and makes it easier for me to see what actually needs to be done. And oftentimes, that takes some stress and pressure away and makes it easier for me to see what needs to be done on my current story. 

Play a Game

Personally, I love video and phone games when it comes to seeking out inspiration. If you get a good story game, your mind will start putting together that story and you may find that that excitement spills over into your own and makes it easier for you get back in your own flow.

Do handle this with care if you’re on a tight deadline as it could mean that you wind up using up all your time. 

If you only have a short amount of time, try a smaller puzzle based one like Candy Crush or Tetris. A lot of times, your mind will work on the problem with the story as you are focusing on something else, and Tetris has been shown to help restructure the brain in such a way that it can even help reduce the impacts of trauma and intrusive thoughts. 

Set a Timer

I hate this tactic. But it works. 

Sit with your writing tools and a timer for 20 minutes. Set the timer. Switch your phone and Internet off. Now look at the page. Whatever you do, you have two options: write or stare. 

Technically, you can think about the story, of course. 

But nothing else. 

Eventually the words come. 

I can’t explain why, but it feels physically painful to do nothing and keep intentionally returning my focus to the project at hand rather than letting myself get distracted by a thousand other things. And somehow, that agonizing space of focus eventually leads to more words coming. Maybe not good words. But words that can be edited and finessed. 

The one thing I’ll add is that even though it works, I hate this tactic so much I avoid it if I can. It also wears me out faster. But if I’m on a deadline for a project I just can’t complete, then this is the one I pull out. And sometimes even the threat of it is enough to make my mind realize it can continue. 

But these are just a handful of possibilities. If you find these don’t work for you, keep experimenting. Something will work eventually. All seasons end, including seasons of dry inspiration and difficult stories. 

What about you? Do you have any tricks that work for you when it comes to finding inspiration?

Jessica M. Butler is a USA Today bestselling romantic fantasy author who never outgrew her love for telling stories and playing in imaginary worlds. She lives with her husband and law partner, James Fry, in rural Indiana where they are quite happy with their two cats and all of the wildlife and trees.

Find her at https://jmbutlerauthor.com/

Stop Waiting for Inspiration

 Barnes & Noble is offering 25% on preorders for the next 3 days, so if you read on Nook and want a great discount on TWISTED MAGIC, go to B&N and use PREORDER25. 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking how to find inspiration when the story won't come to you. 

Did you know the word "inspiration" comes from the Latin inspirare, which means "to breathe into"? Same root as the English word for respiration and other, similar, breathing-related words. It refers to the sense of the divine breathing life into us. 

The way creatives use "inspiration," we usually mean it the way this topic is phrased - that we're waiting for that divine breath, waiting for that story to come to us.

Stop waiting.

As a creative, YOU are the divine and the story is your creation. Did the gods wait for lifeless clay creatures to somehow totter up to them, requesting the breath of life?

No.

Similarly, those stories are not going to come to you. You must reach out and seize the clay, shape it into what you want it to be, and then for YOU to be the inspiration, to breathe life into the new work.

I know this isn't the advice you wanted to hear. This isn't easy. But then, being a Creator never is. 

Creative Blockage: Go Sit in a Corner

 This Week's Topic: How to Find Inspiration When the Story Won't Come to Me

I'm the sort for whom the broad strokes of the story come easily. It's the details that can cause me to sit in a corner and drool. Sometimes, I'll bring an aluminum pot to bang on mindlessly while I'm there.

Wait.
Does--does that actually help?

Ya know, yeah. Yeah, it does. Figuratively and, on occasion, literally. Letting my mind go utterly blank permits my subconscious to noodle over the problem. When my conscious mind is too chaotic, the monotonous thumping of the pot provides a singular focal point that eventually quiets the pandemonium and lulls the conscious mind so the whispers of my subconscious can be heard. 

Naturally, my subconscious doesn't acknowledge the concepts of deadlines, schedules, urgency, or even time itself. Like so many of us, my creative epiphany strikes at the most inconvenient moments. Say, whilst folding laundry, walking the dog, or at 0200hrs. Can I always remember the moment of brilliance until I get to a voice recorder or notebook? I so wish the answer to that was Yes. The gist lingers, however, and that's good enough to weave the bridges of minor events that connect the Big Moments. 

In a world of overscheduling and overstimulation, the key to conquering any kind of creative block is to give yourself time to simply...think. 

Aluminum pots are optional. 

Jeffe and her Iconic Scene

SHADOW WIZARD releases tomorrow!! Preorder price of $4.99 will be good into tomorrow, then it goes up. (Along with my grocery bill, alas!) The audiobook is being recorded now and should be available in about 2 weeks.

       

 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're asking: Do you have an iconic scene that inspires your writing?

 

I think most of my stories arise from certain pivotal images. For most every book I've written, I can almost certainly identify what the core image was. It's more than visual, however, and feels more like a snippet of a moment: a character in a situation. For a long time I have had an iconic scene. I started drawing it when  was a little girl and it's found its way into any number of stories over the years. I've never quite felt like I fully wrote the story of it, though it's haunted me less recently, so maybe I've come close enough for it to leave me alone.

 

The scene:

 

A woman stands on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Waves rise in whitecaps, dashing themselves against the rocks below. A wind off the water blows back her hair and gown. She's waiting...  Perhaps for an enemy to arrive on her shores? That's my usual feeling. Sometimes a large wolfhound is with her. Sometimes I think she's a sorceress, other times a queen.

 

If you've read a lot of my books, you'll probably recognize ways that this scene appears in various forms. I might've finally worked it out of my system with the Forgotten Empires trilogy, although it still didn't feel precisely like that iconic scene. Maybe I'll wend my way back to it someday!

 

For the time-being, however, I've been in the marshes and woodlands with the denizens of the Renegades of Magic world. SHADOW WIZARD takes us to a new high house (if you're familiar with the Bonds of Magic trilogy), and increasingly wild adventures. In this book, this snippet of a scene is one of my favorites:

 

She flung herself against him, embracing him with fierce tenacity, face buried against his neck, her chin digging rather sharply against his collarbone. For a slender, barely-there wraith, Seliah possessed a surprising amount of tensile strength. And she smelled of water in the moonlight, her tough, tense, thin little body vibrating with spiky silver magic, her breasts surprisingly—and distractingly—soft and full pressed against his chest. He couldn’t help a tiny fantasy of how it would feel to be buried inside that intensity, to have that passionate body surging against his, embracing and engulfing.

It's never going to happen, he told himself firmly.

Are you sure? part of him whispered back slyly.

Yes. Ruthlessly banishing the image, he refused to touch her any more than he already had. Holding his hands out, even more awkward than ever, he kind of waved them around as he waited for the hug to end.

It didn’t. Instead she held on, a buzzing bundle of intoxicating magic and tempting woman. Jadren tried patting her back, thinking maybe that would satisfy her enough to encourage her to go away, but she only purred, snuggling closer, like a cat who’d found the one cat-hater in the room and had no greater goal in life than encamping on his lap forever.

       

You Need More than One Bucket to Fill a Well

'Where I get inspiration', 'filling the well' and all the other euphemisms we use to encompass what really amounts to self-care is a tricky devil. I mean, do you ever have discontent rolling from your gut to heart and back again, but the wine and the bath bombs that did the trick yesterday don't put a dent in it today? Or is it just me pacing my house like a caged lion?

I'm guessing that answer is no. Especially not now. We're all looking for ways to self-soothe. It's a skill we're supposed to pick up in the transition from child to adulthood, but rarely do in healthy ways. This culture isn't big on it. It doesn't help that what makes us feel empty and depleted is often an incredibly fast-moving target.

What to do, then?

Multiple weapons, my friend. Multiple weapons. Some days, all you need to restore your soul is an exquisite piece of chocolate. Or a meal made by someone who cares about you. A piece of poetry or art that steals your breath. A drive (where you don't get out of the car) just to see what's over that hill or around that bend over there. Music. Movement - never underestimate the power of dancing like a goober to music you love when no one else is home. Go for a walk - just wear your mask. Learn something new. It doesn't have to be weighty or even germane. I've watched a dog training show on Youtube, for heaven's sake. I don't have dogs. Can't have dogs, more's the pity, and so the chance that I would EVAR use this is . . . well hell . . . now it's going in a story. Right now, a thunderstorm is doing the job for me. Sitting outside, under good cover, never fear, exposed to negative ions and listening to the rain and not-so-distant rumble.

Also, I think it's important to say that it's okay to be spent. It's okay to be empty. There's power in that, too. It's a rich, fallow space to lie in while you take a breath without rushing to fill back up again. Nature abhors a vacuum. You will fill. It's legit to take a break before you rush to do and just be.

PS: New book out! The Blood Knife released yesterday as a part of a box set called Beyond Twilight that's available for the next three weeks. We have eleven vampire books in the collection. A portion of proceeds supports the Southern Ohio Wolf Sanctuary. The stories are based on how vampires might have changed in the years since Twilight first came out. Politics have changed. Social justice has changed. Vamps have had to adapt. We wrote a few of those stories. While we may be writing Team Edward, we're supporting Team Jacob.

Check us out.

Finding Inspiration

pic from my hiking adventures

If you’re a writer, you’ve undoubtedly been asked where do you get your ideas from? About a thousand times. And the topic of the week might give you an easy way to answer: what other media inspires you? 

I write sci-fi and fantasy. And for me, it’s almost a right brain left brain kind of thing. So it makes sense that I’m inspired to write the different genres in different ways.

When I’m writing the future and coming up with all sorts of made-up tech I thrive off other science fiction media. Anyone watch Altered Carbon? Fan-freaking-tastic! The character journeys were fun to watch unfold, but it was the world and all those small details—how the characters interacted with and used that world that fired off hundreds of ideas. 

When I’m writing fantasy I need nature. When I’m dreaming up completely new worlds and magic I need to walk under the trees and step to the cliff’s edge. If I really can’t get out, or my imagination needs to travel to the type of local I’ve never been to, photography saves me. Beautiful images, vivid or faded, breath taking scenery.

#Ullrthehuskypup

Yes, I know the act of writing stems from the same brain location, but activating the scientific part of me is a completely different function than painting worlds with words. 

I should really remember this for when I’m feeling stuck in my writing. I sort of do consciously think this way, I frequently take the husky pup (I still miss my Loki dog) for walks to get the mind going, and I’ll binge on sci-fi movies/shows for ideas. 

But if I actively try to kickstart the part of my brain I need…sooner, maybe my sticky spots will be shorter lived! 

How about you? I envy the people that get inspired by music. So, do you use a certain type of media to inspire you? 

Feeding the Creative Subconscious with Beauty

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is inspiration. What other media inspires us: fandom, music, photography, paintings?

For me, the answer is pretty much yes.

Yes to all of it. Books, poetry, news articles, music, visual arts of all kinds - it all feeds into a stewpot of inspiration for me. For today's post, however, I'll stick with visual arts, particularly paintings and drawings.

The above is a giclee by Diana Stetson called Raven Watching. My mom bought it for me a couple of weeks ago from a gallery in Santa Fe. It's an early birthday present, since the odds of us being together for my actual birthday aren't great. I love the sense of depth to this piece, and how the raven seems to be watching with a keen and knowing gaze. It looks exactly like the desert ravens around our house, too, so that's a lovely echo to bring indoors.

It's fitting, too, that my mom bought this gift for me, as she's the one who taught me to love art--largely by dragging me in and out of Santa Fe galleries on family vacations.

When I first began transitioning from being a scientist to a writer, I studied a great deal about being creative, especially the creative subconscious. One thing I gleaned was to surround myself with visual images that fed my subconscious. I read a quote from Anna Pavlova - which I inevitably can't find now - about the Imperial Ballet Academy where she studied. She said everywhere at the academy, they were surrounded by beauty - so that they would soak that in and bring it out again in their dance.

I took that to heart and surround myself with art that makes me feel reverence for the world. Sometimes I can point to specific inspirations. Other times... well, I hope that it's soaked in, ready to spring forth in new forms.

Story Starter: Conflict

My most frequent story starter...is a vague concept of a conflict. A broad view that's mushy and loosely defined. It often is rooted in emotion; be it restlessness, resentment, retribution, or reconciliation. There's usually some sort of injustice at the core (in today's real world, how can you escape it, right?).

From there it moves to character. Who is feeling these things? Who is most impacted by the situation? Who is in a position to affect change? Who stands to lose the most? Gain the most? Be damned either way, but die if nothing changes?

Then Why has to be answered.
Then Why Now.
Then How.
Then With Whom.
Then Despite Whom.
Then Where.
Then What Magic.

Then...then I have a concept that kicks off an outline around a conflict that builds a complex plot for complicated characters.

Sing Me A Song & I'll Tell You A Story

I listen to music...all the time. When I need to sink into a mood, I have a playlist for that. When I'm not connecting with a situational mindset of a character, I have a song, an album, or an artist to get me there. When I need to drown outside noise, I have a smart-station for that. When my dog's losing her mind due to a storm, there's music for that too.

As I'm working my way through the fifth book in the Immortal Spy series here's what's in my Top 5 Playlists queue:

1. Pain is Necessary Mix: Dommin, Godsmack, 3 Days Grace, Metallica, Theatre of Tragedy, Shinedown, BVB, etc.
2. Blues Guitars & Grit: Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Johnny Lang, Kenney Wayne Shepherd, Koko Taylor, Memphis Mille, Muddy Waters, BB King, John Lee Hooker, etc.
3. The Bogeyman Cometh (Opera's Bass/Baritones) Mix: Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Rene Pepe, Sam Ramey, and more.
4. Women Have Had Enough Of Your Shit Mix: Halestorm, Dorothy, Heart, Joan Jett, In This Moment, Gin Wigmore, ZZ Ward, The Pretty Reckless, Aretha, Ella, Janis, Tina, Stevie, etc.
5. We're All 12 with Dirty Minds (Classic Rock): Meat Loaf, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Van Halen, etc.

Look to the Stars

Humanity and the world of science lost one of our brightest, sharpest minds. Professor Stephen Hawking made some of the most arcane concepts of physics accessible. So when I seek inspiration, this is where I turn.

"It matters that you don't just give up." Professor Stephen Hawking

PS: If you haven't checked out the Roddenberry FB page, do, and scroll to March 14, 2018. 100% worth it.

Real World Events, Gewgaws, Ribbons, & Hot Glue: Fictitious Scrapbooks

Taking real-world non-fiction events and twisting them into a scene in a fantasy novel? Who does that?

Me. Totally me.

It's the twisting that's the fun part, then taking a hot glue gun to make little plastic bridges between the twists, and hoping the adhesive holds well enough that the whole story doesn't unravel. A little Modge Podge to seal it. A fashionable ribbon here. A pop-culture sticker there. Yep. Pretty much summarizes my writing process.

Yes. I absolutely burn my fingers on the glue. Yes, my hair, dog hair, and last week's mystery crumbs end up embedded in the scrapbook too. There's inevitably a ghosting fingerprint or twelve that'll identify me to the Thought Police.

In my defense, I try not to spill the bourbon on the scrapbook, 'cause that'd be alcohol abuse...and it eats through the glue. Though, it does make a great editing assistant and accidents happen.

So, scrapbooking in the figurative sense, I am a big fan.

Scrapbooking in the literal sense? Not it. No, that's wholly different talent.

Picking the Good Ideas for a Novel - How Do You Know?

I just got back from the RT Booklovers Convention in Atlanta. Here's Sonali Dev and Grace Draven, after accepting their awards for best Contemporary Romance and Best Fantasy Romance, respectively. Two of my favorite people, among so many wonderful people at that convention. I had a wonderful time!

“Where do you get your ideas?”

This is a question authors get all the time. And we have a pretty stock answer for it, which is absolutely true, that getting ideas isn’t the hard part. Most authors have tons of ideas stockpiled. While writing one book, we get ideas for something totally different. Sometimes lots of other ideas. The hard part, we say, is in the execution, in actually preserving to write the entire book and do it well.

That’s all true.

But there is another level to it.

What author has not read a book and thought, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that!” We often look at books our friends and heroes write and wish we’d had that idea. For myself, I have five or six series that I sincerely wish I’d written. A lot of that is in the execution, but they’re also ideas that never occurred to me.

The other piece is that, when we go to those long lists of ideas – on spreadsheets for me, naturally! – it’s not always easy to choose the GOOD ideas.

Ideas are everywhere. GOOD ideas? Maybe not so much.

That’s our topic this week: how do we know which are the GOOD ideas.

Recently I gave my new agent Sarah a long list of possible projects. I think about a dozen, in various stages – most just twinkles in my eyes – of ideas for books and series I could work on. She went through and ranked them in terms of which she thought were the best for me to work on.

That’s part of her job. In this case, “GOOD idea” meant what she thought would be most likely to sell right now. She also filtered in terms of genre, bookshelf placement, future directions of publishing and reading, and her own intuition.

What she ranked #1 was not my personal favorite.

In fact, my personal favorite idea didn’t make her top five.

Does that mean it’s not a GOOD idea? Not necessarily, but it does mean something. When I finding myself wishing that I wish I’d thought of Hunger Games (and what author hasn’t??), I also know that I never would have. It’s not my thing. But, among the stuff that IS my thing, I’m aware that my favorite ideas aren’t always ready for the world. Don’t worry – I keep them! But I put them pretty far back on the shelf in the larder to ferment a little longer.

Every author, no matter where in their career, has to choose among their many ideas. When I was a newbie, aspiring author, this often came down to gut. Sometimes it still does. Nothing wrong with choosing that way. But as we progress in our careers, other factors come into play. I have a couple of series concepts that I might not yet have the chops to pull off. Also, working as a career writer, recognizing what will sell becomes much more important. Things like groceries and electricity need to be paid for.

So, through this lens, a GOOD idea has many parameters. How we recognize those is a combination of intuition, experience, and professional expertise – both our own and from the people we work with.

There’s also that magic something, that just knowing. I’ve had it a few times. Suzanne Collins says she knew about Hunger Games.

I’m looking forward to hearing my fellow authors in the SFF Seven weigh in on how they recognize the GOOD ideas.