Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! For the ENTIRE month of December, we'll be seeing content like this from both myself, and from the Featured Authors (going all the way back to the beginning!). Along with each of us sharing first chapters from our novels (all on, or soon to be on, Wattpad!), we'll also be getting an inside look into everyone's writing process, book reviews, and even better - getting to know the contestants trying for Featured Author of The Year 2019! Stick around for the fun!
Now over to Caroline:
Hey everyone! I’m Caroline (or you can call me Drennie), and I’m a 14 year old fanfiction author from Cornland, aka boring old Iowa. I have two sisters and a brother and I’ve been on Wattpad since April of 2015 (damn it sounds like a long time when you say it like that)! I was featured author back in November of 2016 and have done a lot of stuff with Shay and featured author since then- I’m glad to say I’m lucky enough to see Shay as a writing mentor (and a v close internet friend of mine).
I’m most proud of my book Put Another X On The Calendar, but I’ve actually recently grown quite proud of a book that I’m currently working on that isn’t on my page yet called State Of The Art. I’m excited for everyone to see it when I’m finished with it!
I’m going to keep my introduction short as I think I’ve crossed paths with most of the other featured authors before, but I’m very excited to be helping out with the Get Together!
Inspiration. We all have it, some more than others, but what is it really? Where does it really come from? Before we can get into where yours comes from, let’s go back in time to ancient Greece to see where the Greeks thought theirs came from. The ancient Greeks thought that inspiration was a gift from the “muses,” or the gods and goddesses you may see in Greek mythology. Most now believe that inspiration does not come from a higher being, but it was nice to think there was a reason for these random thoughts appearing in our heads. Now on to where your thoughts come from. Recent studies show that the most common place for inspiration or thoughts to come from are in dreams or visions. Maybe you doze off for a few minutes only to wake up, head full of ideas. Most of the time when coming out of your sleep induced state thoughts don’t make a lot of sense- but some of the best ideas come from that half-sleep period of about five minutes after you wake.
But this doesn’t answer our question. Where does inspiration really come from? Is is just random things that your brain comes up with in sleep? Though you’re not conscious of it, your brain in the most active during sleep. Or is inspiration already all out there in morphic fields where scientists believe forms and instincts inhabit and grow?
Morphic fields exist on the platonic or formative plane. Some people have called this plane of existence the causal plane. We can tap into these fields. Some people are better at it than others as they have an affinity for certain types of morphic fields. Some people tap into mathematical fields, some into musical ones. It is a matter of taste and ability.
The ideas for melodies, lyrics, poetry, stories, everything in fact- are they all out there just waiting to be plucked from the corners of our minds? Plucked from seemingly nowhere?
Some believe that because all this inspiration is already out there, that’s why we have situations where the story is the same as something else. Even though it might be intentional- like The Lion King telling the story of Osiris and Horus- sometimes you may be reading something and are suddenly flooded with a sense of déjà vu. Like you’ve already read it before.
Because you may have read it before. Some believe that this inspiration is all floating out there in the morphic fields, but sometimes the idea gets split into two parts- leaving two people with the same idea.
But studies show that really inspiration doesn’t come from some higher being or from some seemingly magical field of ideas. Inspiration can come from all things around us- dreams, the music we listen to, the tv shows and movies we watch, the books we read, the people around us. Even ourselves. If you’re looking at an original story of yours, you may realize that each and every character in that story has a part of you in it. Maybe the hero or heroine of the story has a trait of yours that you’re proud of, maybe that moment where they stand up for themselves is based on that moment where you stood up for yourself against the bully in third grade. Maybe the protagonist’s love interest is a hopeless romantic- a trait you see in yourself. And maybe even the antagonist has that one trait that makes everyone hate them- your inner insecurity of something you maybe even deal with yourself. That they’re homophobic, that they pick on people smaller than them, that they don’t even believe in themselves.
But inspiration comes from everywhere. So next time you’re struggling to come up with a story idea, look around- because the perfect idea may be right there in front of you.
Let's give a round of applause to Caroline! She's been one of the Featured Author's that I've had the privilege of keeping close with over the years. She's also my writing men-tee :D So much love heading your way my darling! <3
We'll be seeing more from her throughout the month of December!
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