Writing and When Inspiration Strikes

Every November since 2002, I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal is simple: write 50,000 words in thirty days, and it’s the quantity, not the quality that matters. Other than bragging rights, what do I win? Nothing, except the knowledge I finished a goal I set for myself. As the years have gone by, I am met with a new challenge to NaNoWriMo: What story am I going to write this year?

Sometimes it’s easy. A story idea quickly pops in my head, and before long, I have enough notes to get the story going. NaNoWriMo has given me the opportunity to try my hand at genres I would never have considered before. Twice I’ve tried to write fan fiction; both times, I’ve felt like an utter failure, even though I felt I had reasonably good ideas. I’ve also had the chance to put some of my interests outside NaNoWriMo to good use. Long have I been interested in the stories of Robin Hood, so one November, I spent the month putting my own twist on the tale.

In 2011, an idea to write a story centered around time travel popped into my head. The antagonist went back in time to abduct historical figures to bring them to the present, not only to collect them but to sell them to the highest bidder. I knew little about time travel beyond what I had seen in movies and on television. So I needed to read up. Luckily, I got the idea early enough in the year to give myself time to research the topic. I learned enough to make it sound like I knew what I was talking about, or so I hoped.

A few days before the event started that year, I decided to give myself a break from researching and jotting down ideas that I could later use in my story. I wanted to let my story stew in my head before I started writing. It felt good to let my mind just relax. But when you enjoy writing as much as I do, you can’t always get those few days off. I was driving home one day from running errands. I was stopped at the last light before my house when the Greek god Hades popped into my head. His wife Persephone soon followed. As I thought about the abduction story, I started thinking about how much I would enjoy writing this for NaNoWriMo.

Then I stopped myself and thought, “Wait a minute!” I had spent the last several months researching time travel as well as jotting down all those story notes. How could I put all that time and effort aside to write about Hades and Persephone? And on top of that, I did not feel like I knew enough about the abduction story to be able to write it honestly. Three days of research was not going to get me all the information I desperately needed to write about these two gods.

So I politely thought, “No, I am not writing about them this year.” I was writing my time travel story, no matter what. And I enjoyed writing my time travel story. I got to learn some new things researching it, and not everything was about time travel. If you want to know what the tallest building in Portland, OR is, I can tell you that now! I reached the 50,000 word threshold before the thirtieth of November, and this time, I was able to give my mind a bit of a break before I started another round of research.

I learned so much about not only Persephone and Hades, but many of the other gods in Greek mythology. Reading about the other gods has given me inspiration for other stories, including the beginning of Zeus’ journey to become king of the gods to what if Ares grew tired as Aphrodite as a lover. It has taught me that inspiration can come from nowhere and from has inspired me before.