Setting as Inspiration

What helps us focus and find our literary inspiration? For starters, we spent a day at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Over the years, the Mysterious Ms. Lee and I have talked about writing a book together, but we never got further than “wouldn’t it be fun to”. The timing wasn’t right. We didn’t have a story idea that both of us were really excited about. We needed inspiration and the space to get serious and create.

Things changed during a conversation late last year when we found ourselves with a concept we both liked. While our reading interests overlap, I’m more of a fantasy/romance girlie, and Ms. Lee leans toward noir detective novels, so it wasn’t until we found a story idea that embraced elements of each genre that we both thought, “Wow, maybe we should really do this”.

Getting started can be hard though, especially when life is keeping you busy and there are so many distractions. We were talking more frequently and sharing ideas, but it wasn’t until we met in person for a dedicated period of time that we made serious progress.

So, in thinking about the writing process, I thought I’d share something that was helpful to us. We selected a time and a place to begin. We scheduled a focused discussion, and we chose to have that discussion in a place we’ve both loved since childhood–The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Growing up, tea at the Huntington was always a special treat and the source of some of my best memories. As girls, we’d dress up, wander the gardens, enjoy tea and scones. Everything was always so lovely. Thinking about it now, these shared memories are probably why we were quick to agree that a botanical garden should be one of the settings in our story.

And of course, if a garden was going to be featured in our writing, why not have our first in-person, focused story discussion take place in one? So, back to the Huntington we went. We drank tea and explored the gardens, and all the while we talked about how we wanted our shifter world to work and what threat our hero and heroine would need to overcome. We made some key world-building decisions, and we also identified things we needed to think about further, things that needed research.

All in all, it was a really productive day and being undistracted in a beautiful setting definitely helped us make space for inspiration and feel motivated. That said, as I’m writing this post, I’m on my back patio feeling the warmth of the mid-morning sun on my skin and the brush of a light breeze. There are no distractions and this reminds me that space for inspiration can also be found close to home.