Art by Alison Hunt

(I should probably clarify something.  Each week is going to have excerpts from a different book section.  This week is the Author section, which is the smallest.  So, it’s not easy putting this together.  Enjoy.)

I was surprised when this question came up in conversation. Not only once, but a few times over the years. Seems some authors feel they shouldn’t bring this up out of fear of being called a copycat. Others merely give a list of things without any extra information and try to get back to talking about their stories. The problem is that people are going to connect your work to those they are reminded of, so you might as well reveal what inspired you. It could be another book, a historical event, a movie, a show, or anything that gave you that spark for the story. A secondary question here would be: How do I talk about my inspirations?

The answer: A blog or other social media platform.

I created my ‘Legends of Windemere’ blog before I published in order to get people interested. The first lesson I learned was to add pictures or videos because straight words don’t catch the eye. The second lesson was that readers and other authors enjoy seeing the curtain get pulled aside. You come off as a thinking human being with interests instead of a hazy figure trying to market a book. The inspirations of your story can be used to connect with readers and fellow authors too. A person who sees that their favorite movie helped drive you to write your book will become curious. They will do a comparison, which could backfire, but they will still buy and read the book. You also don’t have the risk of someone angrily shouting that you copied something else. Authors are allowed to be inspired by other works as long as they don’t do full-on plagiarism. People will commonly jump to that conclusion if you aren’t open about what gave you that creative spark.

An important part to keep in mind here is to not simply list your inspirations. That’s boring and doesn’t really explain things. It can lead to you having to say more in comments, which can get repetitive because people won’t always read those. To draw more people into your world and see where it came from, you need to go deep. Explain the connections and why this other work inspired you to write your own story.

For example, tell the audience when you first experienced the story and how you felt about it. You will be surprised how many authors will make similar comments even if everyone has a different source. This opens a discussion that will help you make more author friends, more readers, and realize you aren’t the only one who is inspired by other things. We tend to forget that this is fairly common for some reason when we are just starting out as authors. Maybe because we’re not sure of how much we can borrow and fear the label of plagiarist. This opening of your process will certainly help to alleviate some of that fear and stress.

Interested? Enjoy the rest when Do I Need to Use a Dragon? goes live on July 3rd!