The Creation of Story

I am often asked where I come up with ideas to write about. Creation is calling something out of nothing. Writers create stories out of nothing except the words that lie within them. There’s something godlike in that, and if you’ve ever been in The Zone you’ve experienced it.

I’m not being sacrilegious. On the contrary, mankind, if you accept the Bible’s view, is made in the likeness and image of God. We are meant to be unique and creative. We are capable of expressing ourselves, through our work, in a way that our true self is revealed to the world.

I write a blog called Know Jack in which I tend to write about my reactions to the world outside. Much of it is predictable if you’ve read my books. That’s because my books are based on what’s inside me. My characters and stories come from my desire to create, and I only have myself from which to draw. I do research to make it part of me. I study for learning’s sake, not for grades or degrees. I believe that’s why writers are advised to “write what you know”.

Fiction writers mix what they know with measured quantities of what they think and what they feel. A writer’s thoughts and feelings create a unique voice that tells a story only they can tell. That voice speaks worlds into existence. Readers go to those worlds, and for a time, they are as real as the one we inhabit every day.

Creation comes from within. Inspiration is external. In modern terminology, people call it a trigger. I hear triggers are now supposed to be part of the book. I submit that they always have been. There has just never been the need to warn readers about the creative power of the author’s imagination. Letting the author’s imagination transport me to the times and places they have created is what reading and writing are all about.

Jack LaFountain