Pique Practice with Guest Carolyn Miller

Erica Vetsch here:  It is my absolute pleasure to host Carolyn Miller here at Seekerville today. We met in person at the 2018 ACFW Conference, and I can tell you, she is a delight. (With an awesome accent!) Thanks so much, Carolyn, for stopping by Seekerville!

Pique Practice by Carolyn Miller

‘She sells seashells by the seashore.’

You’re familiar with this tongue-twister, right? It’s said the “She” who sells seashells was Mary Anning, a poor, marginalized Englishwoman who despite her meagre education went on to discover some of England’s most spectacular fossils of the early 1800s, and eventually to be regarded as one of Britain’s most influential women of science.

My interest was piqued by this woman’s remarkable story, and by the fact that some of her most important discoveries happened during the Regency period – something which excited this historical author’s heart, and led me to write a novel based around the fossil-hunting mania of the Regency period (A Hero for Miss Hatherleigh, releasing March 19).

It’s funny how such a random thing as Googling the background of a tongue-twister can provide inspiration for a novel. When I look back on the novels I’ve written so far, it’s been a wide variety of things that have piqued enough interest to inspire a novel. For my first published novel, The Elusive Miss Ellison, I was inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Georgette Heyer, which helped inform the plot and wit and characters.

I’ve been inspired by locations (Bath! Brighton! Derbyshire! Scotland!), castle images, the challenge of presenting an unsympathetic character sympathetically, historic events, Bible verses, sermons, maps, garage sale finds, among a million other things that have piqued my interest.

The very first novel-length story I wrote was a contemporary story based around the Winter Olympics, because my interest was piqued by the sight of a US male athlete holding hands with an Aussie girl. What was their story? I had to know. (And when I couldn’t find out, I made it up!)

I love how the very randomness of such things can get the creative juices flowing. And in today’s world, it seems we’re surrounded by such opportunities:

·       News items

·       TV shows, films, books

·       Photographs, pictures and paintings

·       Music

·       The Internet (oh my, it’s a land of a million rabbit trails, isn’t it?)

·       And so much more…

Even our mundane chores down the street can provide inspiration as we overhear a snippet of conversation, or witness an awkward scene between friends or family members at a café, school or supermarket.

But being surrounded as we are by so many sources of potential inspiration can present an author with some questions:

·       How do you decide what is story-worthy?

·       How do you record your story ideas? In a notebook, on your phone, scribbled notes on the back of receipts? Or are you more organized and use particular apps and programs like Evernote to record your ‘piqued interest’?

·       What do you do to store these random story ideas?

I’m still trying to figure a lot of this out. I’m a historical author, but I have plenty of half-finished contemporary stories floating around my computer. Some of the scenarios I’ve been able to translate into Regency settings, but I figure some will never be unleashed on the world (and that might be a good thing!). For me a creative idea has to have enough substance, be plottable, hold enough magic so I remain excited enough to write 90,000 words – or at least until I get to 45K, when I might need to practise ‘butt in seat’ technique to reach ‘The End.’

Some items of ‘piqued interest’ will be relegated to secondary storylines, subplots, etc. That’s okay. I think the best stories are those with multiple story strands that pique the reader’s interest until the end.

As for my recording of such moments, I’ll admit I’m a bit of a mess. Yes, I have Evernote, but I don’t use it as I could. Last month I was doing a spring clean of my office and desk and discovered a huge array of tattered notebooks and scraps of paper, all containing plenty of – you guessed it – story ideas and clippings of things that had once piqued my interest. What to do with them? Good question.

I know I’m not offering many answers, and that’s because I’d love to hear your thoughts about what your ‘pique practices’ may be. Sharing is caring, so please let me know what you do when your creativity is piqued by answering these questions.

Authors:

What’s a random thing that has sparked your creativity and turned an ‘I wonder…’ into a published novel? 

Readers:

Do you read author’s notes in a novel where they give an explanation for why they wrote the story? Have you come across anything that particularly piqued your interest and you think could be story worthy?

 Giveaway: Carolyn is offering an ebook 

or paperback of her upcoming release A Hero for Miss Hatherleigh to one commentator…

Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. Together with her husband she has pastored a church for ten years, and worked as a public high school English and Learning and Support teacher.  A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her Regency novels include The Elusive Miss Ellison, The Captivating Lady Charlotte, The Dishonorable Miss DeLancey, Winning Miss Winthrop, Miss Serena's Secret, The Making of Mrs. Hale, and A Hero for Miss Hatherleigh, all available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Christianbook, etc.

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