Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.
Today’s guest for the WHAT is Suzanne van Rooyen, a genderqueer, tattooed storyteller from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland where she finds the heavy metal soothing and the cold, dark forests inspiring. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. Her novels include Obscura Burning, The Other Me, Scardust and I Heart Robot.
Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?
The inspiration for every book I write always seems to come from a different place. For I Heart Robot, my YA dystopian romance, I was inspired by a scene in the Terminator TV show where Summer Glau’s android character starts teaching herself ballet. This made me wonder what might make a machine want to create or participate in art? Could a robot ever be considered a musician? And those questions solidified into my android character Quinn who had a passion for the violin.
For my latest book, the one currently on submission, I was inspired by the music video for Walking on Car’s song Speeding Cars. The video is dark and magical and I wanted to know more about the story behind it, so I started crafting my own. The book that resulted from that source of inspiration is actually quite a departure from the original ideas presented in the video, but the song, lyrics, and visuals still resonate with me.
Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?
This is always what I struggle the most with. I am not the best plotter. Once I have a sense of the characters and the setting, I try to focus on the conflict. What is the worst thing that could happen to these characters? What have they got to lose? And I start building the plot from there. While I do try to plan and outline, I often find that things aren’t working somewhere around the 30k mark, that I’ve forced something instead of allowing the story to develop organically, or that I missed an opportunity to increase the conflict and raise the stakes. It’s pretty typical for me to rewrite the first 20k-30k of every novel I work on before I’m happy to actually finish the story.
Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?
Oh absolutely! In fact, the novels for which I think I’ve got a solid plan with a detailed outline, are the ones that end up changing the most. And I quite like this. I like being surprised by my characters. I like giving them some free rein to develop and grow even if it derails what I had in mind. I don’t think I’ve ever written a novel that hasn’t evolved beyond what I originally had planned.
Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?
Yes! I often feel inundated by ideas, drowning in the all the stories I want to write. I always make a note of my ideas, whether they’re snippets of conversation, an idea for setting, a particular image, or a ‘what if?’ The problem is turning those ideas into fully-formed stories, having the time and determination to commit to any given project. This year, I want to try to turn more of my ideas into stories though, even if they’re shorts or novelettes. Not all my ideas are novel-worthy and that’s something I plan to explore a little more.
How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?
It really depends which characters are screaming loudest in my head. Sometimes I can hear their voices really clearly or I am just in love with a particular story concept so I’ll work on that. Other times I try to go with the idea that’ll force me to become a better writer, the one that will be more of a challenge, the concept that might even be a little scary to tackle.
I have 5 cats (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?
I have a shiba inu called Lego: this is his Facebook page. While he’s a little big to snuggle in my lap while writing, he’s usually in my study or somewhere nearby to provide the necessary emotional support. He’s also a great listener and lets me talk through ideas, plot holes, and story issues without ever interrupting or criticizing. To honor his role as my writing buddy, my main character Tyri in I Heart Robot has a cyborg shiba, just like my Lego, called Glitch!