That Question, Trudi Canavan

In a panel at convention I attended few years ago a member of the audience asked an author “Where do you get your ideas from?” This is hardly an unusual question but what made this moment stand out in my memory was how she scowled and then aggressively added “ – and don’t tell me ‘life’!”

       I don’t think she meant to tell the author how he should or shouldn’t answer. I suspect her aggression came from frustration at never received the sort of answer she wanted–and she never got the answer she wanted because she didn’t ask the right question.

        What she wanted was entertaining anecdotes about the author’s sources of inspiration. Clues to the inner workings of the author’s mind. At the time I had just had a book published and hoped to one day be a panellist at a convention, and I realised I should be ready for this question with a few good anecdotes of my own.

This was easy. The first moment of inspiration for the Black Magician Trilogy made for a great story, and I’ve told it many times now.

It began in 1992, some weeks before the Barcelona Olympics. Watching the late night news, I saw a report about the homeless of the city taken off the streets, loaded into trucks and shipped out to other cities. That night I dreamed I was one among a crowd driven out of a city. Some of us grew angry and stopped to throw stones. Suddenly (as happens in dreams) the men we were confronting were magicians, and instead of a rock I was throwing a magical bolt of energy. It struck a magician and all activity stopped as, in a shocked silence, all turned to stare at me.

Waking up, I wrote a description of the dream on a scrap of paper. The next morning I read my notes in amazement. In the cold light of day dreams usually prove to be terrible story material. This one wasn’t. I put it aside, and over the next few years other moments of inspiration came to me that were compatible with this idea, and the structure of a plot began to form. This evolved, over some years, into the Black Magician Trilogy.

Inspiration rarely comes from dreams, however. Much of it comes to me from common sources of story and fact: films, tv drama, documentaries, books, conversations, my experiences and those of other people. The story within Age of the Five began when I was fourteen and fascinated by classical era mythology. I wondered what it would be like to live in a world where magic was real, and humans were ruled by a pantheon of gods.

Examining these sources always leads me back to the inspiration that led me to create stories in the first place. Why create stories? Why did fantasy appeal more? Why did I choose writing as my medium?

But that’s fodder for another post.

-- Trudi Canavan

         

         

         

         

         

         

Comments

[SciFiChick]

I haven't heard of this series. I'm going to have to check it out...

[Kendall]

The Black Magician trilogy is a great series, and I'm going to start her next one soon. Great to hear where the starting point for the idea came from! It turned into a great series.

[Beatrice]

Very interesting that the Black Magician's Trilogy all started with a dream! I love the series. However, I prefer Age of the Five trilogy. I am waiting anxiously for Voice of the Gods (although I wish it was released earlier than July!)

[Aselin]

BMT is the best series on Earth! The plot made me cried so much in the end...*sobbing* I can still remember the scene in my head.
It took me about 2 weeks to finish all of them, my family said that I was too addicted to the books, cuz I was always late for dinner, too absorbed in the story to come down stairs. I felt so empty and even forgot what I was supposed to do after finishing the books. It became a routine for me to reach for the thickness that when I realised I finished it already, I refused to read any other book for two weeks and dreamed all about BMT. In the end I succumbed to its tantalizing draw and read it the second time. I never reread books. That's how great the trilogy is.