Ask the Author: Cate Meredith
Answered Questions (3)
Cate Meredith
Cross-pollination. That's the term I use to mean getting inspiration from different types of art. If I can't write, I go to a museum or the ballet or listen to music that I don't usually listen to. I try to make my brain interpret something new and unexpected. By waking up new neurons in the brain, I think the problem gets a little more light on it, and it is easier to make the necessary connections to solve.
For instance, I find that if I view a Jackson Pollock that I've never seen before and try to analyze it, often by the time I get home, I've solved the problem that was causing writer's block. I believe it is because my subconscious has been given an infusion of new inspiration. I can see new connections between things, and thus, the writing flows again.
For instance, I find that if I view a Jackson Pollock that I've never seen before and try to analyze it, often by the time I get home, I've solved the problem that was causing writer's block. I believe it is because my subconscious has been given an infusion of new inspiration. I can see new connections between things, and thus, the writing flows again.
Cate Meredith
Crash Into You had a lot of different points of inspiration. I knew I wanted to write a small town romance, but I wanted it to be really atypical. I thought a plane crash would be a really interesting, traumatic way to bring a character to a small town.
Since my heart will always live in Washington D.C., and I love political intrigue, I wanted to bring just a tiny bit of that into the story. I suspect that every romantic suspense I ever write will have a little of political intrigue in it.
And the scandal at Abu Ghraib certainly played into the storyline. I was interested to know what would happen to someone in the aftermath of a huge torture scandal.
Since my heart will always live in Washington D.C., and I love political intrigue, I wanted to bring just a tiny bit of that into the story. I suspect that every romantic suspense I ever write will have a little of political intrigue in it.
And the scandal at Abu Ghraib certainly played into the storyline. I was interested to know what would happen to someone in the aftermath of a huge torture scandal.
Cate Meredith
I find inspiration everywhere. I am never without ideas. I believe that to be a writer, it is critical to be an interesting person first and foremost. Without being an interesting person, your writing is going to be flat and boring. So I try to just be interesting - go outside, meet people, learn new things, try things, watch people.
I find that the inspiration for my books is always an interesting woman. There will be something just slightly off about her and often she's in a situation that doesn't match her dynamic personality. For example, in At Any Cost, Fallon Hughes was a boho hippie chick trapped in the most conventional life imaginable: she was a corporate lawyer and the daughter of the President of the USA. That to me is intrinsically interesting.
In my newest book, Crash Into You, Aimee Baxter is a creative woman who has gotten involved with an overbearing, abusive boyfriend. The fact that both these characters - Fallon and Aimee - must reach way outside their normal lives in order to become who they truly are is really exciting and interesting to me, and lights that fire inside me to write their stories.
I find that the inspiration for my books is always an interesting woman. There will be something just slightly off about her and often she's in a situation that doesn't match her dynamic personality. For example, in At Any Cost, Fallon Hughes was a boho hippie chick trapped in the most conventional life imaginable: she was a corporate lawyer and the daughter of the President of the USA. That to me is intrinsically interesting.
In my newest book, Crash Into You, Aimee Baxter is a creative woman who has gotten involved with an overbearing, abusive boyfriend. The fact that both these characters - Fallon and Aimee - must reach way outside their normal lives in order to become who they truly are is really exciting and interesting to me, and lights that fire inside me to write their stories.
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