Modern Ink Society- Featuring Beth Revis

FEATURING GUEST

Beth Revis

Finding Stories

Welcome to the twentieth session of

 THE MODERN INK SOCIETY!

“If “Plan A” doesn’t work. Remember that there are 25 other letters “.

 — Unknown

“I read and walked for miles at night
along the beach,
writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly
for someone wonderful w ho would step out of the darkness and change my life.
It never crossed my mind that
that person could be me.”
-Anna Quindlen

 Introducing the lovely

Beth Revis

Finding Stories
 
“One of the most common questions that an author gets is, “Where did you find the inspiration for your novel?” It’s also one of the toughest questions to answer.
 
Because the truth is, inspiration is everywhere. But that answer is far to simple, because while inspiration is everywhere, it’s also impossible to pinpoint, and impossible to know just what can become inspiration.

I love to tell students during classroom presentations how much I used to hate science class. Hate, hate, hate. And yet, more than ten years after graduating high school, I became a science fiction writer. And all those classes I hated? Man, they’ve come in handy. While I was struggling through physics, some of my teacher’s lectures penetrated my brain, giving me the seeds of knowledge and ideas that became whole novels years and years later.
 
Sometimes, I’ll experience something that I know I want to become a story…but I don’t have the story yet. When I was in college, I had the great opportunity to travel to the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. My university’s program was there to analyze their educational system, but there was something about that island that resonated deeply within me. As I soaked up the tiny details–the colorful luzzu boats, the clear azure water, the almost desert-like landscape spotted with dusty cities built in the Middle Ages–I knew I wanted to set a story there. I tried to write a story set there several times, but each one petered out.
 
And then I found myself with a story idea for what would become The Body Electric. I had a plot–girl who could alter memories–but no setting. Unlike my Across the Universe books, I knew this story had to be set on Earth. And I knew I didn’t want to put it in America–far too many stories are set in America.
 
Malta rose up in my mind.
 
And suddenly all the pieces clicked together. My girl lived in Malta, but I changed the city into the global center of the world–something that it was on the cusp of being during World War II strategies due to its ideal location. Malta has its own language, and my research made me stumble across the world “zunzana,” which means “bumblebee” and can be used as an affectionate nickname for a girl who holds her family together, who is strong and loyal and industrious and fierce. Now I had a name for my rebel organization. The luzzu boats that litter the island’s shore all have the “evil eye” painted into the bow; I was writing about a government that always had its eye on its people, so the boats in my story have electronic eyes, used to spy on the citizens.
 
When I went to Malta, I didn’t have The Body Electric in my head yet. I didn’t even have Across the Universe, or most of the novels I’d begun writing that were rejected for publication. But that’s what it means to be a writer–live your life in such a way that the stories can grow out of your memories. “

A huge thanks to Beth for sharing some of her sources of inspiration!  If you’d like to learn more about Beth Revis and check out her books, you can go to her website, at bethrevis.com.

 Also, if you are able to participate in the live chat on Goodreads with her and Colleen it is going to be so much fun!

August 27th @ 5pm

I really love learning about the how’s and whys behind the story and how their stories come to life. 

~Till next time,

Linda Louise Lotti