August blog chain

Woo-hoo! It's my turn for Absolute Write's August blog chain. It's been a long wait, and I've been excited about it. There's been a lot of great posts so far.

Here's the question posted to me from Angyl78:

You've mentioned an annoyance with people who butcher the English Language, your co-workers and your animals throughout your blog. How do they influence your writing, and do you use any of them as models for main or supporting characters?

I like this question. Fun fun.

I try to learn from everything I observe, so I can use it later when I'm writing. I don't necessarily let co-workers or stupid people influence my writing, other than as a goad to not fall to their level. I definitely don't want to write for the lowest common denominator.

And yes, I am fairly snobbish like that. 8P

However, I definitely use everything and everyone as models for my writing. I observe everything around me for just that reason. I never know when I may need it, and store everything away.

Sometimes I need a vapid girl, who just wants to collect shoes and notches in her lipstick case. Maybe I need to have someone with a peculiar accent, so I think about the people I talk to on the phone. I have definitely used my pet crows as models for corvid behavior in my stories.

I've even used my job as a basis for a short story. It's still unpublished, but I wrote about a witch working for Arcane Support: she answered calls for witches having problems with spells and their tools. It amused me, applying the problems I deal with to a different setting.

Mostly, I use the stress from my job, my loathing of ignorant speech, and my abiding love for animals to fuel my creativity. Even if I'm not writing about them specifically, all that emotion is crafted into what I'm working on. They are the steam that powers my writing train. As much as it irks me to be behind people who drive like jackasses, or to hear someone tell me they're mashing buttons, or to be surrounded by people I can't respect, I don't think I could work without them. They are my contrast; the worlds I craft are perfect, and the one I live in isn't. Every now and then I need to peek out of my hidey place to see why I spin these tales.

So, I conclude the August chain. Check out everyone else so far, and be sure to keep in touch for the September chain.

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August blog chain participants:

Claire Crossdale http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com
razibahmed http://www.blogging37.com/
aimeelaine http://www.aimeelaine.com/
bsolah http://benjaminsolah.com/blog
dnic http://four-lettered-words.blogspot.com/
JamieMT http://thevarietypages.blogspot.com
LiliCray http://mutteringsofascribe.blogspot.com
ealexis http://eviealextheobsessivewriter.blogspot.com/
errantruth http://www.sputnitsa.wordpress.com
Lady Cat http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com
Proach http://desinfocenter.blogspot.com/
Simran http://dark-horse-adaptations.blogspot.com
lostwanderer5 http://www.lostwanderer5.blogspot.com
Forbidden Snowflake http://www.alleslinks.com
coryleslie http://corrinejackson.wordpress.com/
Angyl78 http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/
RavenCorinnCarluk http://ravencorinncarluk.blogspot.com