The Question I Hate Most
Well, the question I really hate most is Will You Marry Me? Makes me break out in hives. My second wedding, I literally did it in three weeks so I wouldn't chicken out, and was virtually DRAGGED to the location by my best friend. I didn't even do my hair until the cab ride. SWEAR it. My friend and her then-fiance paid the cabbie to drive slow, and I did my hair in his rearview mirror, possibly breaking traffic laws.
No, but my SECOND least favorite question was asked me last night by a lovely gentleman at a dessert reception. And that is . . . where do you get your ideas?
And the reason it is my second least-favorite question is because I simply have no answer.
None.
In fact, I will probably go over to BOOM! (Louise's PR blog--see link at right) and ask her . . . how do I answer that question in an acceptable PR fashion.
Because I don't know. I am not sure what it is that makes me hear a single line of a song lyric and come up with an entire plot for a novel. Or ride in my car with visions of storylines dancing through my head.
My Chinese medicine doctor always checks on me on my twice-monthly visits. "Have any weird dreams lately?" (Chinese medicine treats the person in total, not just symptoms.) My answer, "When don't I?"
I recently read this article in the NY Times about an autistic savant. He sees numbers and really has led an extraordinary life and a quest to be more normal in his human interactions. I can't liken my writer's insanity to that, but it is definitely something inner and something that makes me isolate in some ways, drawn to the worlds in my head rather than other people. But that's still not an answer to my second least favorite question.
So . . . blog friends . . . do YOU have an answer?
Peace,
E
No, but my SECOND least favorite question was asked me last night by a lovely gentleman at a dessert reception. And that is . . . where do you get your ideas?
And the reason it is my second least-favorite question is because I simply have no answer.
None.
In fact, I will probably go over to BOOM! (Louise's PR blog--see link at right) and ask her . . . how do I answer that question in an acceptable PR fashion.
Because I don't know. I am not sure what it is that makes me hear a single line of a song lyric and come up with an entire plot for a novel. Or ride in my car with visions of storylines dancing through my head.
My Chinese medicine doctor always checks on me on my twice-monthly visits. "Have any weird dreams lately?" (Chinese medicine treats the person in total, not just symptoms.) My answer, "When don't I?"
I recently read this article in the NY Times about an autistic savant. He sees numbers and really has led an extraordinary life and a quest to be more normal in his human interactions. I can't liken my writer's insanity to that, but it is definitely something inner and something that makes me isolate in some ways, drawn to the worlds in my head rather than other people. But that's still not an answer to my second least favorite question.
So . . . blog friends . . . do YOU have an answer?
Peace,
E
posted by Erica Orloff at 9:58 AM
16 Comments:
I've been asked this and I agree I always feel like I'm supposed to give some great answer like, "It's this wonderfully brillant process that involves lots of research, a convo with my turtles, and a crystal ball."
Hey, I kind of like that one :)
When really it's just me sitting around thinking or staring off into space, or while I'm driving, my mind wanders because I'm thinking of how to make a storyline interesting.
So you don't like weddings? =D
Hi Kelly:
I know, I really can't explain how a single thing--I few words in a song, something I see--can evolve instantaneously into a whole world in a novel. Sometimes, I have entire novels that come out of just thinking up the first line. Entire novels out of a few words in my head.
And I LOVE weddings. I am the first one on the dance floor. I CRY even if I don't even know the bride and groom very well. I toss rice or birdseed with the best of them. I adore weddings. Even BAD weddings I make fun . . . I just love 'em. The wedding bands, the cheesiness of some of it. But for MYSELF, it is a hive-inducing freak-out. My first wedding, I had pneumonia and a fever of 103. That should have been a clue.
E
Yeah, that's a tricky question......because I couldn't tell you how I get my ideas... they just sort of appear. I wish I did know, then I could manufacture a few more.
You can always say what one of my CPs does when asked that question: 'from www.ideas.com, of course'
I get my ideas from my life ... from the frustrated young woman crying in a restaurant (Hot Tamara), the single mothers I worked with at my various jobs (In Between Men) or the Linda Ronstadt concert where she performed from her cd, Canciones de Mi Padre that my parents dragged me to (current WIP).
As individuals and writers, we are the sum of our total human experience. Except writers are crazy enough to attempt to express it in words.
sara:
Ahh, yes. The IDEA STORE. Yes, I'll go run and pick one up. Maybe they will giftwrap it. :-)
E
Hi Mary:
Oddly enough, I can rarely link anything to "real" life. Sometimes MY experiences. In fact, a LOT of my experiences. But I don't tend to "borrow" from others or to see that single mother and think . . . idea for a character. Obviously, in the bigger scheme and totality of life, yes, I must absorb that and then use it, but I can't readily identify it.
E
I always just tell people that ideas are everywhere, which they are, but that an idea is a very far cry from actually writing a novel.
News stories, a line from a song, a paragraph from a novel, a bible verse...
The sources are endless. I think what we, as novelists, do, is learn to pick the ones that might work and then start busting our asses to actually develop them. That's what sets us apart from the average joe who says he has "an idea for a novel." Lots of people, for example, probably thought it would be cool to write a story about somehow bringing dinosaurs back from extinction. But how many of them glued their butts to a chair for months and cranked out Jurassic Park?
Jude:
As always . . . a genius post. Yes, that's exactly it. And much better said than my "I have no idea." :-)
E
I hate that question so much, it makes me cringe when I see other people ask writers that question.
may:
I am so glad I am not the only one. It IS cringe-inducing. I can see WHY people are curious, but a complicated process in one's mind is so difficult to break down and describe.
E
P.S. Or did you mean the "marry me" question? LOL!
My ideas can come from a single word that morbidly grows into something twisted. But there is no single great answer.
Hi L.A.:
That's just it--it's without a single, simple answer for people who ask the question of you.
Still need to come up with a good line.
E
Wal Mart
:D
lainey:
That's perfect.
:-)
I NOW have an answer.
E
My least favorite question is:
"Where are you from?"
And I know the questioner doesn't want to know where I currently live, but where my ancestors are from. Because I'm of Asian descent, people automatically assume our foreignness and think that I'm from outside the U.S. even though I speak just as American as my DH.
When confronted with this question, my first answer is, "Fairfax." Then I turn the question around and say, "Where are YOU from?"
Usually, I get a blank stare. And then they follow up with, "No, where are you ORIGINALLY from?"
I turn the question around again and make them answer it first.
If they say, "Detroit" or "California," then I say "Virginia" or "Ohio" where I lived for 3years.
But if they say, "My family immigrated from Nigeria" or "Ireland," it's only THEN that I say the Philippines.
I hate it that only Asians and Middle Easterners get asked this question. My DH who is white, and one of my very best friends who is black, never get this question asked of them.
Sorry for ranting again.
karm:
Considering my kids' dad is Mexican, I get where you are coming from. The anti-immigrant debate has gotten so hateful in this country that someone who innocently asks about their surname (clearly Hispanic) is likely to get a very distrusting look from me. Like WHY do you need to know.
On the flip side, I am inherently curious about people, love other cultures, and if I detect an accent, I will ask it because I simply adore finding out about the world. But I think the manner in which I ask makes that clear.
E
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