Gina Robinson on the Creative Spark

Gina Robinson
The Spy Who Left Me
Publisher: St. Martin's
Pub date: November 2011
Agent: Kim Lionetti


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The Creative Spark—How Do You Get Your Ideas? And Where Do They Come From?

As a published author, the number-one question I'm asked by people who aren't writers is a variation of "How do you get your ideas? Where do your ideas come from?" Think this question is easy to answer? Give it your best shot. But be warned—proceed with caution.

Greater minds than mine have been trying to come up with a satisfying response for more than three thousand years. The ancient Greeks of Socrates's time believed ideas and inspiration came from being possessed by the gods and blessed by Zeus's nine daughters, the Muses. Later, during their Renaissance, the Italians tied the idea of genio to pazzia, the thought that inspiration was linked to madness. Neither claiming divine possession nor creative craziness work for today's writer.

The honest answer, "Uh, I don't know. From everywhere?" doesn't satisfy. People revere creativity and inspiration. And most want to be told how to capture it for themselves. They expect a more detailed answer from a fiction-writing professional than a vague, "everywhere." And to be honest, they think you're holding out on them and keeping the secret handshake to yourself.

"From life" seems like another good response. But on inspection, that doesn't fly either. I write humorous romantic suspense novels about spies. Tell people I get my ideas from life and they look at me funny. No, I've never garroted someone with a lei or been chased by a bike-pump-wielding assassin like my heroine in The Spy Who Left Me. And, no, I'm not a secret agent like my heroes are. Though you'll just have to take my word for it, because if I were a secret agent, would I tell you here?

Truthfully, I've been stumped for years, stammering an answer when asked. Until my husband pointed me to an excellent book, The Riddle, Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones by Andrew Razeghi. The book is geared toward building conceptual creativity for innovation in business, but much of what Razeghi says applies to artistic creativity. He posits that curiosity begets creativity. When I read that, I had an aha moment—that's where my ideas come from, my insatiable curiosity! For years, I've been taking this question too literally.

Where do my ideas come from? From pondering questions like, "What would it be like to be married to a spy in the vein of James Bond?" "How would I escape from an assassin?" "Would it be fun to lie for a living?" "How does it feel to love a dangerous man?"
Feel free to claim my answer as your own. By telling people curiosity inspires your ideas, you're giving them the secret to finding their inspiration. Anyone can be curious. It's a big relief to people that creativity doesn't take genius. And it preserves the real top-secret source of a writer's ideas—the Internet ;-)

Where do you tell people your ideas come from? I'd love to hear.

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Gina Robinson on Voice and Style

Gina Robinson
Spy Candy
Publisher: Kensington Zebra
Pub date: November 2008
Agent: Kim Lionetti




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Author Web site: www.ginarobinson.com


Are You Who You Think You Are?

It took me a long time to sell and I’m not shy about admitting it. I hope my story encourages other writers to keep going. Lately I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what I think finally propelled me over that big barbed-wire fence into the land of the published. Everyone wants to know my secret. They weren’t really satisfied with vague answers like perseverance, luck, and timing finally all aligning. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the answer—I found out who I am as a writer. I found my voice. And who I am as a writer is not who I thought I was at all.

Pretty much since I first gained consciousness of myself as a separate entity from my mother, I’ve thought I was a serious-minded woman. So when I first began writing, I was oh so serious. About four years into my struggle to get published, I wrote what I called a silly little proposal. I was embarrassed to show it to my critique group. But they loved it. It made them laugh.

I’m not a comedienne. I can’t tell a joke to save my life. That must have been a fluke. So I went back to the straight stuff, no humor allowed. Years later, I wrote another light, humorous book. And guess what? It’s my debut novel, Spy Candy. It still amazes me that people find it funny. Because I’m not funny. At least, I don’t think of myself that way.

Sure, I make up silly dances. But that’s just to cover the fact I can’t dance. And I sing silly songs to my kids, but that’s mostly because I can never remember any real lyrics. And I make up words and crazy names for things. And I write in a humorous tone. You see where I’m going here?

So write down who you think you are. Then listen to what people say about your writing. Write down what they tell you they connect with. Does it match what you think your strengths are? When writing, try to play to those strengths you didn’t realize you had. Your writing will be stronger, I guarantee you.

And now, will the writer out there who was the class clown and could be a stand-up comic, but whose strength is writing serious give me a call? We need to talk. I think our writing personalities were switched at birth.