My Life is a Trampoline

One thing that I get asked a lot is where I get my inspiration from.

A pretty common question for an author, I suppose.

Well, the answer to that is easy. Inspiration comes from life. My life, other people's lives...doesn't matter. Anything can spark that creative flame a'roarin'.

Take my book Not By a Long Shot, for instance. The main character, Natasha, was dumped by her boyfriend in a text message after three years. I was dumped by my boyfriend in an email after two years.

In Some Like 'em Thick, Oasis is one of the top furniture salespeople in the area. So was my father.

In It's All Right...Now, the two main characters, Monica and Ivy, are loosely based on me and my friend Charlotte, who I've been friends with since third grade. Most of the story was fabricated, but a couple of the things in the book actually happened.

The character Thurgood West in Get Right is greatly based on my pastor, Danny R. Nance. Sitting in service one Sunday morning listening to him preach is what sparked the idea for that book.

In Decisions and Consequences (the sequel to Not By a Long Shot), Sharif and Davion are pretty much a combination of my idea of the ideal man.

The idea for Take One For the Team literally came to me when I was at the gas station. I imagined meeting someone across the bays of the station, just like Van met Grant in the book.

I was riding to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving a few years ago when I got the idea for She is Me. The main character, Tonnette, is a low-key homebody, just like I am. And she honed her alter ego, Toni, in Barbados, which is a place near the top of my travel wish list.

I could keep going, but you get the idea. My own life or the things I see around me is usually the jumping off point for my stories. It can be the smallest thing, like going to the gas station. Or it can be therapeutic, in a way, like how it was dealing with the breakup from my boyfriend (getting dumped in an email is not fun...and did I mention that we were planning to get married, just like Natasha and her man had been in the book?). Writing that book was actually very healing, in a way.

Plus, when you're writing the story, you can make it turn out the way you want it to. A real-life crappy ending can become a happy ending in your story. Or vice versa, if you want to twist it like that.

Or, you could get that revenge on someone that's been clouding your brain since they wronged you.

But I digress.

My point is, when it comes to this book-writing thing, imagination definitely plays a big part, but don't underestimate what's going on in your own life...there's probably a ton of good material right under your nose. And if you have a large family or a bunch of friends or even an interesting job, then that's even better. You can get loads of inspiration just by watching other people.

Not to mention watching the news, watching movies, listening to music, reading (a writer who doesn't like to read doesn't make sense to me...it's like a babysitter who doesn't like kids).

So yeah, pay attention and I bet you'll be inspired, too. Whether it inspires you to write a book or do something else, it doesn't really matter (as long as you're not inspired to break the law or hurt somebody).

Can you just walk straight on a trampoline? The slightest bit of movement causes you to bounce a little bit, doesn't it? As long as you're living or moving, you're bouncing. And even those little bounces can be the springboard to something great.



Speaking of It's All Right...Now, you get a free PDF of that book when you subscribe to my email list on www.jessicaterry.com. You can read it and try to guess which parts are true and which parts aren't. ;)