Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Where One Idea Came From

Posted by: Joely Sue Burkhart
Writers get asked this question a lot:  Where do you get your ideas?

Here's one example of an idea that is haunting me -- and will definitely inspire a book.

I'll watch about anything with Clive Owen in it, and so the other day I was scrolling through the television guide and found Last Knights on.  I'd seen it before and I knew how it ended. (This is an old movie so I think I can spoil it for you without repercussion. Raiden probably dies at the end in a sacrifice move to save the other knights--though they do try and make you think hmmm,  maybe he decided to fight after all, but no.)

But hey, it's Clive and there wasn't anything else on.  Plus he inspired a knight in my current series, so I thought, hey! Background inspiration!  I'm writing away on my current book, trying to hit the NaNoWriMo total while watching bits and pieces of the movie in the background.  Again, I've seen it before, so I know about the big siege and Raiden's "fall from grace" which is all part of the secret plot.

But then, whammo, a scene got right back in my face. And I wanted MORE.  I knew immediately I had a story.

Since he's playing a drunk who has totally lost his honor, he does nothing to save his lord's daughter, even though she cries and pleads with him for help. That scene is pretty wrenching. She's young and pretty and you're pretty sure bad bad things are going to happen to her. But he can't do anything.  YET.  After the big siege and he's won, he goes stomping down into the depths of hell to drag her back out to safety, and there's this killer scene....

All the surviving knights who served her father go down on one knee before her, including Raiden. "Your father's honor (and yours) is restored."

GAH.  I love that scene so much.  Only I want more about the daughter and these loyal knights who did the impossible, not just to redeem her father's honor, but to save her. To honor her.

Oh, yeah.  I want that book.

I can't find that particular clip on YouTube, but here's a pretty powerful scene where Bartok makes his "confession" at the beginning before the Emperor forces Raiden to kill him.  

If you want to see him in a crazy over-the-top love scene be sure to check out Shoot 'Em Up!


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