Noted YA novelist Victoria Scott makes her middle grade debut with Hear the Wolves, the breathtaking story of one girl’s fight to save her family in the Alaskan wilderness. Victoria stopped by OOM to share her writing inspirations.
Creative inspiration can come from almost anywhere, even social media. My Instagram account began as way to interact with my readers, and to provide behind-the-scenes glimpses at my writing process. But it’s grown into so much more. It captures history, and reminds me on dark writing days of everything I’ve accomplished. If I did all this, I think as I scroll through the photos. Then I can finish this book too.
More than once while writing my debut middle grade novel, Hear the Wolves, I found myself scrolling through those pictures and encouraging comments. Here are just a few of those twinkling moments in time, captured like jagged little snowflakes in the palms of readers.
Reading others’ work is an enormous source of inspiration when writing any book. This photo reminds me of that.
My hero, and my heroine. Regardless of how frustrated I was by a difficult scene in Hear the Wolves, seeing this photo of my husband and baby girl napping would return me to a peaceful place to write.
New experiences are the ultimate form of creative energy. Each time I visit a new place, in this case the NYC Public Library, I share photos online. Then I use them as inspiration while lost in, let’s say, Rusic, Alaska. *wink*
For Hear the Wolves in particular, I needed to connect with nature in order to write the book. I often hiked trails to brainstorm character arcs, and when whether prohibited being outside, I used this photo to remember the sounds and feel of the great outdoors.
Part of getting to a story’s finish line involves imagining it as a completed book. Luckily, I have numerous photos on Instagram capturing the gorgeous covers Scholastic has created for all my books. The best of which has to be this adventurous, ominous, hand-drawn cover for Hear the Wolves!
