Goodreads asked Cara North:

How do you get inspired to write?

Cara North My Muse, Jake Gyllenhaal does a lot of inspiring. I appreciate his work as an actor, an activist, and an entrepreneur. My creative process basically works three ways with this: 1. I see something he is in, a picture, rad an article, watch a video or interview, and it sparks an idea that I run with. It's been a little strange sometimes when I write something and then later he talks about something that relates. I don't know him personally, but publicly. I read and watch everything and I could write a non-fiction book on that man's career. To the point that I actually create lesson plans for my college English courses using him as the example or theme for my examples. My students can't write about him (I have no real objectivity on the subject so grading would be a nightmare), but using him as an example helps me illustrate so many concepts. I could probably write a book about that too, and maybe one day I will.
2. Scenarios such as Kindle Worlds, anthologies, or other group projects, and the occasional writing challenge require me to confine the plot or idea in some way so then I basically search for images and attitudes he has left on the world wide web and that allows me to give depth to movement, facial expressions, etc. Pretty much no matter what they look like on the outside, they originate from a Gyllenhaal.
3. I see something or hear something or someone shares something (I am not a safe space-if you have an incident, it may end up in my book) and it sparks, then I usually try to jot down the basics of the idea and when I have time or if that idea surfaces in a strong way (say I am looking through Pinterest and see an image of my Muse that says-cast me in that role) I start writing.
~Cara

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