Becca Edney
It sounds awful, but a lot of the time it's from reading books or watching films I didn't like! I love pulling such stories apart to see why I didn't like them, then sometimes I'll try my hand at doing it better. That's mostly for the drawer, though, being more of an exercise than something I actually share.
When not doing that, I get inspired by playing around with tropes. Bladedancer's Heirs, for example, was inspired by the fact that I'd not seen a married couple as the heroes of a fantasy story; generally marriage is something that happens in the epilogue. From there, I built in other things I hadn't seen or that general tropes indicated should not be things, like Neithan the elvish engineer and inventor. For Border Crossing, the sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs, I'm working on a refugee crisis being here, not over there.
When not doing that, I get inspired by playing around with tropes. Bladedancer's Heirs, for example, was inspired by the fact that I'd not seen a married couple as the heroes of a fantasy story; generally marriage is something that happens in the epilogue. From there, I built in other things I hadn't seen or that general tropes indicated should not be things, like Neithan the elvish engineer and inventor. For Border Crossing, the sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs, I'm working on a refugee crisis being here, not over there.
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