Dec 12 2007

Fiction Writing: Inspiration Comes In the Most Unlikely Places

Published by auria cortes at 11:59 am under Uncategorized

mockingbird.jpgincoldblood.jpgAs a writing exercise, I reread To Kill a Mockingbird and In Cold Blood twice. The first round was for pure enjoyment. The second was to dissect each book - jot down scene by scene what worked. I also rented each movie to compare how the authors’ descriptions of events were represented on screen. In To Kill a Mockingbird’s DVD special features there was a tidbit of information that captured my interest. Harper Lee (author of Mockingbird) and Truman Capote (author of In Cold Blood) were friends as children. In fact, one of the characters in Mockingbird, Dill, was written with Capote in mind.

The average person would sock away this newfound knowledge in their mind’s trivia file, never repeating it. However, this widely known fact (I checked. It’s all over the Internet) has left me tongue-tied. You see, with The Devil’s Playground I’m combining the spirit of Mockingbird and In Cold Blood.

It’s a tricky proposition, one that has proven to be a challenge. But knowing that Lee and Capote had a real life bond impresses upon me the reason I’m drawn to writing The Devil’s Playground. Click here to watch To Kill a Mockingbird on your computer.  

2 Responses to “Fiction Writing: Inspiration Comes In the Most Unlikely Places”

  1. # Diane J Standifordon 19 Feb 2008 at 4:13 pm

    OK, what about Virginia?

  2. # auria corteson 19 Feb 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Aren’t you in Seattle?

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