A lot of people have asked me what my creative process is like, and I honestly neglect to let them know. It’s because I don’t necessarily have an answer.
I usually just like to sit down and let my hands go crazy. If I get stuck, I watch a couple videos or look at other people’s art and that kick-starts my drive. I don’t always go into an illustration or a short story with a concrete idea of what I want the final product to be – sometimes this hurts me, but sometimes it makes me more spontaneous.
During my senior year of college, I took a creative writing class focused on short fiction stories. The whole term was spent outlining and writing one 15-ish-page short story about a topic of our choosing. Seeing as I’m a sucker for mythology, I took a stab at writing about a siren. But I gave it my own modern spin.
(By the way, I put a link to a pdf of the story at the bottom of this post if you’d like to read it. I posted about it way before, but at that point there was no context. So, enjoy context.
Deigning the characters was fun – I made an effort to come up with a character that was different than me, just to see if I could write a realistic person. I ended up creating a Spanish lesbian girl who lived on the coast of Maine. I knew nearly nothing about the state of Maine other than they have a lot of lobsters there. I ended up doing a lot of research about Northeastern coastlines and how living on a cliffside differs from living in the suburbs or in the city. But I didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, either – I thought about writing about Spanish culture, but I didn’t want to do it a disservice by not interpreting things correctly. Between taking a creative leap and being considerate of other cultures, I choose the latter.
As for the mythology, I did differ a bit from source material. I wrote a siren as a mysterious mute girl who goes on land and sings sweetly to women because she’s overcome by the loneliness of immortality. She didn’t say a single word throughout the entire story, but I didn’t think she needed to – not every character needs to speak. I found it an interesting challenge to include a character without giving her lines, because I had never done it before.
The story was, in a way, an escape for me. I’ve never lived life by the ocean, and I’ve always found that setting relaxing and inspiring. I love the salty smell of the ocean, or even the mineral smell of freshwater lakes. I think I’d write a lot more if I lived near a body of water (the Potomac River doesn’t count).
Give the story a read if you feel so inclined.