Inspirations

We’re going to briefly jump ahead in the process and then revisit this topic later more in depth when it comes time to planning an actual project.

But, sometimes, what inspires you can help you conjure up your what-to-write. And if you’re truly inspired with the project, that inspiration will carry you to The End or Fade Out. (Again…maybe both!)

When I sat down to write Bad Elf and The Krampus, I had many concepts to choose from—thrillers, comedies, rom-coms, paranormal horror. Wonderful concepts. Bad Elf bubbled to the top of my attention for a few reasons.

​I had recently finished and marketed a Christmas screenplay--Joyous Noel. It’s about a misunderstood, semi-orphaned boy who does all the wrong things in order to do something 

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right, to help a homeless girl find her way home for Christmas, and to keep his widower workaholic father from turning into Scrooge. (BTW, misunderstood characters “doing the right thing in the most wrong way possible” is a common theme of mine. It’s not intentional, but a theme I consistently gravitate towards, and I have fun writing it, so I just run with it to keep me…inspired.)

Joyous Noel is the kind of holiday drama you might see on Lifetime or Hallmark…and I even got some wonderful feedback from producers in that market. But it was missing a key element crucial for that market—no romance. Not even a little bit. My heroine was already dead at the start of the story. And it’s not a sad story either, but quite fun and uplifting. But it lacks that key element that keeps it from making it more easily marketable.

So when I was choosing my next project, I knew I wanted to write another Christmas script, but I didn’t want to do a drama suitable for Hallmark. I wanted to do something “different” from the norm, but I wanted to go with a concept that would be fun for a different kind of crowd. The kind of crowd that would enjoy a dark kind of Christmas tale.

I decided I wanted Krampus to be the main villain, and I envisioned a horror Christmas story. Full on monster-in-the-house kind of thing. Blood and gore, ringing slay bells, candy canes turned into spears. A true Christmas demon. As I drafted out ideas for the concept, I recognized another one of my themes popping up—dark humor. I kept making each scene light and fun, not being able to fully commit to the horror. And after some drafting, my inspiration for the project fizzled out. Christmas and horror just didn’t seem to be a jolly good fit for me. But I knew the gist of the story I wanted to write was captivating my attention…I just needed to figure out what the actual story could be.

At the time, my daughter was going through some serious teen drama. She was hanging out with the wrong people, felt like an outcast, and was going through a goth phase. I wanted my Christmas story to speak to that sort of angst. I wanted to write something that she would enjoy, and she really is a big inspiration for my hero, Jack—a goth elf at The Pole who just doesn’t feel like he belongs.

I then looked to her favorite film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and took inspiration from its underlying concept—a well-meaning hero does all the wrong things and messes up Christmas, learning too late that he screwed up. In this case, Halloween doesn’t come to Christmas, but rather the concept is flipped…Christmas literally goes to Hell.

I then turned to other inspirations and influences, which I’ll get into in more depth later, but most notably include The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Carol, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and a dash of Spongebob Squarepants for world-building.

Over the next few weeks, as I drafted scenes and characters, I had to take my daughter to the hospital on a daily basis. We would discuss Bad Elf on those rides. She asked all the right and wonderful questions and offered advice when I was stuck on something. I just knew this story would resonate with her in the way she lit up just talking about vague ideas.

Not only that, but the inspiration was there to see me through to Fade Out.

Now, any good writer should be able to write without any inspiration. When you sit down to write, a writer’s mind needs to be able to simply “bring it” regardless of mood or inspiration, or lack of it.

​But being inspired…sure as heck helps getting the writer to see the job done.