nat weaver

Author of dark fiction with character.

Tag: writing a novel

  • What inspires your writing?

    What inspires your writing?

    This anonymous question was submitted to me on July 11, 2025. I answered it then, but I’d like to share my response to this question once more here. It’s a great question and I enjoyed answering it. If you’re an author reading this, answer the question in the comments. I’d love to hear what inspires your writing, too.

    You can ask me questions with my Ask Nat form linked below and I’ll answer them on the blog.

    Ask Nat

    Answer:

    Lots of things. In terms of inspiring my writing, I’m gonna answer this as both what informs my ideas and what gets me excited.

    I tend to turn to a mixture of things for inspiration regarding ideas. History (especially ancient history), folklore, other media (like film and music), and real-life crimes and social issues tend to cause sparks to fly.

    Some examples:

    • Sweet Sixteen Killer was born out of listening to “sweet sixteen” songs of the 1950s as an adult and realizing how gross they were,
    • my current work is a gothic horror piece set in Victorian era England that germinated as an homage to Universal monster and Hammer Horror films,
    • I have an upcoming Mercedes novel that’s inspired by an FBI report published during the Bush administration about white nationalists infiltrating the police to recruit members,
    • Jonah of Olympic has a subplot about an old dying Hollywood actress who has remained a closeted lesbian her whole life (for this I researched a number of Hollywood actresses from classic Hollywood who were closeted lesbian or bisexual — Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, etc.),
    • and many of my works have hints to ancient or obscure folklore — two upcoming Mercedes Masterson stories, Aibell and The Book of Jude, delve into Irish folklore.

    But also, movies and music. Movies inspire me a lot when it comes to writing. Some of you may not know, but I did a lot of indie film work in my early 20s. I love movies — especially horror (all kinds), action, noir, and some sci-fi. I think what I love most about films is how you can get sucked into a world for a very short amount of time and just be absorbed by its aesthetic and mood. Often times I’ll watch a collection of movies that have the vibe I want right before starting the first draft of writing. I’m a very visual person, so being able to absorb a lot of visuals before the writing process begins is important. I do this with Pinterest as well. I use Pinterest to create a mood board before I start writing. And then, there’s music. I can’t overstate its influence in my writing. I build playlists for my novels. My longest one to date is for Jonah of Olympic, which is over 10 hours long. I explore music I know, but also discover a lot of new music. I can often sit with a song on repeat while my mind creates a scene or character. It’s a very meditative process.

  • When AI Steals Your Book

    When AI Steals Your Book

    The way my brain works, it’s always turned on to new ideas for storytelling. Because of that, I always assume I’ll be writing until the day I die, even if I’m 130 years old when I do. But there was one time where I thought about stopping writing. It was after I discovered that Meta had stolen a pirated copy of my debut novel, Sweet Sixteen Killer, and used it to train their Meta AI.

    I felt so demoralized. It had taken me years to finally reach a place where I could start and finish a novel. I had even given up on the idea of writing novels for a while, thinking I’d be stuck writing short stories and screenplays. The big reason I struggled writing a novel was due to undiagnosed bipolar. After treating it for several years and getting stable, that was when I realized, “I think I can write a novel now.” And I did.

    And then, I put it out there. It sells some. Not a lot. But it does. I’m definitely not getting rich off of it. Yet. Maybe I will.

    But then, I discover Mark Zuckerberg who is sitting on mountains of cash steals it and feeds it into his damn AI so he can add to his mountains of cash. And then I realize, I did all of that work — four years of writing, editing, revising, formatting, graphic design, and eventually publishing just to train Meta AI and give Zuckerberg more money. Damn it was demoralizing.

    And I thought, “what’s the point?” Why am I bleeding on my keyboard for years, if it’s just to line Zuckerberg and his ilk’s pockets?

    Y’all, it was so damn demoralizing. I really was thinking of quitting writing. Never thought I would. And it wasn’t because I thought I was done, it’s because I felt so used.

    I eventually decided to keep going. And I’m glad I did, I’m writing even better stories than my debut novel now. And arguably more important ones. It still sucks and it’s still upsetting that billionaires and tech companies can just steal my books and get rich, but I know I’m writing good stories that people want to read and I love what I do. My mind was made for this and I’m not 130 years old yet, so I guess I gotta keep going.

    People like to roll their eyes and call people like me AI haters and other absurd things. I don’t know that I hate AI, because hatred is such a harsh thing and I don’t know that I’ve ever felt it ever. But I do find AI disgusting and gross and it once almost broke me. So yeah, I strongly dislike generative AI in its current form, primarily because of the theft.

  • How I Organize a Novel (video)

    This video is an overview of how I organize a novel.

    I use three main methods:

    1. A note app during the idea stage of creating the story.
    2. A kanban board for tracking progress.
    3. A spreadsheet for outlining the story.

    Hopefully you can learn something, even just one thing, that you can take and use in your own writing. There’s no wrong way to do it, it’s what works for you.

    Let me know in the comments if you use any of these techniques and what apps or tools you like to use for the organization of your writing. Do you think you might try one of these techniques or apps?