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I have to say that for me, story ideas come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Just about anything can spark an idea: the lyrics of a song, a passing comment made by someone, a location. The other day I was working on a scene for my WIP and I clicked on the thesuarus tool to help with one particular word. The words that came up set a completely different tone for the scene I hadn't thought of before. Or sometimes an idea will just pop into my head and I can't really explain where it came from.
For my latest release, "Wild Wedding Weekend", that's the case. People ask me all the time where I got the idea for the story, and the best I can come up with is "It just came to me." I did use a real-life trip my husband and I took on our honeymoon for part of the setting, and that helped moved the story along, but the overall idea for the story popped out of the blue.
In my first book, "This Time for Always", I used the bar where my husband and I met for the setting. I wanted to use a somewhat country theme, and the story evolved from there. When it came time to write the sequel, "This Can't Be Love", I used another real-life setting. I knew Zach needed his own story, and as I played around with the setting, the story eventually came to me.
Okay, I guess I do see a common theme here! For me it seems, the setting comes first, and I build the story to suit it. Not always an easy task, but eventually the story gets written!
And on that note, I need to get some writing done...
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
It's interesting to learn how other's create.
ReplyDeleteExample: The title you gave this makes me think of a mystery story. A killer seems to be killing everywhere, but he's nowhere to be found...bumm,bumm,bumm...oooo
Interesting that you've realised your settings come first! I think my settings evolve as my characters do but could actually be changed. For example, "His Leading Lady" is based mainly in London's West End theatre world, but I could just have easily based it on Broadway. My WIP, "Fragrance of Violets" is based in England's Lake District, but could probably be based on any other country village. "Measure of Love" which I'm about to revise is set in Washington DC and Virginia, but I'm now considering changing the setting to an English one.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess for me it's the characters who are paramount, the setting is secondary. But i can quite see that, for some stories, the setting will be paramount to the story!
I think ideas that "just come" are ideas that come from a universal zone, a collective psyche, if you will. Always worth listening to.
ReplyDeleteOoo - that's deep, Ana! LOL
ReplyDelete