One of the most frequently asked questions authors get is, "So where do you get all your ideas?" My answer is usually intentionally non-specific and vague: "A million different places."
It's true, though. Ideas grow from conversations overheard, news stories, folk tales, true-to-life accounts, dreams, and 999,995 other sources. Ideas start as a seed, get mulled over, planted, fertilized, then tested to see if they'll grow and can support a full-length novel. Some are winners, some are losers.
A winner was when my uncle gave me a journal he wrote from the perspective of a Union captain in the Civil War. There were more than twenty entries, diagrams, and maps. Gripping stuff, too. Well-written, introspective, educational, and insightful. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was an authentic Civil War-era journal.
Apparently, I didn't know any better.
What my uncle later revealed to me was the stuff of fiction, not fact. Several years ago, over the course of a few weeks, he had a series of dreams during which he penned the journal entries. He had no memory of writing them and the entries included things that even he, a Civil War buff, didn't know.
Weird stuff, huh? Even creepy. Like I said, the stuff of good fiction. And from those journal entries a story idea was birthed. I toyed with it for a while, tested it out, pondered it, and eventually set to work on my next novel, Darkness Follows, which releases May 3.
So how about you? Any real-life stories that may inspire a novel idea? Hey, I'm open for suggestions.
5 comments:
Very interesting idea, Mike.
I'm reading Darlington Woods right now and loving it. I will tell you what my husband tells me, "Writers think weird." I'm anxious to finish. Too bad I have to stop and work along the way. I have a deadline this Friday.
Hey, Mike, most of what I write begins in the realm of fact and moves to fiction. Sometimes it begins with a story someone tells me about their family background or it begins with personal experience or, in the case of my latest series, the fiction began after I did some research (fact) on my own family history.
The more I listen to other people's stories the more I'm convinced that fact truly is stranger than fiction.
Hey Mike,
I have a very weird over active imagination. I think I could easliy slide into speculative fiction. In fact, I almost made my romance more of a thriller with a demon and angel battle in a certain place within my novel. I wonder if some day I will cross that line? But for now I love romance with a mystery/suspense edge. I agree with Lena's hubby,"Writers think weird."
I am just starting this endeavor of writing. I have been journaling since I was little, even before I could write. I would tell my mom what to write in my journals. I had kids very young, in my senior year of high school actually. To my surprise, I had twins! Yep...a baby having two babies! My tiwns have just graduated HS last year and are now attending college. I will be too this summer! I have always wanted to write a book and see it published. It is a dream of mine! I have written short stories and teaching material, but to write a novel would be incredible. Any advice for a novice would be great Mike! To check out some of my writings you can go to my blog http://lifeworthserving.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Cherie Clayton
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