Where do your ideas come from???

Readers often ask authors where they get their ideas and I think I am right in answering for most of us when I say, I have absolutely no idea!

Ideas are everywhere but they start out as such a tiny nugget that by the time the finished story is done, that idea is barely recognizable. Passing conversation, TV shows, plays or movies I’ve seen trigger a lot of my ideas. I am yet to be stuck for any amount of time. In fact, I have the outlines for my next two novellas already written down and saved in a file.

My biggest tip with regard to finding new ideas is to watch TV and when you find a program or episode that you really like, ask yourself why. Then adapt it to suit what you want to say. The same is true of a program or episode you hate – why did you hate it? How would you change it to make it better? Bam, there’s you next story.

Don’t ever worry that you are stealing another writer’s idea because no two people will ever write the same story. Ask any writing tutor. They often give out a single scenario to a class of people and those students will hurriedly write something down. Each story outline will be very different. Guaranteed.

However, having said all that, the idea for my latest release “Coming Back” didn’t come from any of those sources. It came from a voice in my head, a single line of dialogue spoken by the woman who would become my heroine, Kelly Hampton.

“From now on I am going to be celibate.”

That was it. That single line and I was off and running. Why was she saying this? What brought on the decision? Would she fail or succeed? Ideas are all about having fun, playing, working things out until you have a bona fide story with a solid goal, motivation and of course, the all-important conflict.

Writing is fun – enjoy every part of it! I do :)

Rachel x