Coming Up With Ideas
This week my accountability group is blogging about where we got the idea for our current WIP as a follow up to last week’s more general discussion of Inspiration.
Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Executing them is the part that gives me trouble. Generating ideas is something we can train ourselves to do easily. Identifying the good ones… now that’s the trick!
I’d say in general I start with characters and then brainstorm situations to put them into. Very rarely do I come up with an idea that begins as a conflict and needs characters to play it out. Sometimes they start with the title, but that’s usually most suggestive of the characters. I’ve been known to get ideas from song lyrics, obscure folk tales or playing games of “What if…?” with characters.
Beneath His Touch came about that way. From there I found the characters and explored their situations to find the conflict that would sustain the story and eventually drive them together instead of apart. Revealed or what I still call in my head OTS, short for On The Shelf, also started with a title. One that’s evolved for sure, but we’re talking about how these stories are sparked.
The newest story that I’m working on has a couple of working titles that float through my head. Jack of Hearts and Love, According to Hoyle are the two that get my brain clicking though. Combine those with the saying “Lucky at cards, unlucky at love.”, toss in a game of Whist, and add a dollop of workshop on character development using archetypes and you’ve got a juicy story spark with lots of possibilities.
And what do you know. I just had one of those ‘AHA!’ moments while writing this post. Just like a hand of whist, this story needs 13 chapters — one for each trick. This also just set off a bunch of other what if’s bouncing around in my head. Look out WIP, here I come!
Your Turn: What are you working on and what sparked your initial interest in it? It can be a story or any other creative project you might be working on, but I’m curious to hear about how other creative types work. So go add your thoughts in the comments section!
If you’d like to read about what the rest of my group is working on and where they got their ideas, you can find their blogs here:
* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *
Yay for Aha! moments. I love playing What if… games. They can lead to some interesting situations.
Aha! moments are great. I need more of them LOL “What if…?” is a fun game… but I often find it’s a great way to procrastinate too. =(
I start with characters most of the time too 🙂
Hi Charmaine. I find I have to know who I’m going to be writing about before I really get going. Hope your move comes well.
I was one of those country kids you mention on your blog when I was growing up. My kids are definitely city kids. *sigh*
Thanks for stopping by!
Great blog :). Yup I’m a character first girl- then I see what trouble they can get into! I’m in the process of editing and cleaning up a few projects, but I do have a new WIP awaiting. It started when someone had a call for pirate romance short stories. Since I’m a steampunk/fantasy/SF kinda gal my mind went off that direction. Ending up not doing a short story but it should make a VERY fun book!
Thanks, Marie. That does sound like a fun book. Hope to see what you came up with some day! I love the idea of the Monday Motivation photo prompts on your blog. Great idea and some great photos!
I LOVE what if games. And yeah, I play them a lot. What if the heroine is capable of doing… what if she couldn’t? In my latest one… what if the hero cannot tell a lie? What if that ability was taken from him to make him into the perfect soldier?
Great post!
Count me in as another one who loves to play WHAT IF?
And I love the title Love, According to Hoyle. Most fitting, I think, with the tie-in to whist!
Great post!
Thanks, Patti. My grandparents were big on card games. My grandfather preferred solitaire but my grandmother was a bridge fiend. “According to Hoyle” was a common phrase in their house, especially if there were any kind of rule breaking involved.
I just need to wrap my head around this plot and get my edits and revisions done on the other as well. I think the only reason I haven’t done any kind of phase outline for this one is I haven’t nailed down my plot/conflict or decided on a length other than “shorter”. I need to set up some office hours and then stick to ’em.
I call my WIP Homeward Bound. It’s about a home stager and the wealthy but unhappy man she’s hired to help his estate sell.
I a big fan of HGTV, especially the shows where the hostess shoves the client’s furniture around and makes it look like a different room. While watching one day I came up with the product of foster homes who would love to have one of her own, and wondered how she would feel when the home she’d poured her heart into sells?
Toni Noel
Sounds like a great spark, Toni! I used to watch a LOT of HGTV and the Food Network about 10 years ago when my kids were little.
So many exciting story ideas out there… see they’re easy! It’s putting in the perseverance to pull them off to your satisfaction that’s key.
Thanks for stopping by, Toni!