Where Ideas Come From

 

OK, where do story ideas come from? Anywhere, everywhere – totally out of nowhere. Since I began writing I’ve constantly said, “Anyone can write a story.” Possibly, but not anyone can write a good story. To do that, one needs to come up with an idea. Can you learn how to do this? You can probably learn anything, but not everyone will be good at it. I believe I am. This is not bragging, because I have so many weak areas. Creating a story isn’t one of them.

A story idea can come to you at the least expected time, and sometimes it takes years to go from idea to writing the story. Here I’ll briefly share where some of mine came from:

Gifted Trust – began watching a made-for-tv movie about the murder of Adam Walsh (son of America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh). That led to a poem for a college class and 20 years later it was turned into a short story for another class and 18 months later it became a 100K novel.

Hello Neighbor came to me watching a news reporter interviewing conservationists. I turned them into a radical tree hugger who threatened to kill my main character after killing his cat.

I rented a room to a guy who used to live in his girlfriend’s bedroom in her parent’s house. When he told me that I thought, what if the girl was seriously injured in a car accident and living on life support in her bedroom. That might give the boyfriend a reason to stay.

I wrote Prader-Willi after doing volunteer work with someone who suffered from it. This is a terrible syndrome where those who have it will eat anything. This became a frightening story.

Little Miss was inspired by a friend of my 2^nd wife, who forced her daughter to take part in beauty pageants. The mother would do anything to help her little girl win.

On a vacation to New Mexico, I visited a Native American reservation and from that visit wrote Runs Like Rabbit. I created a character who keeps calling home and imagines his family being murdered.

Monkey Love began as a 3-beer joke. I would drink and when asked what I was working on I’d say, “A story about a woman who believes her husband is a reincarnated gorilla.

I wrote Marquee when I was asked by a publisher to write something totally different from Monkey Love. Of all my stories, these two have more of me than any of the others.

The point – ideas come from everywhere. One needs to look at an idea and think “what if…” and add to what they have.

 

Later