Where Do You Get Your Writing Ideas?

People always ask me where I get the ideas for my stories. That's both easy and difficult to answer! There's no one method that works for everyone, you simply have to try various things and see what works for you. I get my ideas all over the place.

The idea for Love Immortal was developed after I had watched a B horror movie in the 80's that revolved around a virginal vampire.

The Chosen One was conceived after I read two National Geographic stories, one about surreal sculptures in a Mexican jungle, and another about a man who created a luxurious home in a cave. Months earlier I had watched a news story about an American child who was reported to be a reincarnated Dali Lama. All three of these quickly and effortless wove themselves into a story for me. (You can tell when a story works because it writes itself!)

Braving the Storm came from my own workaholic personality mingled with my interest in Alaska and wilderness survival. I thought about what it would take to get me to relax. Something far away from civilization without the lure of computers and work. Some place that would force me to slow my fast pace. But...would it last?

Reaching for the Stars was sparked because I had watched the movie, "Making Mr. Right," along with my interest in wondering what life forms exist on other planets in other galaxies.

Invisible Evidence was created out of my knowledge and experience in the psychic field, along with my tremendous curious streak to solve crimes. Rebel cops are always fascinating, as well. Look at Dirty Harry! You never forget someone who doesn't play by the rules yet gets the job done.

I'm working on a series right now and I'm getting my ideas by thumbing through the dictionary. I choose 4 words at random. Each word will represent a scene in the chapter. Unless it's a very simple word, I tell myself I must use it. I enjoy doing this because it really gets my creativity up and running. It generates ideas at an amazing rate, as well!

For instance, say I choose these four words completely at random: hospital, lettuce, opal, and fog. The four scenes could be my detective questioning the victim at the hospital. In the next scene he may be at a restaurant poking at his salad while he's deep in thought about the case. A clue that may turn up could be an opal that fell out of a ring. Fog...that's easy to use for atmosphere! But you can see how it's easy to get your creativity and the ideas flowing by using this method. It's also GREAT if you have writer's block. Give this a try!

For bits of dialogue and description I keep a notebook and write down anything I hear or see out in public, on TV, or read in a book that piques my interest.

Okay, I lied. I don't really keep a notebook. I'm not very organized and have countless scraps of paper with notes jotted down. These scraps are found everywhere around my house. My kitchen drawers, purse, desk, under the couch...I never know where they'll turn up! I don't worry about lost gems though since most things I write down are safely tucked in my memory bank and withdraw themselves at just the right time, sparking an idea for a scene here, a scene there, or an entire novel.

What common theme do we see here as to how and where I get my ideas? It's simple. Something MUST interest you. If it doesn't light a fire inside of you, even the smallest flicker, chances are you won't use it at any point in time. With me, I absolutely have to feel passionate about my writing or it loses its flavor, its spontaneity, its magic.

I also stick with subjects that I find interesting and intriguing. I MUST feel eager every morning when I wake up, knowing that I'll be sitting at the computer for many hours working on my current novel, interacting with my characters, letting them take over as I simply report what's going on.

If I'm not obsessed over a current project, I lose steam fast and the unfinished story sits there collecting dust. For me, that is time wasted. I can't imagine writing science fiction any more than a Sci-fi writer could imagine writing romance. Someone who writes mainly historical romance may cringe at the thought of reading paranormal romance, not to mention writing it!

No matter what seems to be hot right now, if it doesn't appeal to you, you'd be beating your head against a wall every step of the writing process. Christian romance is hot, but I couldn't write it.

However, I do feel that in many cases it's easy enough to slant your novel to what is currently the trend. For instance, I concentrate mainly on suspense, thrillers, horror, and paranormal with a strong romance at its core. The current trend is toward the more erotic stories. And, although I blushed bright-red the first few times I typed up those steamy love scenes, I've opened more doors for myself by slanting my work toward the growing market in this area. It has also broadened my writing skills.

So, keep your eyes and ears open for anything that seems promising to you for a story idea, scene, dialogue, etc. File them away somewhere and look through them periodically to see if they spark something within you. (Hopefully you will be a bit more organized than I am. Although, this is real life, we aren't perfect and do what works for us.)

Sticking to what you enjoy writing about, yet being flexible enough to perhaps shape your stories around what is most popular, could benefit you greatly by increasing your writing skills and sales.

Submitted to INSIDERinfo by Kelly Wallace