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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
A lightbulb over my head.
Before I started writing my last proposal, I opened the plot-ideas folder I keep but rarely remember to open (except to drop articles and teeny-tiny, cryptic notes into).
I went through the whole stack wondering what the heck I was thinking when I put each item in the folder. How had I possibly found THAT idea interesting? Why in the world did I put THAT one in? There's a whole page from a newspaper, with 7 articles on the sheet--which one did I think would make a good story? Sheesh. I dumped all but 3 pieces--the most current ones.
Then I asked the question of myself that so many people ask: Where do you get your ideas?
Most of them come from out of the blue--sniglets of thoughts, like, I decided I wanted to write a story about a woman named after Mickey Mantle. I honestly have no idea why. But it led to questions like, what kind of person would she be? A tom boy? Or maybe the antithesis--ultrafeminine? What kind of man would interest her? Be interested in her? Did she love baseball? This became MARRIAGE ON HIS MIND.
Once I woke up with a whole story in my head (HIS MOST SCANDALOUS SECRET). Hadn't happened before and hasn't happened since.
My very first Desire came about after meeting a couple from Scotland while I was on vacation in Mexico. I even named my H/h after them--Iain and Kani, and set the first third of the book at that resort (THE MATING GAME).
Sometimes secondary characters start to push and shove their way into a story and so instead of putting duct tape over their mouths, I tell them I'll give them their own story if they'll just stop trying to take over (ALMOST A HONEYMOON and BABY FEVER). Then I got smart and started creating series with characters overlapping so they wouldn't annoy me by begging for their own happy endings while I was busy writing someone else's.
At the moment, an idea is haunting me, a story begging to be written. I'm not sure where it fits in the grand scheme of publishing, but it flits in and out of my consciousness like a butterfly, hungry to land and show me its colors.
So, ideas come from everywhere and nowhere. And they're not all pretty :-).
posted by Susan Crosby at 5:28 AM
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9 Comments:
Charlene Sands said...
Susan,
I like your idea folder. I've never had one. Most of my ideas come to me in the middle of the night and I'm too doggone tired to get up and write them down. I memorize them in my head and I remember them the next morning. Also, when I'm in the shower, I'll work up a plot or create a scene, makes for a long costly shower, before I realize that I've got to get out! But I like the idea of an IDEA folder. I think I'm going to try it.
Charlene
7:09 AM
Susan Crosby said...
Oh, man, Charlene! If I didn't write something down, especially in the middle of the night, I'd never remember it! I keep a pad of paper, a pen and a flashlight next to my bed. I do like the shower, too.
Have fun with the idea folder. Maybe you'll be better at remembering to use it than I am :-).
Susan
9:24 AM
christa said...
I would never remember anything that I thought of during the night.
Susan- you are so right sleep is highly overrated. I have had about 15 hours in the past 3 days and I am half way through my fourth one. 2 more to go. Then I have to wait another whole month, I do this every month.
9:55 AM
christa said...
Oops I forgot something.
Today makes a great day for sitting around reading cause it's snowing. Yes you read right, that is not a misprint. It is snowing.
10:01 AM
Susan Crosby said...
Christa--
Snowing! What part of the country do you live in?
And all of us Desire authors bless you for losing sleep because of us :-).
Susan
12:19 PM
christa said...
Ontario, Canada. About an hour and a half from Toronto, near Niagara Falls.
12:41 PM
Susan Crosby said...
I spent the first 7 years of my life in Toronto. Wish I remembered more about it than I do. But I do remember my mom saying we never had a white Christmas but almost always a white New Year's.
Susan
1:04 PM
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