Linsey Lanier
Sally Kilpatrick
Sia Huff
Romily Bernard
Darcy Crowder
Marilyn Baron
Tami Brothers
Sandra Elzie
Carol Burnside
Debbie Kaufman
Maxine Davis
Tammy Schubert
Susan Carlisle
Pam Asberry
Lindy Chaffin StartWhere Do I Get My Story Ideas?
by Linsey Lanier
I had a hard time with this month’s theme until someone told me it was about where we get story ideas from. Oh, I thought. I can answer that one. No clue.
Honestly. I’m not a sequential writer (which is why I use PageFour software and even with that, have to go through my notes and laboriously put things in the correct order, once I figure out what that is). Ideas come to me in fragments, bits and pieces. When an initial idea for a story hits me, I put it in an Idea folder on my hard drive and usually forget about it, since I’m concentrating on another project at the time.
When I finally get back to it, I have no memory of where the original thought came from. And the idea might be changed a lot by then.
Take my my current WIP for example. I had an idea about a business woman who decides to take a skydiving lesson one weekend and meets an irresistibly handsome instructor who follows her home to the city. I titled it “Take a Flying Leap.” Cute, huh? But this was a light-hearted, contemporary romance and during the years the concept sat in my Idea file, I realized my true genre was romantic suspense.
Hmm. When I looked at “Take a Flying Leap” again, it needed a lot of work. I had to change the genre before it could become my new WIP. Here’s what I came up with.
New title: TRUST NO ONE
When your own mind lies to you, who can you believe?
Self-sufficient health food store owner Sierra Stone can’t remember her past. The shocking image of her father’s plane exploding into flames before her eyes when she was sixteen has made everything after that foggy. That is, until she meets mysterious skydiving instructor Jessie Ryder, a magnetically attractive man who seems to know more about her than she does.
As Sierra cautiously lets Jessie into her life, he convinces her that she doesn’t know who she really is. Her past is tied up in intrigue, espionage, lies, and deceit. When Sierra attempts to discover the truth, she finds herself trapped in a world of mystery and mind control where only trust in her own heart and mind can save her. She must see through the deceit to figure out who to trust and who truly loves her.
* * *
Long way from the original idea, isn’t it? And here’s the opening page, after some helpful edits from blog sister Tammy Schubert during Dianna Love and Mary Buckham’s fantastic April workshop.
* * *
TRUST NO ONE
by Linsey Lanier
The memory was always the same.
The jolt of the plane when something in the engine snapped. The flash of flames. The pilot’s bewildered cry as he wrestled the aircraft for control. The taste of smoke in her mouth. The smell of terror. The screams of grown men.
And then, her father’s haggard, fear-riddled face. “There’s only one chute left, Sierra. Take it. Save your life.”
No, Daddy. I won’t leave you.
But he wouldn’t listen. Before she knew it, she was hurtling through the air, frozen with loss, the burning plane overhead about to explode. She didn’t know where she was going or where she had come from.
She didn’t know who she was.
* * *
So how about you? Any genre jumpers out there? How much do your original ideas change from when you first thought of them?
Tags: genre, Linsey Lanier, Romantic Suspense, Story Ideas
About the author
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Linsey Lanier | http://linseylanier.com Writer of romantic mystery-suspense, romantic fantasy, and romance – with a dash of sass.
I'd like to say growing up on the tough streets of Chicago inspired my feisty heroines, but actually I was raised in a cozy little suburb, by parents who sheltered me. Guess it was other things along the way that gave me my attitude.
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May 18th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Nancy Knight does this great exercise in her classes. You have to write your story blurb, then write it in a few other genres: comedy, suspense, sci-fi, drama. I had a romantic comedy that turned into a dark sci-fi. Maybe I’ll dust that one off for my Maggie entry…! Thanks for sharing.
May 18th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Linsey, I do the same thing. I get ideas from out of nowhere–all the time. I write down as much as I can, then file it away b/c I couldn’t possibly work on a gazillion different projects at once. Then promptly forget them. LOL!
Great start for a book, I must say. Very suspenseful. Thanks for sharing with us.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Nicki,
That’s a great idea. I’ll have to try it. I hope I can find the time for Nancy’s class someday. I hear wonderful things about it all the time!
Cinthia,
Glad I’m not alone. Though some of those ideas keep calling while I’m working on something else. I’ve got one of those talking to me now. I’m glad you liked my opening. Thanks.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:12 am
I write story ideas down in Word files, handwritten notes in regular notebooks and small ones, too. The problem is they are all over the place. I recently purchased Liquid Story Binder. I’m going to start using that to store the notes from now on. I just have to start gathering things together. The bad thing about my previous method is that I never know what is there and where to find it.
Your excerpt has gotten even better than when I last saw it, and it was great then.
Nicki, I love the blurb/genre exercise. This is one of the things I’ll have to try.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Linsey,
That sounds like a great idea and I love the intro.
Nicki,
That’s a cool idea Nancy had to write the story in different genres.
I started out writing romantic comedy and then switched to romantic suspense and now I’m doing humorous women’s fiction. They all had one thing in common, humor, and writing in a humorous tone is where I feel most comfortable now.
Marilyn
May 18th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Linsey,
I think of ideas as I drive down the road. I write them on a sheet of scrap paper and put them in a file. Sometimes the idea is fleshed out and at other times just who the characters are. My stories often make big changes before it becomes something worth showing another person.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Wow, intense story set up! It seems like my ideas come from everywhere and nowhere. You just never know what might spark a story idea!
May 18th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Linsey,
What an interesting concept! I get story ideas everywhere–they often start with what if…?
May 18th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Linsey,
Love that story. Makes me want to read it all!
Ideas? They just zip in. Sometimes a word I hear will start my mind off in a totally, seemingly, unrelated direction. I love writing the beginning. That’s probably why I have so many. Time to finish something!
May 18th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hey Linsey! Great story idea. I’ve actually been skydiving and it is AWESOME!!! I highly recommend it for fleshing out the actual feel of falling through the air (no real feel of falling – imagine that!) for your characters!!!
Ideas – I get mine in movie-like flashes. When I come up with an idea, I daydream a whole scene and then end up redoing it over and over again in my head until I have it the way I want it. Of course, then I have to redo the whole thing again because I always resolve everything in that one scene and we all know that is just tooooo easy on our hero and heroine if we want to actually sell the story.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Tami
May 18th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Hmm,
I don’t have a problem coming up with ideas. They brew in my head 24/7. That’s one of the reasons I have insomnia…my mind is always racing. So I guess when I come up with an idea it mostly stays on target.
It’s finishing the idea (completing the whole story) that I have some trouble with. But that’s another topic all together.
Loved the excerpt and the idea Linsey!
Have a great afternoon,
Tamara
May 18th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Great story, Linnea. But you (and the rest of you) are illuminating the fact that maybe I’m not as creative as I thought.
How do you make sense of non-linear writing? I don’t think I could manage it.
I’m completely linear and write the story from beginning to end. The only non-linear part of my process is the polishing.
Second, I’m usually very absorbed in the story I’m writing, with a few mental feelers working out the plot of the next book.
Third, I have ideas, which get more and more general depending on where the book is in my to-be-written line-up, i.e., I have an idea for an historical trilogy and have a pretty specific ideas for the first, not so much for the second and close to zip for the third (save to say the hero is a bad-ass and the heroine is the vicar’s daughter).
I’m thinking you all need to write a best-practices writing workshop. I promise to attend.
May 18th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I love how you share your path of learning on developing a story. (thanks for the note about our workshop :->)
I do love that opening line for a query blurb – “When your own mind lies to you, who can you believe?” I know titles are personal and am not suggesting you change a thing, but have to share the title idea that popped into my mind when I read this: DON’T TRUST ME
Love how you morphed – translation: developed – your story idea.
May 18th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Tammy, you are sooo right. Knowing what is there and where to find it is the golden key!
Thanks, Marilyn. I’d have to say humor is your strong point. Me, not so much. Except for sarcasm.
Susan, you sound so organized! I sometimes scribble ideas down at traffic lights. Usually I can’t read my writing. I couldn’t remember them by the time I get home, LOL.
Thanks, Debbie. That’s how I see it. Everywhere and nowhere. When you’re looking for them, they’re there.
Thanks, Sally. I never do start out with “what if…?” I usually see a scene in my head. Then I might go into “what if?” mode.
May 18th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
So glad you liked it, Maxine. Yes, you should finish something. But I know what you mean about beginnings. It’s great to be able to go anywhere at the beginning.
Oooh, Tami. Maybe I can interview you! Actually, there are a lot of cool videos on the net. I’m afraid to stand on a chair, so I don’t think I’ll be signing up for lessons. But the videos almost make you feel like you’re there.
Thanks so much, Tamara. Don’t let your ideas keep you up too much. We writers need our rest or we won’t be able to execute those ideas. As I recall, you did finish a book. All you have to do is repeat the process.
Thanks, JP. You sound pretty creative to me. I’m sure you are underestimating yourself. How funny. Polishing is when I’m MOST linear. But when I’m planning the story or writing the first chapters, scene ideas pop up that could go anywhere in the book.
Dianna, that workshop was just what I need to get me going on this book. Glad you like the query blurb opening. It kind of gives me chills, too. It’s good to know that you think stories can come from everywhere, too. It must be the writer, and not the incident, that makes the story. But then we all knew that.
May 18th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Well, I can’t say I’ve had a story change genres, but I’m going to try something completely different this summer and co-write a comedy.
Thanks for sharing your example.You do have a killer first line in your blurb!
May 18th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Linsey
Thanks for sharing your opening with us. I think it’s a great story idea, and a nice hook for the opening. You’ll have to let us know when you’ve finished.
I’m like Tami. My story ideas pop into my head when I least expect, and always in the form of a movie – the whole scene just plays out. Then I have to do the work of figuring out who those characters are and what their story is.
May 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Hi, love the snippet…I wanted to keep reading!
I started writing suspense, then tried a cop story, then family friendly and that sold. Then I wrote a couple Inspirational and Steeple Hills is looking at them. Guess I know now what I’m supposed to be writing. (g)
Ideas? Everywhere!
Sandy
May 18th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Hi Anna. Thanks. I’m glad you liked that first blurb line. I sweated over that one a long time. You co-writing a comedy? That is new and different. I have a feeling it’s going to be terrific!
Thanks, Darcy. I’m hoping to enter this one in the Maggie’s, so I’m frantically working on it. I had no idea your stories played like movies, like Tami’s (I think Tammy S’s do, too). That’s interesting. My scenes are kind of like movies, but I’m usually in some character’s POV. Guess that’s a good thing.
Glad you loved it, Sandy. I’m also glad you found where you should be. I can’t wait to hear what Steeple Hills says!!!