Step
One: "Ideas, Where Do Writers Find Them?"
The first step in writing a novel is having an idea. Most
writers find ideas everywhere in their daily life. A
comment by a stranger, something the writer sees during the
drive to work, an article in the newspaper, a snippet of
historical fact from a TV show, a family crisis. What makes
a writer turn that snippet of conversation into a novel?
The annoying habit that writers have is asking, "what if" –
what if that empty plastic bag by the side of the road
contains a dead body? What if I lost my job ?
"What if" is a magical phrase that ignites a writer's
imagination. Let me show you how it works for me.
Last week, I finished a manuscript and sent it to my agent
which means I'm ready to start a new project. I've always
written both historical and contemporary romances although
only my historicals have seen print. Right now, I’d like to
write a modern day story, but I'm not sure if it's a
romance or if it's more what the publishing world calls
women's fiction.
The initial idea came from an article I read in the
newspaper about a big problem facing soldiers who are being
sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. What happens to their pets
while they are deployed if they have no one to care for the
animal?
Enter NetPets (www.netpets.org/netp/foster.php) a pet
foster organization approved by the Department of Defense.
I read about the organization and my immediate response
was, what if a soldier had to foster his dog while he was
overseas, but the family who took the dog had an emergency
and had to place the dog with a relative?
Well, there it is. My idea for my next book. Okay, it's
just a germ of an idea with lots of work left because this
idea needs to be big enough to keep readers (as well as the
writer) interested for the duration of the novel. I wonder
if this germ will sustain a whole novel.......
We'll see in Step Two.
