Where do the stories come from?

Aug 4, 2011

I had an amazing lunch today with JT & E Tate. I wish we could do those lunches more often, but I’m pretty sure we’d get zero writing done if we did. Today’s discussion, like most of our conversations, ranged far and wide from the mouth watering physiques of the men of True Blood and just how sweet Ryan Kwanten is in person to where our stories come from. JT even got up to demonstrate her little jump dance at meeting him, which amused him at the time and the police officers today who were having lunch right behind us.

Yes, we get entertaining at these lunches, glad to have amused you men in blue

We did finally get around to talking shop. I sent JT my updated Goddess of Fire story for her to read late last week, yet again (poor lady has seen that story in so many iterations…she’s a good critique partner). E Tate has never seen my writing, which reminds me, I need to send her a copy too…I lamented that I have some 20+ manuscripts on my hard drive, 3 have been published, but those are all non-fiction. My first love has always been paranormal romance, and that’s what we all write in one subgenre or another. These Goddess Chronicles are going to GET OFF MY DESK!

It got us all to wondering how many stories a writer works on at once and where do all these ideas come from. I realized that I have 4 of the Goddess Chronicles in various stages, plus Ichi which I’ve been working on with Nick, and the new contemporary romance that’s been creeping out a scene at a time.

Why? Well, because the ideas come to me from all sorts of different sources.

The Goddess Chronicles were from a day dream idea that randomly popped up during an RWA conference.
Ichi – someone mentioned wanting to read a story about a female samurai (which also sent me off reading about samurai and ninjas).
This new contemporary? Scenes began appearing in my dreams.

And then I realized….I tend to daydream my stories into being. At least the first scene or two. I can spend hours perfecting and tweaking a single opening scene in my head before ever putting it on the page. And sometimes those scenes do come from dreams, but even more often, they come from snippets of conversations going on around me, a hint, a suggestion, the way someone moves or says something.

My imagination keeps it moving along. Where do your ideas and stories come from?

have a bite this weekend – paranormal romance (iamlenise.wordpress.com)
Editing, it’s a LONG process…. (sybir.com)
An Undead Snake Goddess and a Blind Swordman: Once Upon A Warrior (tor.com)
Book Review of What a Goddess Wants by Stephanie Julian (abookwormshaven.com)

2 comments

Kate / August 8, 2011

I’m with you, I daydream my stories into being. Occasionally, as with the one I’ve just restarted (again), it comes from a dream. In this case two dreams, unconnected; it was only when I started wondering how I could use each of them in a story that I realised they’d work really well together. Unfortunately the rest of the story…now that’s the bit that’s annoying me!

(And damn, wish I lived closer so I could lunch with you guys!)

Stacia / August 19, 2011

I know! Or we should really know how to teleport already