News

You know how I had an idea for a novellite featuring Richard? Well, Richard had let me know that he, like Jason, didn’t want a small book, but a big book. Fine with me, I actually have had an idea for Richard and his family for years, and just never been able to find the right time to do it. But Richard also wanted a novellite, but the idea had expanded to a full-size novel, so no idea for something shorter. Jon and I were walking the two younger dogs this morning, as we do most mornings. (Jimmy and Phouka don’t want to walk over a mile in the morning. It’s about right for Sasquatch, and Pippin would do miles.) Some mornings we talk about real life, other mornings Jon and I talk about what’s on the agenda for the work day. I mentioned to him that Richard wanted a novellite but I had no idea for it. Jon said, “If he wants a novellite, then tell him to shake his imaginary booty and come up with an idea.” Fair enough. I said, “I had that idea about Richard taking Anita off to a bed and breakfast, but it’s not enough of an idea, yet.” We walked some more, and talked about other things, then I said, “What if Louie and Ronnie go with them to the bed and breakfast instead of the idea I’d had about taking them all camping. Ronnie thinks camping is a slice of hell, so she’d like it better. Maybe Ronnie could ask Anita to come along to help buffer her and Louie. Ronnie has some of the same issues Anita does about romance and being too romantic. Yeah, all four of them could go.” Jon agreed it was a good idea. We talked a little more about it, but we had to speed up the walk because we had a meeting at the house and we were pushing it to get the walk in at all. But we managed. We talked about other things, and we had our meeting. More construction stuff. Then I went upstairs to my office and finished up the last change I wanted to make in the acknowledgement page. Then I thought, I’ll open a file and write down the stuff Jon and I talked about on the walk about Richard’s novellite. I did, but the very sketchy ideas grew. It’s the right idea because it’s attracting plot, characters, new ideas. A good idea has a gravitational field to it, that attracts all the other stuff that you need for the book. At least that’s how it works for me. I’ve been kicking around the idea of Richard taking Anita to a bed and breakfast for over a year, and I’ve had the idea for the four of them, Louie, Ronnie, Richard, and Anita, going camping for several years. But the idea camping idea came when Anita and Richard were getting along better. I’d almost abandoned the idea. But this morning, well the two ideas rubbed against each other, and viola it’s a book. A small book, a novellite, but a book. Cool.
I put the process here, because so many of you guys ask me how I come up with ideas for books. I can even tell you how I came up with the concept of Richard taking Anita to a bed and breakfast. Once Micah had had his attempt at a romantic weekend, I wanted Richard to have his chance. It will, of course, go horribly wrong in the way that all my ideas go wrong, violent, and perverse. Can’t help it, just the way my mind works. The camping idea came out of a camping trip I took over a decade ago with my first husband. He went fishing with his friends at the crack of dawn. I got my binoculars and went birding at the crack of dawn. We both had a wonderful morning, separate from each other, which was typical of our marriage. But I remember thinking it would have been nice to have someone to share my morning with, who would truly appreciate that I’d seen an Osprey, and came near touching a great blue heron. Richard, Anita, and Louie, all have degrees in biology. They would get it, and enjoy similar things on a camping trip. Ronnie would feel punished, and not give a damn about the birds. Which is why we kept putting the plot off. Louie and Ronnie were having enough problems without forcing her to go camping. But a bed and breakfast that’s civilized enough for Ronnie. We could pick a bed and breakfast close to a wild life area. Ronnie could sleep in, and the three of them could go bird watching, then back for breakfast, and everyone’s happy. There, that’s how I got this idea. I don’t know if the explanation of it all is helpful in showing you how to get your own ideas. Before I had Jon in my life I often called members of my writing group and we’d brain storm over the phone, or in person at lunch, or such. When it was just my first husband, Gary, and myself I often talked my ideas out loud. He didn’t give the feedback that my friends and Jon do, but for me, apparently, there’s something about talking an idea out loud that helps me test it. Be careful with this advice though. I’ve met some beginning writers that seem to talk about writing but never write anything down. Ideas and talking about them is great but if you don’t write it down, it doesn’t count. I use the talking aloud method only at the very beginning, when I’m sort of thinking out loud. Then, notice, I got to a computer and started typing it, writing it. I already have bits of dialogue for the novellite, though, in truth, I’m not sure when it will fit into the schedule. I’ve got a hundred pages of the new Anita book. I’m not sure I want to put it aside for another novellite. It’s so ready to go.