THE INNER WORKING OF CREATIVE THINKING - WHERE WE COME UP WITH THE IDEAS

Where did Judah's Still Running come from?

I have a fascination with people and their "inner workings" - the things that make them tick, and which govern and drive their responses to others and different circumstances. I love exploring issues and layers and all things human. I suppose, also, that I've managed to cram a hefty lot of "life experience" into my not-so-few years, which means I have a huge database of things to pick on and weave a story around. Still Running birthed itself, really, from this amalgam of different experiences...

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Lee's Inspiration for The Twist

You hear some strange things standing in the ladies' room line on the Ocean City boardwalk. A cute little thing in a halter top and a pair of Daisy Dukes behind me was arguing with her purple-haired boy friend about her smoking. He was going on about what a filthy habit it was and how he might as well be kissing an ashtray. Fumbling in her purse for a Virginia Slim, all she could come up with in her defense was "You have no idea how hard it is for a girl to quit smoking!" I've always been fascinated by transformation stories, but they never seem to have a happy ending. Hum, it sounded like there was a story there to me.

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Ideas come from life in general. It seems everywhere I go something sparks a new idea. For the Servin' It Up series - I never thought I'd ever write about my career of choice. It seemed tabu. But what a world of ideas and differentiality I work in. I know we've all seen movies and read stories where characters work in the of field of food service, but I have the inside scoop allowing me angles and routes most don't have and dare to tred on. Then there this my work you haven't seen, my mainstream, women's lit and even the paranormal -- I might have sparked an idea from a dream, something I experienced and or someone told me about an incident where they experienced an injustice people weren't aware of. I love to put realism in my work, but without the ideas and the creativity the characters to pull it all together, it'd be nothing but an idea. The world around you contains so many books that it's a matter of choosing. Shame we can't slow down time and turn every day into forty-eight hours. Bekki

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I write historicals, but my ideas come from everywhere. Snatches of conversations. News items. A haunting scent. A repeated sound. Music. A tiny bit of historical, personal fact. Looking at a place through the viewpoint of a character.

I draw characters from aspects of people I know, or from people I learn about or from my own wish-fulfilment or fears. I've always wanted to be a bull leaper, or know how to make a sword, or weave cloth, or sing opera.

I develop and draw out stories from asking, 'What if?'

What if a king had power over storms?
What if a man believed he was a hulking brute, unworthy of any woman's love?
What if a woman feared that one of her family was a killer?
What if a woman had done something illegal to protect her family?

I focus on four things to bring the story to life for me -

The stakes: Always love, life, trust and commitment.
The heroine: I try to make her active, interesting and engaging.
The hero: I try to make him protective and active, with a sense of humour.
The setting: A past or present I can use to add to tension, glamour and adventure.

Ideas come from life.

Lindsay

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My inspiration for ALL SHADES OF BLUE PARADISE ~

"When the phrase ‘all shades of blue’ popped into my head during the twilight realm before sleep, and Sheridan arrived, wearing icy blue pearls she fingered, attired in a chic azure-blue silk dress, her matching high heels clicking on the mansion floor, I knew she was meeting a man she had loved long ago, a man who still loved her." ~ Savanna Kougar ~

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Jen's Inspiration for Eternal Seduction:

I was actually standing in the bookstore when Logan Ellis (the heroine in Eternal Seduction) came to life. I'd picked up a bunch of different novels, read the blurbs, and realized all the leading ladies had high paying professional occupations. Doctors, lawyers, marketing professionals, ect. And that immediately got me thinking, what if a herione didn't have a high paying job? Or even better, what if she didn't have a job at all...or a home? What if she lived on the streets? And those questions lead right into, if she's a street waif, she's bound to be dirty and skinny in a rather unappealing and unhealthy way. She probably mugs people to get what little money she has, so her moral compass and outlook on the world have to be a little off - which completely flies in the face of traditional heroines. But then came the question that practically had her screaming in my head: What if this skinny, homeless drug addict..has a darker outlook on the world than the ancient vampire she finds herself attached to?

Turning the tables on traditional vampire romance with a heroine like Logan was just too good to pass up. :)

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What shakes up your creative world? What would you like to see more of, less of? Any ideas you've not come across that you'd find interesting in romance?