Hi everyone - it's June and time for our Writer's Blog Hop again. Today we are going to ask the question: Where do you get your ideas?
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Some of the stories I’ve written seem to have come to me out of thin air, but I suspect that really isn’t the case, and they are bits and pieces of my life. Others are far more obvious. I think I’ve shared the genesis of my time travel, but for those who haven’t heard that story, Iain’s Plaid was inspired by a specific personal experience – augmented by my curious writer brain. While I’m not a history nut, spending all my time and reading energy on studying history, I am interested in the history of where I live or travel. For 20 years I lived on the coast of Maine with a view of little island sitting just outside of Boothbay Harbor. I read a book by Bill Caldwell titled, The 
Islands of Maine – Where America Really Began. His book was talking about the history of European settlement, rather than the native Americans who’d lived here even longer, but I was intrigued to discover that this little island I could see from my front yard had a busy European settlement long before the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Mass. In fact, the Mayflower had put in at this island to secure fish to augment their depleted food stores before ending up several hundred miles south. The island, like many in the area, had been abandoned in the mid-20th century but it still intrigued me and I decided it would be fun to visit and explore. So, off I went, sailing out to do just that.
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While there, I stood on a large granite stone, part of the foundation for long gone building, and wondered what that building might have been. It was too big for a house – the houses were all tiny, barely more than garage size by 
today’s standards. But as I stood there, the granite shifted and I jumped back, not wanting to fall in and get hurt. For any normal person that might have been the end of it. But while I was sailing home, I recalled my pondering about the origins of the foundation and my twisted writer brain decided to ask the question: “What if I had fallen in, hit my head, and woke up in another century?”
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That’s where the idea for Iain’s Plaid came from. My heroine did just that – sailed out to explore a long-abandoned island, fell in and hit her head, then woke up in 1775, in the cellar of a warehouse belonging to a man who had a ship filled with contraband he planned to take into British controlled Boston just a few days later. Our country was on the eve of revolution and Iain MacKail was convinced this stranger appearing in his cellar was a British spy.
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My books: Worry Stone and The Candidate (the first became part of a series, the second is a standalone.) were born of experiences of others I knew, mostly my brother, who had once been a soldier in Vietnam and had shared some of his experiences both in the war and later back home. Just knowing his experiences didn’t trigger the premise my stories. Rather, it inspired me to write a story about characters who had gone through a 
similar experience. Worry Stone was about an ordinary man who went off when his country called him, then came home to deal with a country that despised him and the unpopular war he represented. In The Candidate, I decided to use that background as a cauldron for personal turmoil for a man in the middle of running for President. That 
original idea sort of percolated in my brain during a presidential election year and some of the background came from those tumultuous months, but the story was entirely fictitious and not based on anyone who was running. It was not based on my brother or any other man I knew who had served there, and I have no clear recollection of where the idea for the young man of Asian descent with a picture from my hero’s past came from. By the time I wrote this book, the whole topic of Vietnam had become more visible. Instead of trying to sweep the era under the rug, people had begun to write about our involvement there. So, my premise was an idea born of my reading about the time, a personal dilemma for my hero to deal with that fit the story and the craziness of a presidential campaign year for a backdrop.
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One maxim a fledgling writer is always hit with often from all sides is “Write what you know.” This was definitely the source of my idea for Falling for Zoe. My own mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s, I am a mother and had been through the whole teenage years scene. I’d also been left behind when my first husband decided he didn’t want to be a husband and daddy. So, I decided to use those personal experiences for my first romance. Just to make it a little different, I threw all those problems at my hero instead of my heroine. She had her own problem, not one I’d personally lived through, but one 
easily imagined.
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For most of my stories, though, the original nuggets came from asking myself the question, “What If?” In Loving Meg, I asked myself the question, “What if the soldier returning from a war zone was a woman? A wife who was called up unexpectedly and left a husband and children behind?
In Healing a Hero, the question was, what if two people fell in love years ago and were separated through circumstances beyond their control and now they are thrown back together with all the distrust misunderstandings can create? The rest of the books in that series were deliberately created because my acquiring editor wanted a series. Since I’d given the family 5 kids, that was my series connection and each ensuing story involved a different sibling for which I had to just brainstorm ideas for.
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When I decided to try writing a mystery, my first stop was to sign up for the Citizen’s Law Enforcement Academy with my local sheriff’s office. Each class focused on a different aspect of law enforcement, from the financial/budget and organization to special units like K-9, SWAT, negotiation, and the day-to-day life of a patrol deputy. Talk about a generator for ideas. Then came the ride-alongs. Getting to spend a whole shift with a deputy or police officer is another way to experience what life is like for the men and women who serve in law enforcement and an eye opener to the crazy things they see and are expected to handle every day. This was a “research” effort on my part to start with, but it planted so many thoughts and ideas along the way, each of which could be the basis for a whole new plot. Check out Bullseye and Crossfire.
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One of my sources for ideas for new stories is my writing group – there are four of us and we call ourselves the Sandy Scribblers. We used to meet once a month at a local library but then Covid happened and the meetings moved to Zoom where they’ve stayed. We all write in different genres but I often think this is a plus because that helps to push the edges of the envelop for all of us. Sometimes we might be putting together a whole new 
book idea and we start with the author’s nugget of an idea and throw ideas into the ring. While the author might not use all the ideas, just tossing them out there triggers responses and tweaks and the author takes home all this home to ponder on and choose what works and what doesn’t. This same process is great for when one of us has a sagging middle issue. We outline where we are and what’s not working out and the rest of the group puts forth ideas and possible fixes. Often we will send out a synopsis for an idea or a story half written before the meeting so other members of the group have time to consider the problems and maybe come up with solutions. It’s an excellent resource for ideas and for fine-tuning ideas. The best part of the meetings is the energy created and we all come out of the meeting excited about what we are doing and renewed momentum.
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Recently I’d just completed a first draft and was doing my first major edit for the first book in a brand new series and realized that half my story was nothing but a puff piece with little conflict going on. My son and I had discussed the plot back when I was about halfway through the book and he tossed an idea out there that I completely dismissed. It was a romance set during WWII and the “hero” of the story decided to enlist and put his wedding off until he returned. My son suggested he never come home. I’d tossed the idea because it was a romance and you don’t kill off the hero. But now I saw the holes and weakness of my plot and my son’s off the cuff suggestion came back to me. I revisited my original premise, and asked that trusty question, “What if Jeff didn’t come 
home?” I considered all the possibilities. My son intended that he be KIA, but as I began to rewrite the story, more ideas came to me. How to make him more of a jerk and someone else, unexpectedly turn out to be the hero of the story. As I wrote more ideas came to me, each feeding off something I’d tried earlier. Bottom line – the finished story was so much better than the original. It had more power, more emotion, and was far more compelling. I guess my advice here is: Don’t discount ideas that seem totally incongruous, rather, keep them simmering while you write and let the plot thicken. As with all the ideas thrown out by my Scribbler buddies, much of this will never end up in your story, but it can trigger other thoughts, plot twists and events that make the story far better than the original premise was.
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BTW, the idea for the new series was triggered by a new reader. A lady who borrowed the first book of my previous romance series, loved it, and went out to buy the remaining 6 books. Then she found me on FB and discovered I was summering in Maine in a place she had often gone as a kid so we began to compare notes about what she remembered and what that unique little place was like today. In the end, she asked me why I didn’t write a new series set there. Once that seed was planted, it flourished and here I am working on book two in that new series set on Bailey Island, Maine. While this lady didn’t give me a plot idea, she gave me challenge to find a plot in a place that is a character all by itself.
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My last bit of advice on where any writer can start generating ideas is people watching. Even if you never get a bolt of lightning that triggers an entire plot, watching people will flesh out your characters and give you vignettes that add realism, humor and fun to your stories. Grocery stores, restaurants, airports, trains, city streets, shopping for school clothes, picking kids from daycare, hospital ERs, little league fields, golf courses – the list is endless and the people you see there from all walks of life, from toddlers to old geezers. And you never know when one of those small slices of life can blossom into an entire novel.
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Now that you’ve traveled down my idea road, check out how these other authors find ideas for their stories.
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Connie Vines
Diane Bator
Anne Stenhouse
Helena Fairfax
Judith Copek
Dr. Bob Rich
Some of the stories I’ve written seem to have come to me out of thin air, but I suspect that really isn’t the case, and they are bits and pieces of my life. Others are far more obvious. I think I’ve shared the genesis of my time travel, but for those who haven’t heard that story, 
Islands of Maine – Where America Really Began. His book was talking about the history of European settlement, rather than the native Americans who’d lived here even longer, but I was intrigued to discover that this little island I could see from my front yard had a busy European settlement long before the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Mass. In fact, the Mayflower had put in at this island to secure fish to augment their depleted food stores before ending up several hundred miles south. The island, like many in the area, had been abandoned in the mid-20th century but it still intrigued me and I decided it would be fun to visit and explore. So, off I went, sailing out to do just that.
today’s standards. But as I stood there, the granite shifted and I jumped back, not wanting to fall in and get hurt. For any normal person that might have been the end of it. But while I was sailing home, I recalled my pondering about the origins of the foundation and my twisted writer brain decided to ask the question: “What if I had fallen in, hit my head, and woke up in another century?”
My books: 
similar experience. 
original idea sort of percolated in my brain during a presidential election year and some of the background came from those tumultuous months, but the story was entirely fictitious and not based on anyone who was running. It was not based on my brother or any other man I knew who had served there, and I have no clear recollection of where the idea for the young man of Asian descent with a picture from my hero’s past came from. By the time I wrote this book, the whole topic of Vietnam had become more visible. Instead of trying to sweep the era under the rug, people had begun to write about our involvement there. So, my premise was an idea born of my reading about the time, a personal dilemma for my hero to deal with that fit the story and the craziness of a presidential campaign year for a backdrop. 
One maxim a fledgling writer is always hit with often from all sides is “Write what you know.” This was definitely the source of my idea for 
One of my sources for ideas for new stories is my writing group – there are four of us and we call ourselves the Sandy Scribblers. We used to meet once a month at a local library but then Covid happened and the meetings moved to Zoom where they’ve stayed. We all write in different genres but I often think this is a plus because that helps to push the edges of the envelop for all of us. Sometimes we might be putting together a whole new 
book idea and we start with the author’s nugget of an idea and throw ideas into the ring. While the author might not use all the ideas, just tossing them out there triggers responses and tweaks and the author takes home all this home to ponder on and choose what works and what doesn’t. This same process is great for when one of us has a sagging middle issue. We outline where we are and what’s not working out and the rest of the group puts forth ideas and possible fixes. Often we will send out a synopsis for an idea or a story half written before the meeting so other members of the group have time to consider the problems and maybe come up with solutions. It’s an excellent resource for ideas and for fine-tuning ideas. The best part of the meetings is the energy created and we all come out of the meeting excited about what we are doing and renewed momentum.
Recently I’d just completed a first draft and was doing my first major edit for the first book in a brand new series and realized that half my story was nothing but a puff piece with little conflict going on. My son and I had discussed the plot back when I was about halfway through the book and he tossed an idea out there that I completely dismissed. It was a romance set during WWII and the “hero” of the story decided to enlist and put his wedding off until he returned. My son suggested he never come home. I’d tossed the idea because it was a romance and you don’t kill off the hero. But now I saw the holes and weakness of my plot and my son’s off the cuff suggestion came back to me. I revisited my original premise, and asked that trusty question, “What if Jeff didn’t come 
home?” I considered all the possibilities. My son intended that he be KIA, but as I began to rewrite the story, more ideas came to me. How to make him more of a jerk and someone else, unexpectedly turn out to be the hero of the story. As I wrote more ideas came to me, each feeding off something I’d tried earlier. Bottom line – the finished story was so much better than the original. It had more power, more emotion, and was far more compelling. I guess my advice here is: Don’t discount ideas that seem totally incongruous, rather, keep them simmering while you write and let the plot thicken. As with all the ideas thrown out by my Scribbler buddies, much of this will never end up in your story, but it can trigger other thoughts, plot twists and events that make the story far better than the original premise was. 
BTW, the idea for the new series was triggered by a new reader. A lady who borrowed the first book of my previous romance series, loved it, and went out to buy the remaining 6 books. Then she found me on FB and discovered I was summering in Maine in a place she had often gone as a kid so we began to compare notes about what she remembered and what that unique little place was like today. In the end, she asked me why I didn’t write a new series set there. Once that seed was planted, it flourished and here I am working on book two in that new series set on Bailey Island, Maine. While this lady didn’t give me a plot idea, she gave me challenge to find a plot in a place that is a character all by itself. 
My last bit of advice on where any writer can start generating ideas is people watching. Even if you never get a bolt of lightning that triggers an entire plot, watching people will flesh out your characters and give you vignettes that add realism, humor and fun to your stories. Grocery stores, restaurants, airports, trains, city streets, shopping for school clothes, picking kids from daycare, hospital ERs, little league fields, golf courses – the list is endless and the people you see there from all walks of life, from toddlers to old geezers. And you never know when one of those small slices of life can blossom into an entire novel. 
