Lately so many people have written about where ideas come from that I got to thinking seriously about where stories truly originate.

All of us who write conjure up some of the most fascinating ideas. A good friend, Jory Sherman, once told a group of us then new writers that it's much like riding a merry-go-found and reaching for the brass ring. Each one of us could capture the same ring (story idea) and yet when we sat down to compose, each resulting tale would be entirely different. All created from the same basic idea.

There are others who maintain there are only 7 or 12 or whatever basic plots. Yet look at the thousands of books written and published each month, most with seemingly different plots.

Those of us who write historically based stories, use a lot of nonfiction books for research. And we probably find ourselves fascinated by how ideas spring from one tiny bit of information.

The hero in one of my books came alive when I read that George Armstrong Custer had fathered several children with Cheyenne women. Wouldn't these children be torn between two worlds? Not an original idea, just one of those brass rings caught by so many, but from which would spring a completely different story. A story that finally caught an editor's eye.

We're not always so lucky; sometimes our stories languish and gather dust. But the creation of even those isn't wasted time, for we learn so much as we search to write the best story yet.

I hope all my writer friends are able to capture a brass ring that results in just such an outcome.