Although I’ve just published a novel, perhaps I’d better start with a story how to write one!

Like most things it starts with a thought, an idea, a memory, a song….whatever the prompt, it takes you somewhere. For each novelist it’s different but for many of us we moved from something…into a story. And for many writers it then becomes …what if?…what if he died, what if it was her brother, what if she thought it was a stranger, what if …the list goes on. That’s the imagination part. And then you somehow weave it into a single line story. Suddenly the germ is planted.

I like to let my ideas cook for a while, quietly bubbling behind my conscience mind, thinking of actions and reactions without me being fully aware of it until I discover myself “seeing” the main storyline in vibrant living colour taking on a life of its own!

At this stage I’m loving it but I still ask myself a couple of questions. Does it have enough legs to make an interesting novel? Can it sustain my interest to write it? Will it be strong enough to survive the rigorous of birth? At some point if the answer is Yes, then the real work begins…