Chauncey Rogers
Every night I visit a witch doctor and tell her what genre I'd like to be inspired to write in. She mixes up a potion whose color determines the genre--black for horror, pink for romance, blue for sci-fi, green for fantasy, yellow for self-help, etc. Then I....
But seriously, I just take ideas that strike me as interesting and run with them. My first novel was inspired by some interesting things that had happened around my family's property growing up. I tied them together and then though, What if I told this story from the perspective of one of our chickens? Presto. There was the interesting idea, and the rest is history.
For other stories, it really is just a matter of "What ifs?" And then does that basic idea lend itself to being a story? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
An example from a few days ago, when I was wondering what would be a rather stupid, yet plausible idea for a story: What if dinosaurs hadn't actually gone extinct? What if some group of aliens had been fascinated by dinosaurs, seen that a global extinction event was imminent, and rescued dinosaurs. Then, in the present day, they finally return them to earth?
Like I said, kind of a dumb idea, but then I'd just run with that sort of "What if" and see if it developed into a writable, worth-reading kind of story.
Then I start plotting and creating characters, and the rest is work.
But seriously, I just take ideas that strike me as interesting and run with them. My first novel was inspired by some interesting things that had happened around my family's property growing up. I tied them together and then though, What if I told this story from the perspective of one of our chickens? Presto. There was the interesting idea, and the rest is history.
For other stories, it really is just a matter of "What ifs?" And then does that basic idea lend itself to being a story? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
An example from a few days ago, when I was wondering what would be a rather stupid, yet plausible idea for a story: What if dinosaurs hadn't actually gone extinct? What if some group of aliens had been fascinated by dinosaurs, seen that a global extinction event was imminent, and rescued dinosaurs. Then, in the present day, they finally return them to earth?
Like I said, kind of a dumb idea, but then I'd just run with that sort of "What if" and see if it developed into a writable, worth-reading kind of story.
Then I start plotting and creating characters, and the rest is work.
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