Something I get asked a lot is ‘how do you come up with these ideas for your stories?’
I guess the simple answer is: a vast imagination. I sometimes start off with what type of story I want to read, then I begin piecing together what that looks like.
Other times I am just going about my usual day, and I see something and ask myself ‘but what if.’ Those 3 small words send my mind on a journey to the unexpected. Once I get so far with that I ask ‘why,’ and that has me think of more back story and then again I’m back on my journey of wonder.
Writing is just wondering.
For example, I was watching an episode of Steve Harvey TV Show and just by happenstance he sets up two audience members looking for love. I then wonder ‘what if he helped a woman find her husband who disappeared. The woman would have come on there by accident and shout from the audience that she’s been looking and eventually gave up hope.’
Why?
They were separated in a natural disaster. The husband had slight brain damage from it which affected his memory, so he didn’t have enough information to keep searching. This also made it harder for her to find him.
Her long lost husband is in the audience, and the two tearfully reunite.
I love a good twist, so I have to think of that next.
The guy remarried, and his current wife is there witnessing all of this and is mortified. She thought she’d found the woman and killed her so something like this could never happen.
The ending itself I hadn’t thought of, but I know what I’m telling, why it matters and where my tension lies.
And this ladies and gents is how my writer’s brain works. Let me know in the comments how you come up with stories.
Never Stop Dreaming
Carmen Norris 