Decisions, Decisions: The Prequel

So, obviously, the first decision you have to make when you're writing a novel is . . . what to write.

Where do your ideas come from? Did your novel come to you in a dream?  Strike as you were people watching? Do you have more ideas than you'll ever have time to write? Notebooks crammed full of sticky notes and thoughts scrawled on the backs of Starbucks receipts? Or do you find yourself staring at a blank page straining to come up with anything to write about?

What comes to you first? A thread of plot? A theme? A character? A scene?

Today, I want to share with you some ideas about where to get your ideas.

Admission time. Most of my ideas come from TV, movies, and books that I've seen/read. Sometimes it's a side character that makes me wonder more about their story. Sometimes it's a plot twist that I wish had gone another way. On my current Work in Progress, I read a back cover blurb for a book, and when I read the book, it was NOTHING like what I thought it would be. So I decided to write the book I wanted it to be. 

A new twist on an old story. The market is full of fairy tales and Bible stories re-rendered, set in a different time, with characters who are cyborgs, set on a different planet. The possibilities are endless. 

The news is another great place to get current ideas. There's always a place for a "ripped from the headlines" story, and there's always more to the story than what you hear on the news. It can be fun to explore that.

People watching. Have you ever overheard a tidbit of conversation or seen an interaction that made you wonder what was really going on behind the scenes? Tell the story.

Music. Sometimes music evokes a very specific emotion. Or maybe it tells a story you can expound on. Even just one line can inspire a story all its own.

Finally, maybe the easiest one, your own life. Do you ever have one of those moments when you realize in the midst of a personal drama, this would make such a great scene in a book? That's one of the surest ways to know you're a writer. Harness those. No moments are wasted.

These are just a few examples. There are tons more. How about you, readers? Share with us where you like to get your story ideas in the comments below.

*Thinking Woman With An Idea by Kittikun Atsawintarangkul and The Desperate Anxiety by Naypong courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Decisions, Decisions Part I

When you first sit down to write your novel, and that blank page is staring you in the face, you have several decisions to make before you ever start writing. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll walk you through these choices.

This week we'll start with tense and POV. First, tense. Should you write in past or present? Past is by far the most common. Usually your POV character (or narrator) is telling the story of something that has already taken place: "He strode into the room and fired a warning shot into the ceiling. Bits of plaster fell like snow."

Sometimes you want a stronger sense of immediacy, or you want the story to seem to unfold as it's happening. Maybe something is going to happen at the end that you don't want the characters to know about, or the narrator is going to die (which obviously you can't tell about in past tense). Then it's fine to use present tense. It's most often used along with first person. "I steal down the hall, avoiding the creaking floor boards. When I reach the door, I hold my breath as I turn the knob."

Just be sure you know WHY you're making that decision, and above all STAY IN THAT TENSE. No changing back and forth once you've decided.

Of course, there's also future tense, but I don't know of any books written in future. That would be  . . . weird. Awkward. "He will caress her face with the back of his fingers. She'll lean into his touch." Yeah . . . don't use future.

This brings us to Point of View. You've got first, second, and third. First is the I/me/we perspective. We see this most often these days in Young Adult novels or Chick-Lit. It works best if you have only one POV character.

Third person is the most common because it works for multiple POVS. He/she/they. Most often each chapter is written in third person limited (no head hopping--only one POV character per chapter). There's also third person omniscient, where the narrator is not one of the characters, but an outside force who sees and knows every character's thoughts and feelings. This is NOT the same as head hopping and is tricky to do well, but when done well, can be really awesome.

Then, there's second person. You. This is the "Choose Your Own Adventure" POV. Outside of that genre, I don't recommend it.

So . . . questions? Have you written or read a book in any of the "uncommon" tenses or points of view? What effect did it have?