I’ve had several reoccurring dreams over the years. Some are really nothing more than a scene or two that get bouncing around my head. Others are more complete – images, sounds, voices. One of those is my upcoming book The Bond That Ties Us. But I have another that’s been yelling for attention recently.
Now I really want to try and develop this dream out into a story. The problem is, I only have two characters and an opening sequence. That’s it! No plot, no black moment. One really sexy scene that I could expand to be about three chapters. This is one of those stories that I wouldn’t want to screw up. It would bother me.
This has got me thinking about how I come up with ideas for my stories. Very rarely do I have much of an external plot to begin with. I work on that through the first draft, as I’m not much of a plotter either. That said, the last two books that I did some basic plotting were much easier to write. It helped when I got to the sagging middle and didn’t know where to go. Knowing that, I think I’m going to take a stab at writing up a basic plot for this story.
It will have to wait in my writing queue though. 
I have the third draft of my genie story, the second draft for Perfect Match, and the first draft of my Halloween story to finish up. Not to mention the plots for four other stories.
Not enough time…
Good question. My current story came together from several loose ideas. I think I was influenced by a book series that I read a bit of quite a while back (don’t recall now the name, shadowsomething). The scene that my story is formed around has a very specific character. I don’t think that I had a solid character definition but at the same time I know that the story didn’t have a solid plot either. I had to grow both character and plot together to make the story come together. The development of the character influenced the plot and the development of the plot influenced the character.
Take a picture with someone in it doing something. Right away you have someone and some action. As you think more about what is going on you understand the character more and the more you think about who the character is the more you understand what is going on.
My previous story (unfinished) was purely based on character development. I had specific ideas on what I wanted in my character and the story was designed to define the character. In that case I definately started with the character. From there I decided what I needed to tell as a story to allow the audience to learn about who my character was.
It basically boils down to what you want to pass to your audience. Do you want to share with them an event that happens or are you wanting to share with them a character?
I think every story comes to us a little differently. My first book I dreamed for years. It’s still the easiest for me to fall back into. I can close my eyes, and I’m THERE in that world. Wholly immersed. Other stories I have to work harder at. I agree, so very little time. Sigh.
Not enough time…
you got that right!
Maybe make a good short story??
Maybe a novella, Wylie. I’m going to have to play around with it for a bit.
Journey came from a dream. And all it was, was a sex scene. I just had to keep thinking how I could make it into a story. The sexy scene had an Asian theme, and a sense of mystery and danger. It took over 6 months to finally come up with the finally idea.
I’m here to bounce ideas off of. Think of me as a squash court.
Ok, that sounded weird … nix the simile, point is I’m here for ya!:)
My stories come in all different ways, sometimes character, sometimes the opening scene. I have to discipline myself to stick with one story and not go running after the next new idea. They always sound great when you start but somewhere around Chapter 4 they all turn into hard work.