I know that as a writer, I have heard this question asked since I was small. “How on Earth did you come up with that?” It’s a popular question at writers’ conferences and luncheons. Since I have entered the ranks of published authors, I often get this question myself. And it is a tough one to answer.
Where do these ideas come from?
Some, like my concept for TO BE QUEEN, grow out of other projects that I am currently working on. Sometimes a character who is supposed to be an antagonist or a second string player comes to the forefront and takes over. And they are so interesting, at least in Eleanor’s case, that not only do I let them, but I welcome them with open arms and sit back and enjoy the fireworks that they bring onto the page.
Other characters come to me quietly, like a still, small voice when I am doing something else: when I am up to my elbows washing dishes, or when I am in the car with no notebook in hand, or when I am walking to the subway. Princess Alais from THE QUEEN’S PAWN was this kind of character…a woman who was not insistent, but whose quiet presence I could not turn away from for three years, who even now that the book is done I have not completely turned away from.
All writers know what I mean. Our ideas simply show up, and when they do, whether in the midst of other work or after a long drought of writer’s block (God forbid), we welcome them. And if we follow them, those characters and ideas can open up whole worlds not just for us, but for readers to explore with us.