The Secret to Writer’s Block: Misfit Inspiration - Guest Post Anna J. Stewart
Surprise! The Ultimate Novel Ingredient
We writers are odd creatures. Or maybe it's just me. One of the questions I'm presented with most often is where do my ideas come from. Often, my answer is frustratingly simple: everywhere. Case in point, the spark that inspired my February, 2022, romantic suspense release PRISON BREAK HOSTAGE.
Picture it. July, 2016 (channeling my favorite Golden Girl here). Three middle-aged women climb into a rented SUV loaded with luggage, giveaways, and a multitude of other items to make the eight hour drive down from Northern California to beautiful San Diego. This annual romance writers' convention at one time used to be one of my favorite events of the year (ah, the good old days) and the excitement builds as the trip commences. These three women, myself included, had never met before those car doors opened but happily we became the fastest of friends in the blink of an eye. Happily, I don't have to drive. I get to sit back, chat, listen to the audio book playing on the car system, or sleep (which is always nice). But I didn't sleep. I watched all the cars around us as my home state passed me by.
At one point, a large bus comes up behind us, circles around to the left and shoots right past. I sit up straight, fascinated. It's a prison bus--bars on the windows and everything. A few individuals fill the seats and I see at least two guards and a driver (obviously) inside. As the bus pulls ahead of us, my mind starts spinning as fast as the tires on our car. Questions explode in my head: who's on there? What did they do? Where are they going? And the all important: what would happen if...
Most, if not all of my books have started with this last question. So what was the answer? What if it that bus for some reason, crashed? Oh! What if it didn't just crash, but flipped and rolled and came to a skidding stop? What if it's in the middle of the night and it's not a crowded freeway but a deserted back road highway? And what if... Okay, now we're cooking. What if my heroine (after all, I do write romance!) is driving that same road on her way home and maybe she's a nurse. No! What if she's an emergency room doctor! There isn't anything that'll stop her from jumping out to help. Which she does. And her life is never the same again.
That's just in the opening few pages of PRISON BREAK HOSTAGE.
The questions never stopped coming with this book. They piled on and high to the point almost I couldn't keep track of them. The roller coaster than ensued was one of my favorite journeys as an author. The story was just there, from the opening scene right to the last. And I loved every single rollicking minute of it. And it all came from one SUV, two newly found friends, and a prison bus on its way to... somewhere.
One of the best things about being an author is letting one simple image, one fleeting thought, one glimmer of an idea blossom into something unexpected and exciting that will hopefully find its way into the hands of readers willing to go along on the wild ride of our imaginations.
So when you ask an author where their ideas come from and they say everywhere? That's not a cop out. They're telling you the truth. Our stories are out there--just waiting for us to grab hold, hang on, and flesh them out.
Find out more about the author here:
website: www.AuthorAnnaStewart.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnaJStewart
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AJStewartWriter
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/AnnaJStewart
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8475995.Anna_J_Stewart
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Anna-J-Stewart/e/B00M79FNAY/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
I hope that these ideas help you to break through!
Disclaimer: This post is exclusively the words and views of the guest blogger and do not necessarily represent the views of Heather L. Barksdale. The story featured has not been read or reviewed by Heather’s bookshelf.
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