Reader Question: Where do your ideas come from?

 

I think the number one question that authors get is where do their ideas come from. Which is understandable, as many people want to write a book but never do (ps I am of the belief that everybody totally can; there just may be more work needed for some in edits).

Since I started writing with thrillers, I’ll start the answer there too, as my different genres have different inspirations. I am all about the ‘what if?’ when it comes to thriller and horror stories. Excite literally came from a prompt that began with—What if you created a pill to stop the placebo effect? Not all my stories are so literal (and really, Excite is not about the placebo effect, but about the pill that... doesn’t stop it).

My brain is pretty good at generating ‘what ifs’ from all types of prompts, images, texts, tropes, horses... I never tell it no; even if an idea isn’t something I can use at the moment, I have a folder on my computer called ‘Idea Box,’ and I will file away that item for later use.

 

According to Plan started with a picture of an abandoned tent. I saw it in the dense woods and thought, ‘What if the person meant it to look that way?’ Thus began my imagining of Laura and her bid to escape her stalker and start a new life.

 

A House in Shadow came up from a what if Dad was the stay-at-home parent that is stuck with the haunted house terror? All too often the trope is the ‘hysterical woman’ experiencing things and the man not believing her; I wanted to flip that on its head (among other things).

For my newest story, right now simply called my BHV thriller, the prompt was actually the cover! I joined an amazing group of authors for a shared world project, and the founder created covers for us to choose from so that the series looks cohesive. Mine has a lit-up large house and an ominous shadow. I wondered about who that shadow was and why he was there. What if he wasn’t a bad guy? (He might be, but no spoilers here!) and went from there.
 

 

Jumping over to my romances, it is no secret that romance readers love a well-used trope, so I lean into that. It makes for good fun in trying to use the trope effectively but also do something different with it. Adding in the horses always helps; you know who’s a better wingman than your best friend? That innocent-looking pony in the far field (this appears in a short I am currently working on). 

 

I like to mix and match tropes with different types of people in the horse world (*cough* see image above *cough*) and imagine how their lives could be turned upside down when they can’t run off on a whim because there is a barn full of horses waiting to be fed. It’s an added layer of complication that makes for interesting dates and run-ins between characters.