The grass is greener...

Ideas are like grass and I'm the cow. No, really!

There are so many things around me that cry out to be turned into stories that I never have only one project in process. I take one from here, another from over there and, oh look! There's a great one further that way! I call it my writer's ADD. My husband calls them my "Ooo! Shiny!" moments. Continue reading on my blog…

Vacation offers more than relaxation

My husband and I spent 6 days in Indianapolis this last month. It was a glorious time! Good food, good fun, and good ideas. We spent those days at Gen Con, the convention for gamers of all types. People watching was abound! So, when asked where my newest ideas came from, my only answer is Gen Con.
View the rest of the story at: http://tiptoeingthroughmetaphors.blogspot.com/2011/08/vacation-offers-more-than-relaxation.html

Stop back tomorrow for another writer's idea factory details!

How Would You React?

I’m currently focused on my novel Thirteen Covens. I probably shouldn’t admit this but as a life-long occultist I tend to deal with a lot of groups and people (and consequently their emo drama) and let me tell you – a lot of it is wonderful fodder for fiction... Continue reading on my blog.

A Tree Full of Ideas

To this point, I’ve been offering insights like you already have an idea to write. Silly me, I forgot that this isn’t always the case. Though I will also note that you aren’t alone if you can’t sit down and just start writing -- that blank page intimidates people.

Continue Reading on my Blog: http://swordsvspens.blogspot.com/2011/08/tree-full-of-ideas.html

The Idea That Came Out of the Blue

All right. So this month's topic on the blog tour is "Where You Got Your Latest Idea" . . . Cue a few moments of silence as I try to remember just what my latest story idea was. To be honest, I can't remember which idea is the latest since I simply have so many of them. I still know the inspiration for the story I'm currently working on, though. It all came when Lily--the girl I nearly dated in high school--asked me to write some sort of "what if" (or perhaps "could have been") story about a romance between characters based upon me and her. (So how did it go, then?)

Where book about tattoos meets Dalai Lama’s speech

This was sparked by tattoo art book I saw in the library, sitting on the shelf, which I wasn't suppose to touch. I was there to study after all. But the wonderful sleeve tattoo on front cover wouldn't leave me be and after I saw this guy in perfect suit walk by, with "it must feel good to be so clean and smell like linen closet" echoing through my scull I reached my hand for pen and paper. Then I put it aside. Read more on my blog.

Where I Got My (Not So) Latest Idea

Today's post is pretty messy.  I walk you through the much and the slime of how the pieces of litter I collect at various points of life come together to form an idea that may or may not produce a book.  I confess, today's idea is still on the compost pile, but I think it will spawn something useful eventually, so I'm sharing it with you.  Don't worry.  It's not smelly, and you don't need your hip waders to get through it.  Feel free to remain on the catwalk and watch from afar -- or jump into the muck with me and brainstorm where it might wind up.  I have fifty thousand words written on this, but I can throw them all out and start again if I get the right combination of stuff.  Check it out here -- if you dare:
http://polarbear60.org/randr/2011/08/19/latest-idea/

Where I got my latest idea

Without thinking about this month's question, I had already posted a bit about my current idea. I'm doing a series of reports on how this particular story grows (or story setting -- I think I see far more than a single piece for this one). You can find it here. You can, in fact, see all the posts for the Water/Stone/Light project by clicking on the label in the right hand column.

Since the new project is so well documented already, I'm going to look at a couple older pieces and where those ideas came from.

How do I get ideas? How do writers not get ideas? They're everywhere.

Read More

This Idea is Oooooold....

The Sanguire trilogy is written! YAY! Broken Trails should be out by the end of the year! YAY! My vacation starts today - fifteen days of pure nothing to do but putter around the house and cuddle my wife! YAY!

Now what?

(insert photo of writer deflating here)

Continue reading at In Shadows

on the making of ideas

Which of my latest ideas do you want to hear about? I have more than I'm comfortable with. Sadly, I can't remember where I get all of my ideas from. I don't remember the exact place or time when I came up with either "Dueling Bards" or "Emerald Orbs", though they are rather loosely tied together by theme. I do recall two of the direct influences that led to my character Jules, who is the main character in "Dueling Bards". Read more on my blog...

Ideas are everywhere

This month's merry-go-round-blog-tour topic is where our ideas come from.  I've blogged before about where I found my latest idea here:  three random images combined to turn into a story idea.  In this story's case it was a girl who hated having her photo taken, an abandoned amusement park, and a murdered boy that have coalesced around a YA project that is part ghost story part murder mystery.  So far, I have nearly a dozen pages of hand written notes and a few trial scenes to explore my protagonist's voice. [keep reading this entry]

The Highwayman Came Riding . . .

My last idea came from the daily writing I’ve been doing and some musical inspiration. As I was writing about nothing and complaining about being bored, I was also listening to music. One of the songs that came on was Loreena McKennitt’s stunning musical rendition of Tennyson’s poem, “The Highwayman.” Continue reading at my blog.

more than an idea

I seldom get "an" idea. I have ideas. Multitudes of them, all shoved into the same pile to ferment, ripen, simmer, rot, compost -- any metaphor will do. They bump into each other and eventually start to cling to each other in interesting and improbable ways. (More at Cowgirl in New England.)

Ow, That Hurt! An Assault From My Muse

I’m one of those writers who finds herself assaulted by ideas. Sometimes they’re good, like an interesting title or a phrase that just sparkles. Dreams offer visual ideas, as does television and playing with my children. I frequently use writing prompts because they are like a puzzle and it’s a joy to makes sense of elements that aren’t apparently connected.  Continue reading here.

~ D.M. Bonanno

Catching plot bunnies ...

As I’ve mentioned before, I often have more than one project in progress, so I had to decide which one to use for this post — I’m going to talk about Touching Time, my Mayan novel. In my freelance work, I do a lot of proofreading of travel books. This often gives me little baby plot bunnies that I stuff into a hutch in my brain to see if they grow into anything. Continue reading on my blog . . .

What About Lily? Where I Got My Latest Idea

When I read, especially when I read books I love over and over, I become increasingly interested in the stories of the characters who've been mentioned only once or twice but whose lives are radically changed by the protagonist's actions.

To kick of this month's tour with the topic of Where I got my latest idea, I ask how Alice's playing the game in Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass affected the pawn she replaced, the Princess Lily - and in answering my question I discovered I had a book waiting to get written.

Check it out over on my blog AlexWorld.