There’s a question authors get asked all the time: I’m asked this question at least three times a week.
Where do you get your ideas?
And I always feel like there should be a much neater answer than the one I actually have/give.
Maybe a secret room somewhere.
A particularly magical notebook.
A very organized filing cabinet labeled BOOK IDEAS: OPEN WHEN NEEDED.
Unfortunately, that is not how my brain works. 😂
My stories have started with songs, questions, and places. They’ve started with characters who seemed to arrive already carrying baggage. Random conversations. Images I couldn’t stop thinking about, and sometimes a tiny idea that absolutely did not look big enough to become an entire book.
Which is why this felt like the perfect place to begin Behind the Manuscript.
Once a month, I want to open the door a little wider and show you what actually happens between “I have an idea…” and the finished books you eventually get to hold.
Because the manuscript usually begins long before Chapter One.
Sometimes It Starts With “What If?”
Those two words have gotten me into an unreasonable amount of trouble. Yeah, I’m not going to explain just how much trouble these words have gotten me into or how. So you’ll just have to believe me.
What if…?
That’s often all it takes.
Not a plot, not a character profile, and definitely not an outline. Just a question interesting enough that my brain refuses to leave it alone. At first, I might only know one small piece. But then another question appears.
Who would this happen to?
Why does it matter?
What happened before this?
What happens if they make the worst possible choice?
And eventually the original question has collected characters, relationships, locations, history, complications, and approximately seventeen new problems I did not ask for.
Congratulations. Apparently we have a book now. 😂
Sometimes It Starts With a Feeling
This one is harder to explain. Sometimes I don’t know what the story is yet. I only know what I want it to feel like. Maybe it’s the warmth of a small town where people know each other a little too well. Maybe it’s grief and healing and the feeling of finding home again all combined into one.
There isn’t always a plot attached to it immediately. Sometimes I’m building around an emotion before I understand who the story belongs to.
This is exactly what happened with Waldon Springs.
The town couldn’t just be a backdrop. I wanted it to feel familiar. I wanted a coffee shop people knew, a bookstore they’d want to wander through, and streets that eventually felt like somewhere they’d been before. Oh, and a B&B that’s been in the town for well, you’ll just have to read the books to find out how long. (Oh, Waldon Springs is coming in 2027.)
The stories came into focus as the whole town did.
And Yes, Sometimes It Starts With a Song
Project Eclipse is probably one of my favorite examples of how oddly specific inspiration can become something much bigger. That world started with a combination of a song and a question I couldn’t stop asking.
And then it grew…. One character became more. One relationship opened the door to another.
Suddenly there was history I needed to understand, a group with years of shared experiences, music, rehearsals, backstage spaces, friendships, heartbreak, and an entire world that existed long before the point where the actual book begins.
<
The First Idea Is Rarely the Whole Story
That’s probably the biggest misconception about story ideas or what I call Plot Bunnies.
An idea arrives.
A story is built.
Those aren’t the same thing.
The first spark might be exciting enough to make me open a notebook, but then comes the questioning.
I start collecting. Images go onto Pinterest boards. Notes appear in whatever notebook is closest. (Or if you’re like me, I go to a store and buy a new one that matches the story idea. Like for Project Eclipse it’s a purple notebook and a purple binder.)
Character details get written down. Locations start developing. Research tabs multiply at an alarming rate. Songs get added to playlists. One tiny scene appears even though I have absolutely no idea where it belongs, and slowly, the pieces begin talking to one another.
That’s when I start seeing the difference between:
This is a fun idea.
and
Oh. There’s actually a story here.
Some Ideas Need Company
Sometimes one idea isn’t enough.
Project Eclipse needed both the song and the question.
A setting might need a character. A character might sit quietly in my notes for months until the right conflict finds them. An image I saved two years ago might suddenly belong to something I’m working on now. (This happens to me all the time. Since I’m a very visual person, I tend to save images that spark something.)
That’s why I keep so much. Not because every passing thought deserves its own novel. Please. I would never sleep again. 😂 But I’ve learned that ideas have a strange habit of finding each other. Two completely unrelated scraps can suddenly click together and become the thing neither could have become alone.
That’s also why my Plot Bunny Sanctuary exists. Yes, my plot bunnies have their own sanctuary to roam around and do plot bunny things.
Some ideas aren’t ready. They just need somewhere to live until they are…or roam around and multiply.
And Not Every Idea Becomes a Book
This matters too.
I have plenty of ideas that will probably never become manuscripts. Not because they’re bad ideas; sometimes they aren’t big enough. Some lose their shine once I start asking questions. Some belong inside another story, and some simply aren’t mine to write right now.
And that’s okay.
Getting an idea doesn’t create an obligation. I think creativity becomes a lot more fun when every interesting thought isn’t immediately assigned a deadline. (Which is a great thing when I already have 6 projects going right now.)
Sometimes I get to simply wonder about something. Sometimes I get to collect pieces, and sometimes I get to leave an idea alone until it starts making noise again. The stories worth following usually do.So
Where Do Story Ideas Really Come From?
Everywhere. (This is why authors say watch what you do and say around us…JK/ well, kind of.) And nowhere particularly convenient. 😂
They come while I’m driving, while I’m listening to music.
While I’m sitting in a coffee shop.
While I’m researching something completely unrelated.
While I’m supposed to be concentrating on another manuscript. (Cough…Couch…Alicia…you already have six you’re working on currently.)
They come from questions, places, emotions, people, memories, songs, and moments that make me stop for half a second longer than usual. They come from conversations at the coffee shop or even real life. But I don’t think the magic is really in having the idea.
The interesting part is what happens afterward.
It’s noticing the spark and being curious enough to follow it.
Asking another question.
Saving the photograph.
Writing down that sentence you can’t get out of your head, and giving yourself permission to see whether there’s something waiting on the other side.
That’s where the manuscript begins….Not with Chapter One; it’s with curiosity.
☕ Pull Up a Chair
Since this is the first chapter of Behind the Manuscript, I want you involved in where we wander next.
What’s something about how books are made that you’ve always wanted to peek behind the curtain and see?
Characters? Plotting? Research? Worldbuilding? First drafts? Deleted scenes? The absolute chaos of keeping an entire fictional universe straight?
Tell me in the comments. I have a feeling some of your questions may become future chapters. 💜
Behind the Manuscript
This is only Chapter One.
Once a month, we’ll open another door and look at one part of what happens between the first flicker of an idea and the finished story that eventually makes its way to readers.
And trust me.
There is a lot happening back here. 😂
