Starbound Lovers: MY IDEA TREE

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

MY IDEA TREE

4:00 AM | Posted by Elysa | | Edit Post

When a reader asks me where I get my ideas for the books I write, I say something funny like: "Oh, I have an idea tree growing in my backyard. Once I year I harvest the ideas and store them in my attic to ripen." That usually gets a laugh. If I get a deer-in-the-headlights look, I remind them I'm a writer of fiction, a teller of tall tales. So what did they expect me to say? Stephen King told people he dug his ideas up in the backyard. Of course, he writes horror not romance, so I guess digging things up is appropriate.

The truth is I find ideas for stories everywhere. Everything I see, hear, taste, feel, or smell can spark a story idea. A snatch of conversation overheard while standing in a grocery store checkout line, reading about a new scientific breakthrough, hearing about a love letter delivered fifty years late, the smell of barbeque on a warm summer night, walking hand-in-hand with my husband through our neighborhood, the sight of two strangers kissing on a street corner or arguing over dinner in a fancy restaurant all trigger What If in my imagination.

And I haven't even mentioned my biggest source of inspiration - novels, TV shows and movies. Though I write mostly in the many sub-genres of romance, I'm a voracious reader of all genres of fiction from romance to horror, mainstream contemporary to historical, mystery to science fiction. Every book I read adds to my knowledge and feeds my muse. Like a squirrel she gathers bits and pieces from every book: an interesting character trait, a fascinating local, a new word. Then she uses them to season the raw ideas I plucked from my tree.

My husband is a big fan of science fiction, but doesn't care for reading, so we watch a lot of TV and movies. Like with books my muse is constantly on the prowl for more ideas.

The Twilight Zone series is one of his favorites and mine. Several of my books draw their beginnings from specific episodes. STAR CRASH was partially inspired by Roddy McDowall's People Are Alike All Over episode. And poses the question, what would it be like to be the star attraction in an alien zoo? Just to stir things up a bit STAR CRASH also incorporates a bit of Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.

THE SWORD AND THE PEN grew out of a combination of the TV show Xena The Warrior Princess meets the movie Stranger Than Fiction, with a touch of the book InkHeart as well as a dab of Keenan Wynn's Twilight Zone episode A World Of His Own. If you're a writer I highly recommend you watch this episode.

Even my shorter contemporary romances have been inspired by real life issues and events. After a visit to the HAHS - Hooved Animal HumaneSociety center in northern Illinois, I set my book THE BABY RACE on a horse rescue ranch. And MAGGIE UNDERCOVER was inspired in part by the Drew Barrymore movie Never Been kissed as well as my son who even though he's thirty still looks like a teenager.

I love to take themes and ideas from different sources mix them together then add my own unique twist to create something new, and I hope interesting and exciting for my readers.

The world is filled with stories both true and fictional waiting to be told. More stories than I could possibly write, which is why I'm glad there are so many talented authors in the world. Because even if I can't write all the stories I still want to read them.

So what inspires you to write? To read?

Happy Reading!

Elysa Hendricks

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