Where Do Stories Come From?

You think of yourself as a writer, and, many times, this is what someone's first question is.

The answer is simple: Everywhere.

As Angie pointed out in a comment to my last post, stories and characters can bubble up soon after you've gone to bed (but not completely asleep), and soon after you've woken up. I've been hit with some good stuff in the shower and the bath.

The point is, something can smack you upside the head at the weirdest times. There's a good chance you might not use it, but then again...you never know.

Case in point the WIP I just went back to. This is one I revised several times about a year ago, then put aside. I think I put it out for critting at the wrong time, as I wasn't really ready for critting at that point.

But I digress. This began with a dream I had over several nights (yeah, reruns in the brain, lol). I then bought a map off of Ebay of one of the cities it would take place; I bought a travel map off Ebay for another city it's going to take place in.

I developed it off a dream, but I expanded it. The original draft was different than what it is right now. I originally envisioned a woman having to deal with a snarky, mean-spirited movie studio owner. It would take place during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood movies, when the studio system was in full force. The studio would be a poverty row studio (something like Monogram)...and so on.

What it is now developed out of the fact that I can't have kids, and the woman decided to adopt. I linked that up with her adopted daughter, who wants to find out who her birth mother is. The first woman (a former movie star) had reasons for not giving her daughter the correct information for her to find her birth mother...

Sounds a bit sinister, and the daughter resents it when she finds out, but there's a sad and sobering reason why the adopted mother did what she did.

I also threw in a goddess, who helps bring the adopted daughter back in time, to the 1942, when the adopted daughter is born. World War II, coupled with the Hollywood "dream factory" (along with the idea that not everyone was making huge salaries like Bette Davis or Cary Grant), well, I'm hoping it's something not only an agent would want to read, but lots of people would want to.

And I have another idea for a story, but it's not fantasy at all. It's a romance, and, again, the reruns in my head are making me consider fleshing it out.

In due time.

~Nancy Beck