I wish I knew… how does anyone start a new book? I know some writers swear by creating collages. Jennifer Crusie wrote this article about it, and I was inspired to start one last weekend but then didn’t have the time to hit the dollar store or the thrift store. But I did mess around online a bit. So here, for what it’s worth, is the embryonic creative process for a book that may or may not be called The Story of Miss O.
My off-the-top of my head, clunky notes are in italics:
Winter late afternoon, puddles icing over. Late January. Road between trees, gray, dun landscape. Ruts in road, mud, ice. Light fading.
It’s very difficult to find landscapes of bad weather–might have something to do with the fact that Constable et al only liked to be outdoors in the summer, and who can blame them. Similarly it’s quite difficult to find an image of ordinary gloomy winter weather rather than the picturesque. I don’t think there’s snow on the ground, but there may well be a frost setting in. So something like this, but with less snow, is good. I like the light in this pic.
Hero is in dogcart, trap (note to self: research vehicle or make it up, guess which I’ll pick). He’s come from London for the reading of a will, and at the moment I believe he’s the lawyer, the youngest son of an aristocratic family.
And he looks like, or something like, this gent (courtesy of Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, purely because there’s a huge stash of portraits all in one place). The portrait is of a Russian aristocrat (equal opportunity casting). He is nameless at the moment.
As the trap is about to make a turn at a crossroads, a woman approaches. Yes! It’s the heroine, wearing a horrible assortment of drab clothes (she’s in mourning and has dyed something black). As she lifts her skirt to avoid a puddle she reveals a grubby petticoat and a gray woollen stocking collapsing over the top of one boot. So she’s much the same color as the landscape, except for her hair, chopped short, and red gold.
And here she is, cleaned up (very cleaned up–Russian royalty). Her name is probably something like Iphigenia, Cassandra, Constance, Sophronia (did I make that last one up?), Theodosia, Theodora.
Finally, a poem I remembered, and which is of relevance to the heroine (The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy), because technically she’s ruined, and therefore able to make some, ah, interesting choices when she inherits some money. Here’s an overall image for the book (i.e., what I’d like to have on the cover in an ideal universe):
“I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,
And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!”
“My dear a raw country girl, such as you be,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain’t ruined,” said she.
So where do I get my ideas? Well, actually, there’s this website… Where do you get your ideas?
Janet
A lot of my best ideas come from research. For example, when I started my current wip I knew I wanted my hero to be an antique’s dealer. It wasn’t until after I explored items for his shop that I unearthed some interesting info and found my hook.
Other ideas have come from articles, converations with friends or critique partners, or just mulling in the shower. 🙂 You can always visit CNN’s or Yahoo News’ “Odd News” sections; sometimes that sparks ideas as well.
http://writerunboxed.blogspot.com/
I think of characters in a crisis situation, usually. I cannot start writing without knowing the characters’ names, and sorta what they look like.
I don’t do any collaging or anything like that–I wish I could, but the characters just arrive and I have to wrestle with them until they have a plot.
I’ve never done any collaging for a book, either, though it certainly sounds like fun, and a fab way to procrastinate! Especially if I can have a glue gun.
I’m not entirely sure where my ideas come from. Like Megan, they usually start with characters. What kind of people are they? How will they react to the situations I choose to put them in? I get a lot from reading non-fiction, seeing movies, daydreaming. Just last night, I had a dream about a story that would make a great book (I think. After I clean up all that messy dreamy stuff)
I often start with plot, actually. With MY LADY GAMESTER, once I decided I wanted to have a female card-sharp, my next step was asking myself “what might lead a young lady to do such a thing? What sort of background would even make it possible?” So I had the situation first, and the character then arose out of what the situation needed.
Of course, I then work back and forth, character to plot and back again, when creating the story…
As as to where I get my ideas in the first place? Actually, my stuffed hedgehog thinks up most of them. Lucky I have him.
Cara
My stories start with something: usually a character, but could be a setting or situation. Then I try to spin the rest of the story around that “kernel”. I think about what sort of heroine would be best (worst!) for that hero.
Sometimes when a plot goes haywire and elements aren’t working together, thinking about that kernel reminds me of why I wanted to write the story in the first place. It helps me figure out what to cut or change.
But this makes it sound way too easy…
Elena 🙂
I love the collage idea! I might try it with my WIP to see what happens. I have a hard time keeping track of details in the heat of writing so if I had some sort of visual reference it might help me remember key points…
Interesting to hear about the different ways writers plot…One of my favorite stories is from playwright John Guare who wrote Six Degrees of Separation after reading a tiny article in the NYT about a man posing as the son of Sidney Poitier who’d bilked some socialites.