By
Brenda Novak
The
one question I am asked far more than any other is, “Where do you get your
ideas?”
When
I first started writing, I had THE GREAT IDEA. It was based almost entirely on
a title that popped into my head one day—OF NOBLE BIRTH. This title lent itself
to a very specific theme: whether one is noble depends on the heart and not the
pedigree. That was the message I wanted to convey, and I knew the best backdrop
for a story with such a message would be a historical setting where the caste
system was firmly in place.
After
five years spent researching the Victorian time period and teaching myself the
craft of storytelling, I managed to sell that book to HarperCollins. The
publisher even let me keep my precious title from which all else had
sprung. But with OF NOBLE BIRTH finally finished and sold, I soon realized
that was NOT the only book I would ever need to write if I wanted to make my
living as a published author. In order to build my career, I had to write
another story, and another, and another. That meant I had to develop my
imagination, turn it into a deep well of ideas from which I could draw time and
again.
I
didn’t know how I was going to do this but, fortunately, our brains are very
adaptable. The more I demanded that my imagination deliver IDEA NUMBER 2, the
harder it began to search. Before long, my mind turned into a “sifter.” It
sifted through everything that came my way, every conversation I overheard,
every funny anecdote I was told, every movie I saw, every newspaper article I
read, every true crime show I puzzled over—until I could pull an attitude from
one character I’d come to know via a TV show, mix it with a situation my mother
had mentioned to me the week before, throw in some of my personal experience
and…I was off and typing.
Some
days, I still fear I’ll run out of ideas. After I wrote my last suspense
trilogy (INSIDE, IN SECONDS & IN CLOSE), my work came to a grinding halt.
“What should I do next?” I asked myself. And there was no answer! I thought my
imagination had failed me after thirty-something novels. But it just
wanted to go in a different direction. Once I realized that I was craving a
return to my contemporary romance roots, a juicy drama started to take shape in
my mind about a group of friends (both male and female) who have grown up
together and currently live in a small gold country town in the Sierra Nevada
Foothills (like those not far from where I live). I could easily conjure up the
setting and the type of people my characters would need to be to remain fast
friends for so long.
With
that, I was able to write brief story outlines. One book after another began to
take shape until I had a yet-to-be-written inventory of twelve books, beginning
with a digital prequel called WHEN WE TOUCH, which kicks things off with a
bang. (Actually, it all starts with a wedding—but not the wedding everyone’s
been expecting. What would be the fun in writing about that?) Since then, I’ve
written seven of those twelve books. The latest, COME HOME TO ME, is available.
So…where
do you get your ideas?
______________________________________________________________________
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Brenda Novak writes contemporary romance as well as historical romance and
romantic suspense. She also runs an annual on-line auction for diabetes
research every May at www.brendanovak.com. To date, she’s raised over $2 million to help her son and others like
him and is currently gearing up for the fundraiser's ten-year anniversary.
Brenda considers herself lucky to be a mother of five and married to the love
of her life. Website: www.brendanovak.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaNovakAuthor Twitter: @Brenda_Novak
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