So, if you weren't aware, I've written a novel. My very first, actually. And, despite sales being slow, I am incredibly proud of myself. I mean, how many people can say they've actually written a full-length novel?
Not many.
I did though, and that's cool. But enough of the 'what' and let's get to the how and why, as that's what this post (and the series it's a part of) is really all about. I want to share with you—yes, you reading this—my process: from idea generation to hitting that final period in place on a fully-written first draft to watching it go live to the world.
Let's begin then.
Step One
Ideas. Where do they come from? How do you know they're good? How do you develop them from being a little spark to a world ready to be explored? Well, they're all great questions, but slow down. One at a time please.
Before those questions though, let's clear something up quickly. An idea is just the start: a basic premise, or scene, or character that interests you. They are not stories, screenplays, stageplays, or novels... yet. They are, however, the beginnings of those. An idea can—and should—blossom into one of the aforementioned products, but it will take work.
Right, now that we have that established, where do ideas come from?
Anywhere. That's the short answer.
The long answer is, as follows:
Anything can be the flint to your mind's steel. Music, art, other pieces of writing—it's all valid inspiration that can give you ideas. A lot of ideas can be boiled down to [BLANK] meets [BLANK]; for example, I've described my novel recently as Harry Potter meets Narnia. However, you can do it for anything. Zombies meets Alien— you get a story where a space virus causes the crew members of a ship to turn into monsters and the survivors have to fight them off in this enclosed space. Home Alone meets John Wick—you get 2022's Violent Night. And so on. Ideas come from everything that's around us, so just keep your eyes and ears at the ready and note down anything you think could work.
Next question then.
How do you know an idea is good? Try it. It's that simple. I mean, sometimes you'll get an idea and you will instantly know that it's got legs—or you will fall so madly in love with it that, regardless, you have to make it work. But it's not always like that. When it's not, like I said, just try it out. Write a short synopsis of the story you want it to become. If that's tricky or doesn't feel good, maybe leave it there.
You can always leave ideas and come back to them. Remember that.
Anyway, in most cases, you'll know an idea is good if you're able to fall into it. If that synopsis makes you want to write it—if it flows so effortlessly from you that you can't stop—it'll be good. Because, the truth is: any idea can be good, so long as it's treated well. It's not the idea, but how well you develop it, that matters.
Okay then. Phew. Last question for Step One, which coincidentally links to what I just said, how do you develop ideas?
It can be tricky. For some, it'll happen naturally and a story will form slowly as the idea mulls in their mind. For others, you'll have to mind map ideas together to find a story that works. It's really a very individual thing.
Often, I find that once I have a premise, like [BLANK] meets [BLANK], I'll already have other (connected) ideas bubbling in my mind. Scenes that would be interesting to see in this still-forming story. An ending to end all endings. Characters that are waiting to fall in love—or kill each other. Or, sometimes, both. All of these things are popping up simultaneously in my mind and it's just a matter of sorting them out.
From there, I tend to head to storyplanner.com (not sponsored, sadly) and I create an outline. All three acts are written out, with their key plot points easy for me to find and follow as I write my first draft, and that's typically it. That's where I begin writing.
It's not where idea development ends, for me, though.
No, sadly, ideas and the story as a whole will continue to be developed until the final draft. Or close to it, anyway. I am currently writing the sequel to The Secrets of the Lake and find myself rewriting chapters and tweaking it constantly, despite having an outline of the whole story already. This is how it is—at least, for me, anyway.
And that's my idea process, from start to finish. I hope reading it has been interesting and somewhat educational. But, I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. Come Friday, I'll be back with a second part to this series, in another blog post. Until then however, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.
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