Out of Thin Air

Hey, MMM fans. I've been thinking about where our stories come from. Actually, I listened to a lecture Stephen King gave to a Massachusetts University on U-tube. He talked about the kernels that stayed with him. Those were the things he knew he would write, sooner or later.

He started Under the Dome when he was still teaching high school. But, he put the book away, wondering if it was too big for him to write then.

I have one of those books on my desk top. I've been playing with the woman's fiction for a couple of years now, maybe longer. I have the first scene in my head but I haven't felt comfortable enough to dive into the lake and find the lake monster. Not quite yet. Although the book keeps calling to me. I loved hearing King talk about his own process. It made me feel a little less freaky and more like a writer.

Today I hit send on an email to my editor. It's a new cozy proposal that I started playing with last summer during my two week driving trip out west to Idaho. The idea has been marinating for months, with me writing notes about the project. Then last week, I sat down and started making decisions. Who, what, where, when, and how. And one more decision, why. Who were the characters and why were they on the page when they were? My notebook page looked like doodles rather than an outline. But it worked and I'm excited to begin this new adventure.

So where do your stories come from fellow MMM authors? Do they drop down fully cooked as if you dreamed them? Or are you a mad plotter with spreadsheets and pages done before you even start to write the story?

Or are you like me, someone who takes an idea and plays with it for a while in my head before it turns into a story?

Lynn

By the way, GUIDEBOOK TO MURDER, the book that hit the NYT's list last summer is on sale through January. Amazon/Nook/Kobo - it's $1.99. It's a great time to take a chance on a new series.