Authors Can Get Ideas From Some Pretty Strange Places! (by Lauren Klever, author of 'The Secret Watchers'

Authors Can Get Ideas From Some Pretty Strange Places!

By Lauren Klever

Sometimes ideas jump from the shadows, taking you completely by surprise.  As I work on books four and five of my five book series, I’ve found that although some ideas are planned, many are not.  I believe most authors observe the world around them with intense interest.  Beware - anything you say or do may end up in one of our books!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Wait.  Stop.  Say that again!”  To which, those who know me well roll their eyes.  I often find a place for these bits within the existing story.  I write, I read what I wrote and then I revise adding the new ingredients like a chef adds spice to a favorite dish.

Sometimes things don’t go that way at all.  Once in a while a fanciful whim taps you on the shoulder or smacks you over the head.  I’ve had lightening strike, so to speak, while I was writing.  I’ve had an idea pop into my head and completely change the direction of a scene or even a major part of the story.  I liken this to a riptide of thought.  It is almost like the characters are speaking to me and in a way... they are.  I’ve grown to love them and feel like they are friends.  I want to stay true to them and their own personal story within the context of the greater story, so on occasion, I allow them to carry me away.

Many scenes grow from bouncing ideas around with my friends and family.  Wherever I go, I always take a notebook, so when ideas strike, I can capture them.  One of these moments happened while at my son’s cross country meet.  As my friend and I watched our boys compete we became swept up in the idea of having my protagonist, Owen, be on the cross country team and formulated what would happen if, in the middle of a competition, he came across a villain he was not yet ready to handle.  I’ve got to tell you, ideas were flying faster than I could write.  I even had to call her after the meet to double check my rapid scribbles and finish some thoughts.  The time spent collaboratively thinking is some of the most fun I’ve had writing this series.  If you’re looking to be inspired, take a vague idea, sit down with someone you trust and hash it out.  You may be surprised at what jumps from the shadows for you to crystallize into a wonderful and amazing new piece! 

Lauren Klever is the author of The Secret Watchers series.  Book one, Visions, is available now and book two, Whispers, is due to release in February of 2013.  She is a K-12 educator, volunteer and parent.  Lauren can be found at any of the following places...

Website and blog:  http://thesecretwatchers.com 

Facebook, Author Fan Page:  http://facebook.com/authorLaurenKlever 

Facebook, The Secret Watchers Fan Page: http://facebook.com/OwenRyerseries  

Twitter:  @SecretWatchers

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/LaurenKlever

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kleverl/

Email:  laurenwrites@thesecretwatchers.com    

My growing story

My book, The Speed of Darkness has no official page count because as of now it only exists within computer files. (Yes I'm still sure that someday it'll become popular enough that someone else will pay to print it. I can dream can't I?)
Before today or at least until recently Amazon estimated its length to be around 117 pages. That may have seemed a little short to me, but hey I wrote it; I realize that I'll probably see it as bigger and more important than anyone else. Hell, MSWord only has it as 104 pages; I just thought that the average book page was quite a bit shorter than the average document page.
117 and 104 seemed a bit too close to me, but maybe my whole page-length idea was just wrong. Whatever... Except when I was getting its Amazon page today, for some reason they've recalculated the book-length to 143.
Where did that come from? Were they miscalculating in the first place and so advertising my story as less than it is? Have they stuffed the back end with adds that they aren't paying me for? Either way, that just doesn't sit well with me.

Nothing to do with Amazon, The story actually IS growing. Right now I've started putting some notes together and rereading The Speed of Darkness to collect the elements I need to make a prequel. Right now I think it would be somewhat funny if I could fix it to be exactly 9,999 words because most of the short story publishing submission guidelines ask for a story of less than 10,000 words, but my length is not essential. If I build up a good story that gets messed up when I try to tweak the length, that idea can easily be abandoned. Mainly, I want a story that would easily stand alone but would also happily lead into the existing story. With my lack of advertising budget, this could be a great way to have others notice my writing. Even if it isn't, I had a ton of fun making The Speed of Darkness, and even if nothing comes of the prequel being an ad idea, it could eventually lead to my reediting of the original to offer in some sort of combo edition.

I think that last blog title hurt me....

Want to guess what happened to that story?
Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll continue it at some time. In fact, Rachel Hadley's recent review of The Speed of Darkness has put me in the mood to write a prequel for it.
And don't let me try to get clever with words here in a way that's that's gonna leave me questioning whether or not the story will come to be; if I could end that other by saying my talk could curse it, I'm saying now- unquestionably, and quite assuredly- I AM going to write my prequel through to it's end without working on anything else until it's done.
-Sarah

It's almost Short Fiction Week 2011? It must be a sign

This morning I finally worked out in my head how I could write a story with some fantasy characters I've been playing around with for quite a while.
My only problem was that before now that's all it was, 4 characters and no story. And one idea of a scene- a centaur and a satyr hiding inside a fast food joint, trying to serve customers without letting on that they aren't human.
My other 2 characters are a girl dragon in human form with the other mythical creatures and some teenage-20 something guy who is first meeting the others.
Now this was all a bit fanciful even for me so I tried not to give it too much serious thought; but the ideas kept coming back; building into more of a story.
I just knew certain things about my characters:

-The centaur is somehow in charge, the leader or something.

-The Centaur and the Satyr are much older than the other two, and have been teamed together to get past something seriously bad...

-My satyr has goat horns on his human head except one is broken short where the centaur kicked him once. Centaur dude feels guilty about this and it's probably the only reason why he will put up with the satyr acting like he does sometimes.. (you know, like a Satyr ^^)

-The normal guy somehow becomes a werewolf as a result of something the other three do and so they now feel responsible for looking out for him as his beliefs in reality are rewritten and keeping others safe from a werewolf who hasn't learned to control himself.
(As none of them are human they don't have to worry about going werewolf, I guess...)

Need I go on? All that's important is that I never felt it was enough to make a story
This morning I was looking at how it's still about a week until November so I probably shouldn't start on my NaNoWriMo story just yet, but that would be enough time for a semi-flash short story.
[if you ever heard that description before, it's probably 'cause I 'semi-made' it up~ flash-fiction, as I understand it uses no notes and very little forethought- I can't do that! I like to have even minimal notes; to build myself some sort of frame to work within and to spend a bit of time even if it's just a day or two to think about how I would react to the situations I've given my characters.]

So I decided I'm gonna write not the entire story of my 4 characters (for one reason- because I'm pretty sure I haven't thought it all up yet) but just the tale of how my creatures and the human came together, at their lovely fast-food place with dragon-fire-grilled burgers.
Hmm, I wonder if that mode of cooking would pass a health inspection....

A Rejection I'm Glad to Get

Have you ever had a great idea that refused to materialize when you set to work on it? I'm talking really fun here, just imagining what it could be is enjoyable.
After spending a couple months on one of these 'great' ideas, I had what I considered to be a good first chapter for my epic, imaginary time and space novel written. I had a full vision of where it was going; yet suddenly; I ran into a solid wall that blocked my finding how.
After a week or two of getting nowhere on it, writing but rejecting scenes and notes that didn't quite measure up to what I had, I moved all parts of it to the unfinished folder on my computer, because I couldn't justify spending trying to spruce up the tale that seemed to have died.
Now this was just shortly after I had given up on the other book I recently had the guts to get published. That one, The Speed of Darkness, was enjoyable to me after not looking at it for a good long time, so perhaps I thought, that other one would work now, too.
And yes, I still liked what I had, but the ending seemed just a little bit too short. Fine, I decided, I'll just pass what I have to a couple publishers as a short story, and if I ever decide how to continue it; I can write a sequel.
Of course now, this was last month now that I sent it to someone who asked me to wait until some date in November with no contact before I considered it rejected; so can you guess what happened?
The very night after I sent it off, I had the thought of how to continue it. We're talking one of those fun 11:30 p.m. frantic note writings in the dark that makes me glad my computer screen glows so I don't have to worry about my room light switch.
The continuation!!
I was only left hoping what I had already sent wouldn't pass the prospective editor's evaluation. Not enough hope that I felt I should contact them to withdraw my submission (even what I have planned now doesn't complete the story so it wouldn't hurt to have part published), but I could certainly see that it would all be stronger if presented together. I put off trying to write it until I knew if I should write it as part of what I had or if it needed the right structuring to stand alone.

This morning I got the email, apologizing that my story didn't make the cut. One of the reasons why they gave was that it ended quite abruptly.
This rejection gives me the opportunity to immerse myself once again in my fantasy world of Tehar. Thank you for the rejection Bewildering Stories.