For me, my stories start in different ways. Sometimes it’s just as simple as me being at the keyboard and thinking of two random words that normally wouldn’t go together and then finding a way to create a sentence from them. That becomes the first sentence and I write from there. Usually though, that’s just an exercise to get my creative juices going (see how much of a story you can come up with starting with these two words used in the first sentence: ibuprofen & crab – e-mail me with your result at beyondthecharts@beyondthecharts.com – not a contest, but something to talk about – just let it be a freeflow kind of thing and when you get to your stopping point where you can’t think too much on it, you’re done!)

One time I started a story with a sentence where I flipped the usual order of the words by accident and was a few sentences later when I saw it and decided it worked. It’s a great opening line that I won’t mention here as I intend to complete that story, but I got my story from it since before I noticed how I wrote the line I really didn’t know what I would write about and was just writing. Once I noticed it, I knew what had to be written. It was like the whole story just started unfolding before my eyes.

A lot of times I might get an image in my head of something, usually the “opening” scene. When this happens, I usually don’t write right away. I’ll think on it and try to figure out what’s happening with it. Sometimes the story will just come to me then and I’ll pretty much know what’s going to happen from beginning to end that I need to have in the story. Then it’s just a matter of writing it out and seeing what else happens. Not long after the Columbine shooting I started a novel like that. I saw two students approaching each other in the hallway and I knew that one of them was going to do something really bad, while the other one was a really good guy that could hang with anyone and that they were good friends. Then I had to figure out from there where the story would go. Once I had my ending, I started writing.

Over the years, for the most part, I don’t write notes. My general thought is that if it’s a good enough idea it will stick with me. And that’s usually the case. Then a while back some ideas that I really liked started to elude me when I would try to remember them. Now I try to write down those ideas when I really like them at first. Others I let go of. Some of those come back, some don’t. But I’m making sure I don’t let any more that I like escape me on that first go round in case I may want to use them later on.

When I’m writing a novel, I have all the information within me. It’s coming from me anyway, so I should know what the story is if it’s there to be told. Sometimes I’m writing and the story unfolds as I write, while other times I know exactly where I’m going because the story has already unfolded for me. That’s the difference – usually – of whether I started writing before I’ve thought things out. Typically, I try to have the whole story (not word for word, mind you) in my mind before I start on it, so that way I know what I’ll be writing. I read a comment (I thought on here so I could quote it exactly, but after looking around maybe not) about how in an interview Ted Dekker had mentioned having about three other complete stories going on in his head that he hadn’t written down yet. As long as he meant that he didn’t have the word for word novel in his head, then I can relate to that as right now I can pluck a few stories that have floated in my head for quite some time and if you were here I could tell you what I know about them.

So, I don’t use an outline. In fact, when I was in chat session recently sharing a story I’m writing with a fellow author who has commented on here, that person asked me to send them my outline. I said I didn’t have one. It’s all in my head. That person had to go so it was insisted that I took the time to write it down. So I had to actually write an “outline” down for this person. It was late at night and I didn’t finish it, so I sent what I had written. To me, writing an outline is time better spent writing the story going on inside of me. An outline is the story without the details. Since I already know that, I want to find out the details. As I use up enough time with other things than just writing as it is, when I’m sitting down for my story, I want to actually be WRITING it, and not writing down everything I already have in my head about it.

Oh, and although I’ve had a lot of interesting dreams over the years – some being prophetic dreams – I have never, and I mean NEVER, been lead to turn any of them into a story. I can’t say that won’t change one day, but for now, that is NOT an avenue my story ideas have approached me from. They prefer parkways and boulevards.

So for better or worse, that’s how I come up with my ideas. Hope it either helps you out or maybe you find it entertaining.

I do write about people, I mean here in the posts I do, but it’s only the awesome ones that make it into a Scienda vignette.

This comment threading with the template changes is pushing me over the edge. Completely. As of Monday night, it will all be better.

“I’m a writer. If you’re mean to me, I’ll put you in my novel and kill you.” (LGP)

Pen is mightier than the sword, ya know…