Yesterday over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, they were playing a game with their favorite (and not-so-favorite) romance novels. They presented a list of four word synopsis sentences and made their readers guess what novel it described. (The only one I could guess was "He was a hooker"=Robin Schone's Gabriel's Woman, but I was wrong!)But what struck me as I read their creative list was how much the sentences resembled the "ideas" that spew out of on-line plot generators. Do a search on the terms "idea generator" and "plot generator" and you'll be amazed. There is also a low-tech idea machine which involves putting individual plot elements written on tiny scraps of paper into containers then randomly drawing a group of elements out together for a plot.
Guess what, folks? Plot "generators" are stupid. Why don't I like them? Because they are void of any connection to things that I have opinions and feelings about. These are suppose to get the creative juices flowing??? If I'm going to spend months of my life with this story, it had better damned be about something that engages and challenges me.
Take my book, Half Moon Rising, for example. The basic plot took shape based on one of my personal pet peeves: genealogy. (Why do hate such a harmless hobby shared by millions? Too many years working at a library helping people with the microfiche for one reason.) Anyhoo...
I was reading a paranormal romance (a good one, too) where the heroine was reflecting on the eternal battle fought between her people and the hero's. Images of their family trees flashed through my mind...and then it struck me how there was never any nerdy vampire doing genealogy in paranormal novels. Then the classic "what if" grabbed my mind. This led me to the idea of a werewolf pack who were as confused about their origins as the crabby lady spending hours reading ship passenger lists from 1870 was about hers.
From that first nugget of an idea came the story of a romance between a werewolf with a big secret and a kick-ass heroine that eventually became Half Moon Rising. And it was an idea I that interested me enough to keep me knocking out the manuscript day after day.
So basically it was a petty, nasty dislike of a beloved hobby that started my brain churning for that book. My current work-in-progress struck me when I saw a picture of a cute guy in a roman soldier outfit. Tomorrow give me a copy of National Geographic, the front page of a newspaper, and a place in line behind the good-looking guy with a snake tattoo up his calf buying sunglasses at Target--and believe me, I'll get a story idea.
The best Idea Machine? Life live, observe humanity, and pay attention to how it makes you feel.
Of course, this is my opinion. How about other authors out there--where do your ideas come from?
~Margo
Half Moon Rising in print October 30, 2007. Blog: I Want My HEA!
P.S. Just for fun I thought up a four word sentence for my book: Flawed werewolf seeks answers.
9 comments:
Kind of reminds me of that Rinkworks "Book in a Minute" page, which is hilarious! But it doesn't usually boil the whole thing down to 4 words :)
http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/
Jody W.
My ideas can come from anywhere. I dreamed them, overhead snippets of them, and had them accost me while driving or in the shower. As my story file increases and the calendar does not, I find there will never be enough time to write all my ideas, and yet I keep acquiring more of them. It's almost impossible to turn off a fertile imagination. But then, I guess I'd rather have too many of them, then come up bone dry.
-Kat
Jody- Hmmm, I think that site is what I call "procrastination" sites :)
Kat- What do you mean your calendar doesn't increase? You mean you don't have a way to bend time and space??? (We can dream can't we!)
~Margo
Personally I think idea generators are tools and you have to learn how to use them properly, that is if you need/want to use one.
It's much like picking up a hammer. Just holding a hammer doesn't do much, you have to know where to hit and how to swing the hammer to make it work well, and yes there is a right and wrong way. LOL. I've seen too many peeps hold the hammer close to the head where it makes using the tool hard work, instead of holding it at the end and letting the weight of the hammer and it's leverage give the nail that wonderful thwack.
Anyway a partial illustration...
Here is a random sampling from a story idea generator that I've just pulled up.
The theme of this story: satirical conflict. The main character: open-minded schoolgirl. The major event of the story: journey.
Theme, hmm not much here other than Sartirical conflict? Gosh. So somewhere along the lines there is an idiot causing all sorts of problems. Hell, isn't that what any story is about?
Main Character is an open-minded schoolgirl. Okay, YA story, not my cup of tea but let's see how that fits in with the theme. (Of course lots of young schoolgirl heroines are the main bulk of horror tales and a lot of epic fantasy too but we'll stick with YA for simplicity.)
Young girl, open-minded. Doesn't pick her friends too carefully eh. So already we now have several options.
1. Comedy. She's picked the wrong friends and ends up in a helter skelter world of adventure trying to save them from the consequences of her friend's social and physical miscomprehensions. "No, Mark, borrowing your dad's minivan without permission and driving us all across country to California isn't a good thing to do. Do you mind if we stop in at Nashville?"
2. Romance. Having to pick up the pieces of a guy friend's bad choices in girls and having her fall in love with him. "Well, you know Mark, if you just fall in love with a girl's cup size then this sort of thing happens."
3. Comedy romance. More bizarre form of the above. "Mark, why do you carry that bra cup around with you?"
Etc, etc, etc.
Then of course I'd have to add the last bit into the mix, the journey. And did this happen before, after, inbetween, somewhere between the bathroom and the bedroom...?
I guess, what I'm saying is, if you need them idea generators can be used and then adapted with the tried and trusted method of asking questions... What if? should be the standard motto for any writer.
Then again, if you truly understand the value of What if? You probably won't need an idea generator.
:)
S.J.
SJ - "So somewhere along the lines there is an idiot causing all sorts of problems." Hey, that's kinda the theme of my life! But the idiot is never me :)
You've got a good point that they can be tools...when "what if" doesn't live in your brain like an infectious little bug.
Thanks ...hmmm, instead of a glass slipper, Prince Charming had a bra cup...
Hehe that would make a nice little tale methinks :)
A crystal bra cup...
S.J.
[[A crystal bra cup...]]
Um... ouch?
Hey it was the Fairy Godmother's idea, not mine.
:)
S.J.
Color me stupid, but I'd never heard of "idea generators" or "plot generators" before.
I get ideas from everywhere around me...people, books, magazine and sometimes from out of nowhere. I figure whatever works, and every author is different.
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