AMA: Ideas for Plots
Where do you get the ideas for your plots?
Thank you to Carolyn for this question! I got longwinded. I'm not sorry.
My preference is to start with characters since they are the lifeblood of both myself and my books. A strong female character is always the first thing I create and I make sure to give her interesting situations, backgrounds, and flaws that she can overcome. From there, plots sometimes seem to pop up or I'll think about what the character would hate to happen... and then make it happen in an epic way. In short, characters precede plot, but they are incredibly close.
What might be fun is going through each book and how I developed those stories!
Soul Forgotten: My debut was meant to be a test to see if I could write a book in 30 days... I did it in 10. I had absolutely no plot in that first draft and just walked my characters through weird situations. I knew I wanted them to have superpowers and I knew there was going to be a certain scene that would be the first climax. Let me tell you this: the first draft is not the same book you read today. After I learned how to write, I changed it all up, created more subplots, wove in a deeper mystery, and changed bad guys. To answer the question, the idea for the plot came after I wrote the draft and I had a better idea of who my characters were. Soul Remembered was similar in that I had characters and no plot until I wrote my way to one. Soul Obscured's plot twist was planned to every single detail - I knew the characters and I needed to give them an epic conclusion to their story.
If Found, Do Not Return: Once again, I started with a character. In a sense, the plot was pretty easy since it was part dramatized memoir, part dream of mine, and part personal growth. I had something to say and I wanted to say it in a novel format. While this book hasn't made the impact I hoped it would, it made an impact where I needed it - in myself.
Short stories: Honestly, the romance shorts I wrote were mostly from prompts with an artsy twist. I wanted to explore a little different style of writing and storytelling and challenge myself in a different way. I also wanted them to be less intricate than my novels to give me some relief. My fantasy short, The Shadowed Assassin, started as something completely different, but I am quite proud of it. To this day, it's my second best-selling book (after Soul Forgotten). It was good practice for my sword and sorcery skills.
Warrior Series: Instead of plot and characters (minus a badass female warrior), I started with worldbuilding on this one. I wanted to create my own environment, have gods to manipulate the people in the world, and the rest somewhat trickled out of that. I like the outcast story, and this one was unique in so many ways. I very quickly discovered that this story could not be told from a single perspective because there was so much that would be missed. Thus, three main characters were assigned their own books and their own adventures within the greater story. Learn more about the Warrior Series here.
Have any more questions? You can ask them here and I'll answer them in an email. Or, check out my Street Team or Facebook page and start a conversation!
