Excerpt from "Word Soup."
??????????Where do stories come from. Of course, they come from the creative mind of the writer. That little nugget, that idea that sparks an entire novel or a series of novels. Stories can come from any number of places. Some stories are based on historical events, while others are based on people, places or events we know and turned into fictional worlds. It’s not uncommon for stories to blend various sources of inspiration, resulting in unique and compelling narratives. Those stories that find their roots in real-life encounters give them credibility and relatability.
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·????? YOUR BRAINCHILD
·????? HISTORY HELPERS
·????? OUTLINING THE PLOT
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YOUR BRAINCHILD
????? There are many reasons why we write. Often, stories are born from a desire to create meaning and understanding in the face of difficult or complex events. They can be used to explore human emotions and relationships, to confront societal issues, or to simply entertain and delight.
????? Ultimately, stories come from the need humans have to communicate and connect with one another. They are a means of sharing our experiences, our hopes, and our dreams with the world. And while they can take many different forms, from books and movies to songs and plays, their underlying purpose remains the same… to convey the beauty and complexity of the human experience.
????? You might hear a word or expression that sparks your imagination. You have a favorite novel, and you say to yourself that you would like to write something like it. You could use the writer’s work as your inspiration.
????? What idea for a story is banging around in your head?
????? You might ask yourself how do I know if this is a good idea? If you have multiple ideas how do you weigh them against each other? What is the deciding factor on which idea to pursue? A story must have “legs,” that is, must be able to expand and build a plot. You won’t know unless you work with the various ideas and see where each takes you. Do a mind exercise with that idea. Is the idea opening? Do you “see” story lines opening like a road to travel on or have you reached a dead end? You’ll know the story idea that works for you, the one that excites your imagination. The other ideas may have merit but for now put them on the back burner.
????? Using that one idea write down every thought you have about it. Don’t worry about form or complete sentences. People, places, things, dates, moods, colors - it doesn’t have to make sense or be chronological.
????? Go with the flow!
Put this document aside for now. We will revisit it later and organize it.
????? If you don’t have a definite idea for a novel there are different ways to jump start your imagination. Perhaps you’ve met an interesting person and you wonder what their life is like. Maybe you’ve seen a person on television that inspires you to create a character like an eccentric billionaire in your novel. Are there any interesting stories in your family? Are there any people or events that one could base a story on? What about your locale? You’d be surprised at what you might unearth about the place where you live.
????? I want to write about my small town your mind might say. Okay, where does that take you? The notion is rather general. Let’s go a step further and be more specific. I want to write about how the town was founded. Now there you have something to work with. You can do some research and dig into the history of your town. There’s bound to be some books at your local library on the subject.
????? The following are examples of how a writer might turn historical facts into a fictional work – using a little imagination, of course.
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HISTORY HELPERS
·???????? Romance
????? The first pioneer to settle on the land that would eventually become the city in southern California where I live now was Santiago de la Cruz Pico.
????? Pico traveled on foot to California in 1776 with the De Anza expedition. In 1795, the King of Spain awarded Pico a land grant for El Rancho Simi over one thousand, one hundred and thirteen acres. Traveling from Sonora, his wife Maria Jacinta Vastida and seven sons joined him. Pico built an adobe on a portion of the land grant and became a successful cattle rancher.
????? All good information but is there a story here other than of historical value? Yes, you could tell a story about the struggle of the journey when Pico traveled into the “new” territory of California. In the budding settlement of Los Angeles, he was active as a soldier and politics. There’s a story telling opportunity here about how he helped establish the new settlement and form a government. His sons as adults were a powerful force in early California one was a brigadier general in the militia, another a state senator and another even governor of California.
????? On the ranch, El Rancho Simi, where Pico and his family lived there could be a family drama based on historical facts. The vague idea to write about the place where you live is taking form. You can base your fictional characters on real people (perhaps with a change of names) and create conflict between the brothers and their wives (wife swapping, jealousy, backstabbing – all good stuff for your tale). Now you have a story about your locale that includes the history. More importantly you are giving that story drama and conflict. This novel would probably fall into the genre of historical fiction/romance.
·???????? Mystery
Let’s say you are interested in writing a thriller or mystery. Are there any events in the history of your locale that you as a writer could use? In my town’s history there are some events that fall into the danger or action realm. One incident happened on March 21, 1912, when a town constable Warren Willard was gunned down. What happened? On that date, Willard and Under-sheriff Hayden were delivering a prisoner to the county jail in Oxnard about 37 miles away.
Constable Willard tells you what happened. “We had heard about some suspicious characters that might be holed up in a hobo camp near Oxnard. We went to investigate. The hobos scattered when they saw us coming. I chased a tramp into a gum tree grove when a shot rang out and hit me in the chest. Under-sheriff Hayden took me by car back to the nearest hospital some 15 miles away. I died of my wounds a few days later. They never did find the culprit that shot me.”
Those are the facts now how can we as a writer turn the facts into a story with drama and mystery. We might try to do research and find out more about Willard. Where and when he was born, what kind of man was he. His likes and dislikes. We don’t have to stick to the facts. We can use the basics and then fictionalize our character. Why did he move West assuming he came from another locale? Was he looking for gold like so many pioneers of that era? When he didn’t succeed, did he take a job by default as a law officer? Did he have a mission as a law man to clean up the town? Your novel could be the events in his life (or a fictionalized version) that leads to the shooting. You could tell this story in the third person or in the first person where your character is telling the story of his life, maybe to a barber while getting a shave. Then he leaves the barber shop, and the incident plays out of the shooting. You could take the tale into the fantasy realm which is what I did with the dialogue example. Willard’s ghost is looking for the man that killed him.
You could change the point of view (POV) to the tramp that shot Willard. How did he lose everything and become a bum? What were the desperate circumstances of his life that led him to pull the trigger on that fatal day? Did he regret what he did? Did it haunt him for the rest of his life? Did he have such regret that he committed suicide? You could have parallel stories going in your novel one that follows Willard’s life and one that follows the tramp’s life…and then their lives meet with the fatal incident.
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·???????? Fantasy
When I was writing the Wicked Will series, my vague idea started with…William Shakespeare as a boy detective. Okay, then what? I started to read books on the history of England during the time William Shakespeare lived and books about his life. All that was fertile ground for the idea to grow. The ignition of my imagination led to the creation of a trilogy of magical adventure novels. The novels are fiction but grounded in historical facts. I think many people think of Shakespeare as a stuffy, antiquated writer using flowery words to tell tales of ancient (meaning moldy) history. Nothing could be farther from the truth – Shakespeare was the J. K. Rowlings of his time. He penned fantastical tales featuring otherworldly creatures, including fairies in A Midsummer's Night Dream, witches in McBeth, a ghostly apparition in Hamlet, and a wizard in The Tempest!
Your idea can start vague but, if you feed it with facts and research, it can blossom into a story that’s worth telling and that your readers will love.