I'm wondering how people come up with a storyline for a novel? Is it something that has happened in their lives that they want to recreate, or is it just letting the imagination go?

For me, I base my stories, very loosely, on current affairs or notable events. I sometimes move on international relations by a few years and add in some fiction, a few new presidents etc...
For the second novel 'Cake' the inspiration was drawn from the Women's Institute minutes of the meetings which I receive at the newspaper where I work. My MC turns from a cake maker into a serial killer.

I start thinking I might have a novel when a period of history which intrigues me for its cultural/political/religious aspects collides in my head witha personal/emotional situation I want to explore.

Emma

I'm similar to Emma, I think. It's a meeting of two things then thinking, what if...? Writing the story's the way I find the answer to the what if? If that makes sense.

Nik

That's interesting. Thanks for the comments.

(I also hugely admire history/period writers by the way. Somehow I can't imagine myself writing anything set pre-1980!)

This is an interesting essay on where authors get there ideas from.

N

thanks for the link Nik! Interesting

I get my ideas from the residue of primordial soup left ethereally hanging around in the cosmos. Sometimes, a current event will inspire, or a discussion with friends. Often, I start with a vision that comes out of nowhere and then in the course of days, the image will gestate into a wider picture. If the picture becomes whole, and I'm excited enough about it, I'll go forth and scribe.

JB

Howabout putting things another way..there are no new story lines, just different ways to tell them.

Depends how you define 'storyline', I guess.

The other place my work starts from is when I see a person in a place, and writing the novel is a process of finding out how they got there, and what happens next. TMOL started like that, though it was developed by the collision method. An Uncertain Alchemy is a collision novel focussed by the person/place thing, the one after that is a collision, but I haven't seen the people and places yet...

Emma

I just get curious about something, kind of obsessed. First, it was hot-air balloons. I wanted to know if someone could make one, in secret, in their garden shed. Once I realised it might be possible, I wanted to know who would do something like that, why, and what would happen if they tried to fly in it.

Second time around, it was BBWs and the Fat Admiring community. I was very fascinated by the whole thing, found out a lot, developed a character, a voice, an ending, and three years later, scratched out the rest of the plot.

I often start at the end with an odd situation and work backwards to find out how my characters got there. I suppose the shortest answer to your original question would be, 'I ask why, a lot, and then make up the answer to entertain myself, hoping it will entertain someone else too.'

Best

Lady B

I tend to dream my first scenes, wake up, wonder what the hell is going on and then take it from there - at least that's what happened with "Maloney's Law" and "The Gifting". Perhaps my brain is just weird though!

)

A
xxx

That's a great link, Nik!

LB, that line 'I ask why a lot' is a good description of how I come up with plot lines. I've also found women's magazine True Life Stories useful triggers.

I tend to dream my first scenes

lol

I've also found people-watching is a good idea - in supermarkets, overheard conversations in shops etc....all make interesting stories...

I collect obituaries, and, yes, the 'true life' stuff in the glossies (sometimes it seems, these days, as if they don't have anything else) and find myself thinking, 'what would have happened if she'd divorced him after all/hadn't got ill/had been born ten years earlier' or whatever...

Emma

Taking Comfort came out of my own paranoia. I witnessed a number of bad things happening, over a period of time that ended up being compressed in the novel. Each time, I was quite badly shaken and powerless. I wanted to protect myself and imagined a way of doing it that provided me with the storyline for the book.