Today I’m super exciting to welcome to the blog, Maddie Please, author of A Year of New Adventures with a post about her ideas!!
My ideas
It’s the usual question that most writers are asked. Where do you get your ideas? Where do I get mine?
The answer is there are ideas everywhere. In newspapers, on social media, in everyday life, gossip heard on the bus or at work.
My debut, The Summer of Second Chances came from a writing retreat in Cornwall when we were enjoying an excellent plotting workshop with Chris Manby. In a couple of hours the whole thing was plotted out, the hive mind of the group provided the names for my main characters and a working title and the structure of the plotting grid meant that I knew for the first time where events needed to take place in order to move the story forward. That didn’t mean the plot couldn’t change, it just gave a structure that kept me writing.
My second book A Year of New Adventures was the result of a ‘what if?’ moment. I run writing retreats with my best friend Jane (The Place to Write) and I wondered what would happen if the usual harmony of such a gathering was disrupted by a very famous and bad tempered author arriving unexpectedly.
I love travelling by boat whether it’s a ferry or a cruise or an ocean going ship, I might even have an idea for a new book after spending some time on a cruise last year. Watch this space!
Travelling by plane is also a particular love of mine and I adore being in airports. It’s a fantastic place to people watch and I have heard the most amazing conversations in several departure lounges! And of course the trip then becomes legitimate research!
Leave a Reply