How to Start Your Novel (or: Where Do Those Ideas Come From?)

Where Fleur starts collecting ideas for her next novel, and asks you to join if you'd like.

Where do ideas come from? I get that question from kids during author visits all the time, and as authors we generally do. Here’s the real answer:

Where don’t I get ideas from...

I pick up ideas EVERYWHERE. When I go to a museum, watch a movie, go for a walk, have a good conversation, or read a book. Or ask that question: what if…?

The idea stage is the best one, but also the most terrifying. Because you can start a story or full-blown novel as I’m about to do, and get this part wrong. Sometimes, an idea just isn’t ready yet. For me, I often need an interesting setting. Or I need to mash several good ideas together to make a novel.

It’s kind of a magic brew. I always tell the kids that a book is like a recipe. You can start with, say, a can of beans. But you need other ingredients to decide what the dish you’re cooking is going to be.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

This is a picture of someone else’s stew. I make a very good stew and an even better chili, but I usually end up eating it before I remember to take a picture…

Sometimes It Takes Patience

Take Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, my middle-grade (that means it’s for kids ages 8-12) mystery that has done pretty well. If you looked at my early notes on this idea, I was going in the wrong direction. And I could feel it. I knew I wanted to write a middle-grade mystery, Agatha Christie style. A classic mystery that could serve as an introduction to the genre for kids.

Great concept. I attribute the book’s success to that clear vision. But in my early brainstorming sessions, I had the book set at a museum, one like the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In case you’ve never been, it’s a very cool, huge museum, with different sections for different topics and time periods. I love it. Excellent choice for a setting if I do say so myself.

But it didn’t work with my Agatha Christie style concept. I brainstormed, and then set the idea aside. It just wasn’t ready.

Then I went to the Stanley Hotel here in Colorado. You may be familiar with it as the inspiration behind The Shining (movie with creep Jack Nickolson and book by Stephen King). The Stanley Hotel is very atmospheric, and even has a ghost hunting tour. The pieces clicked for me then: my Agatha Christie style mystery for kids, complete with over-the-top characters and a bonafide murder mystery, set in a fictional hotel modeled after The Stanley.

I wrote the introduction you see above in one super-inspired sitting. The words have changed a tiny bit since that first draft, but the intro set the tone for the whole book and largely remained the same.

I had my hook. I had my recipe.

What We’re Doing This Week

Okay, so I didn’t start this weekly newsletter so I could hide out in my writing cave all by myself or wax poetic about process—I’m here to share. So I will show you how I’m starting this new book I’m working on.

I know, this is an empty basket*. The idea is to fill it with ideas and inspiration. You can also use a pinboard or mood board (for you Pinterest or Canva friends), but I’m a tactile person so I use a basket or a box at this stage in the writing process. In case you think I came up with this genius idea, I didn’t. I stole it from the brilliant Twyla Tharp who suggested it in her book The Creative Habit.

I’m going to fill this basket with inspiration, research notes (more on research in a future post), etc.

For as long as I’m working on this novel, it will act as a creative safety deposit box of sorts, guarding my idea.

If I get sidetracked, I’ll refer to my box. If I’m not sure where the next chapter is going, I’ll refer to my box. When I lose faith, I’ll—

Well, you get the idea. If you have a dedicated writing space, you can obviously put your inspiration all over, and tape it on your walls or whatever. But I like the idea of a box (or in my case: a basket) because anyone can make room for that. Even if you don’t have a dedicated office space, finding a box is doable. It’s my inspiration, and I encourage you to find somewhere for your ideas to go, too.

Join me!

Find a box. For the next week, one hour a day, fill it with what inspires your work. Ideas:

1.      Comparable titles. Yes, you can dream about being Stephen King or Katherine Applegate here. Just make sure that the books you add as inspiration are ones that fit your concept. Who is going to read your book? Where will it be placed at your favorite bookstore, on a display table…? Find the books that inspired you to want to write.

2.      Research books and/or notes. I’m old school and like to use a notebook for each book. I brainstorm, write research notes, etc. all in this one notebook. The beauty? It costs about a buck for a basic notebook.

You can also add actual reference books as you gather them. Trust me, it’s easy if you have it all in one place.

3.      A planning calendar. This is where you’ll chart your progress. Again, this is for you fellow analog people. I’ll be sharing a scheduling template in the coming weeks, so if you don’t have a 2024 calendar yet, no sweat.

4.      Anything that inspires you to write. A picture of your family, you as a kid, your favorite bookstore, whatever moves you. Writing a book is hard. Let this box (or basket) help you as you write these coming months.

For the next week, one hour a day, I’m allowing myself to just be inspired. I’ll jot notes in my fresh new notebook.

So far, I have a few things in my basket already. I’m still going back on forth on if I’m ready to write this WWII story (it’s a heavy one), but I’m going to just brainstorm for a week. This part of the process is so fun…

Tell me, Creative Friends: what inspires you?

*This is what happens if you leave your empty basket unattended and you have a Floof…

Next week, I’ll show you how to write a book jacket description of your novel-in-progress…