It’s Friday! Welcome to my blog where I get some help from my friends. One such friend is Kia Dennis who writes as K.D. Richards. I read K.D.’s debut Pursuit of the Truth, book one of the West Investigation series, and it was loaded with suspense as well as a terrific love story. She’s back to promote book two Missing at Christmas! Please welcome K.D. Richards. ~ Donnell
Where do my ideas come from?
By K.D. Richards
Kia Dennis writing as Author K.D. Richards
I was recently asked the question that all writers will eventually be asked: Where do you get your ideas from?
The truth is I don’t have a great answer to this question. I’ve always enjoyed making up stories. As a child if I wasn’t reading I was probably staring into space, constructing some elaborate story to share with my family.
The truth is ideas pop into my head all the time. If I’m lucky, I’m in a position to write them down before they flit away. Sometimes they are sparked by an item. Once the sight of poinsettias that decorated the mall during the Christmas season sparked an idea for a short story about a teenaged thief. A conversation with a friend recently sparked an idea about a young twenty-something confronting danger after moving out of her parent’s home.
Some of the most common activities that get my plotting juices flowing include:
Watching the news. My grandmother used to say she never watched the news because nothing good ever happened. This is true to some extent. As a suspense and thriller writer, I’ve found that my local news can be fertile ground for story ideas.
Sitcoms. This may seem counterintuitive but I’ve also found that comedies tend to spark ideas in my mind. In these situations, I’ve usually seen something that has tickled my fancy but also sparked the question “What if”? As if what if these characters behaved this way in a different setting or under different circumstances. Ones that lent themselves to tragedy rather than comedy? What then? After all, it was Mark Twain who said, “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.”
Take a shower. Okay this one may be unique to me but the concept isn’t. Most of my story ideas come when I’m not actively trying to generate an idea. Sometimes great ideas come simply from allowing the brain to passively work.
Pay attention. I would describe myself as a curious person. My mother is a bit more blunt – she says I’m nosy! Either way a healthy interest in ones surroundings is a terrific characteristic for author to have. At the end of the day, I don’t think story ideas can be forced (not the good ones anyway). All I can do is train myself to notice interesting settings, people, and plot points and sometimes the best way to do this is to get out there and experience life.
I’m lucky that new ideas seem to come fairly easily to me. The real trick is culling through the many, many terrible novel ideas to get to the ones that have some promise and then taking that “idea” and turning it into a plot and then a manuscript. That, my friends, is where the rubber really meets the road.
All I can do is train myself to notice interesting settings, people, and plot points and sometimes the best way to do this is to get out there and experience life.
About the Book:
To bring her sister home for the holidays they’ll put everything on the line.
Private investigator Shawn West is stunned when the attack victim he rescues is Addy Williams—the one woman he never forgot. She’s turning a quiet upstate New York town inside out to bring her missing sister home by Christmas. Shawn offers to help if she’ll provide a cover for his own investigation into a suspicious company in town, but can they work together to find Addy’s sister…or are they already too late?
From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served.
Discover more action-packed stories in the West Investigations series. All books are stand-alone with uplifting endings but were published in the following order:
Book 1: Pursuit of the Truth
Book 2: Missing at Christmas
Book 3: Christmas Data Breach
About the Author: K.D. Richards was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C. A writer since a young age, after college she earned a law degree and worked as an attorney and legal instructor for fifteen years but never stopped writing fiction. She currently lives in the Toronto area with her husband and two sons.
Subscribe to her newsletter at kdrichardsbooks.com
Follow K.D. Richards on Twitter at @kiadwrites
Thanks so much for allowing me to blog today!
My pleasure Kia. I can’t wait to dig in to Missing at Christmas. You’re writing is fabulous!
Great sources of inspiration. Shower works for me, too. Your book sounds great. Hoping for many sales for you. Jillian
So wonderful to learn about how you get ideas. VB
Glad to see I am in good company with ideas coming while in the shower! I’ve always found it interesting how ideas come when we least expect them… even in dreams sometimes. Here’s to your writing success!
Thank you so much, Jillian.
The key is remembering the idea when I get out of the shower! Thanks so much for your kind words, Brooke.
Or when you wake up from a brilliant dream and try to hold onto those threads. And poof they’re gone!