tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post6459728313208406621..comments2024-01-12T11:26:35.176-05:00Comments on Working Stiffs: Where Do You Get Your Material?Working Stiffshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03270595837074553752noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-51725374662674006052009-10-27T10:27:57.037-04:002009-10-27T10:27:57.037-04:00Great post...I've tweeted it!
I get my materi...Great post...I've tweeted it!<br /><br />I get my material much the same way you do--being an observer. Staying just a little bit detached and picking up interesting ideas from conversation, the web, the news, etc.<br /><br />Elizabeth<br /><a href="http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow"> Mystery Writing is Murder</a>Elizabeth Spann Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15625595247828274405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-59854501201521542622009-10-27T07:39:49.008-04:002009-10-27T07:39:49.008-04:00I get ideas from so many places that they're h...I get ideas from so many places that they're hard to trace back to the source. Some characters are me, or aspects of me at a younger age. Some characters are friends, family members, co-workers, pets, strangers glimpsed in an ER or on a bus. <br /><br />Situations grow out of real life experience and, yes, overheard conversations. I love to eavesdrop. <br /><br />Some ideas are transmutations of reality. I got the idea for one paranormal novel (unpublished) that features a dangerously protective doll passed down for generations in one family when I took a job with an electric utility company. The company owned nuclear power plants at that time, and I got to wondering what happens when something powerful, created for a benevolent purpose, outlives the person who could control it. <br /><br />I wrote another unpublished novel (sigh) after a bad house fire and dealing with the restoration company. in that book, a mysterious character offers to restore what was lost in a fire, for a price.<br /><br />Yet another unpublished novel (do we detect a trend?) was partially inspired by my work with a small law firm and a particular car crash case.<br /><br />Then there's the first (unpublished) manuscript I completed. That was inspired by a past life regression. While my own remembered past lives were mundane, my protagonist recalls a sword and sorcery existence in an exotic medieval setting.<br /><br />Oh, and the (unpublished) novel partially set in Huntington, West Virginia, where my best friend from college lived for several years. In fact, I used her house as a setting. That story, involving repressed memories, was inspired by news stories about the unreliability of repressed memories (although the ones in my book are, of course, true memories of a crime).<br /><br />One (unpublished) short story came to me when I saw a squirrel walking across an overhead wire. <br /><br />I could go on and on. LIke I said. I get ideas everywhere. My problem is selling them once they're written.Ginanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-21558730052852566972009-10-27T07:33:12.487-04:002009-10-27T07:33:12.487-04:00I like the news for finding interesting twists on ...I like the news for finding interesting twists on things but sometimes I follow Jodi Picoult's maxim of writing about your worst fears -- and hoping by doing so, they will never come true for your family and friends. I won an award for a story about the aftermath of the death of a policeman -- even before my son entered the police academy.PatRemickhttp://www.patremick.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-89286703311562015442009-10-27T07:19:22.752-04:002009-10-27T07:19:22.752-04:00Hey, Joyce.
I forgot to mention using the stack ...Hey, Joyce. <br /><br />I forgot to mention using the stack of magazines in the beauty salon whenever I go for a haircut. They're usually ones I never see: Madamoiselle, Glamor, Elle, and the stories have a different slant to my usual reads. I've found some material there.Martha Reedhttp://www.marthareed.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-88794364522941134802009-10-27T07:13:32.116-04:002009-10-27T07:13:32.116-04:00The simple answer is everywhere.
I've found ...The simple answer is everywhere. <br /><br />I've found beginnings of stories in newspapers, in the grocery store, at the mall--you name it. I have a folder of ideas I've either clipped from the paper, printed from the internet, or written on sticky notes. <br /><br />I've used bits of overheard conversations and expanded on them, too. I figure writing gives me the perfect excuse to eavesdrop!Joyce Tremelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00498392016497131719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-46535423533064727282009-10-27T07:11:54.647-04:002009-10-27T07:11:54.647-04:00HI, Annette, the past is a great gold mine. I used...HI, Annette, the past is a great gold mine. I used it in my first book. <br /><br />I had this really horrible boss at work - a savage bully and I felt helpless and stuck because I needed the job. After I left that firm I started writing this story and I used him as my antogonist - mostly because he brought up so many hard feelings they helped me hate the character. I had my revenge, though because when the mss was complete I went back in and changed everything about the character - name, description, everything so he'd never be able to recognize himself in case he ever read my work.<br /><br />Now I look back on it and laugh - I should thank him. He pissed me off so badly I got a good book out of it!Martha Reedhttp://www.marthareed.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33226151.post-55488854893956831952009-10-27T07:04:40.622-04:002009-10-27T07:04:40.622-04:00I've gotten characters from newspaper articles...I've gotten characters from newspaper articles...I think small town papers are best for that. They don't simply print the shootings and murders. They print the stories about someone's pumpkins being stolen from their yard. <br /><br />Right now, a lot of my characters are coming from my youth. You know how you wonder "what ever happened to so-and-so? I've been doing a little creative age progression on some folks and plopping them in my stories. It's kind of therapeutic...Annettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02755947919433555176noreply@blogger.com