What dark secrets can I dredge up to reveal that occured during hours of deliberating about the plot? If I promised to tell the audience the deepest secrets of my life and lived up to my promise, they would be bored. Many well-known writers lead notoriously uninteresting lives. 

Where do they get their ideas from?

Noticeably more introverts indulge in writing books, as it is a solitary occupation requiring hours alone with some way to convey ideas in their heads as words on paper. Some make the major conflict in a novel reflect their own fears about asserting themselves in public. They recall the time another student took credit for an elaborate diorama they created for a school science project. But, the stakes are higher in their story.  The little diorama is morphed into a top-selling book, or a patent for a completely silent engine. 

They may base fictional stories on the most interesting part of their lives but must add thrills and dangers greater than their fibbing partner in the school project. This requires research to fill in the blanks. Authors must read to inform themselves as well as write. They become versed in the stories of others, too.

Many conflicts in books are borrowed from other people. Character personalities come from a similar source. Authors may fulfil their own wish to be in the limelight through a glamorous and charming character or draw from their own strengths to create an independent and self-sufficient one. But, usually there must be more than one or two characters in a story. Observing people around them, and watching how they deal with struggles provides an inventory of ideas to develop multiple fictional characters. 

People with lots of friends avoid solitude. They fear being alone and will seek out the company of other people even when these are nuisances. People with few friends seek solitude and actually find comfort in being by themselves. Sometimes this leads to avoiding social situations unnecessarily.

Authors can collect dramatic conflicts from the works of previous writers, confessions other people tell them, and their own fearful imagination. Some friends like to talk and have stories to tell. If you are around them very long you’ll discover that you’ve heard them more than once. That’s when authors use imagination to embellish these stories.

As a wrap, you have your own life, your own dreams, those of your friends, and those of people you know who aren’t friends to draw from. In addition there are ideas recorded in books that you can blend with your own life. No longer do you have to worry about boring your reading audience with your own little secrets.

Photos by K.N. Listman