So where do the
ideas come from?
It is a question
I often get asked - as does every other writer. But for the writer of
horror/supernatural stories the questioners are even more fascinated by how or
why the ideas strike. The answer, of course is they come out of my imagination
but they may have been sparked by something I have seen, heard or experienced.
Or sometimes tiny nubs just appear from apparently nowhere… But I don’t believe
they are apropos of nothing, they have just oozed up from my subconscious.
Perhaps I can
give an example of how it worked for me with one project.
The original
idea for my latest book “The Afterlife of Darkmares” came to me from apparently
nothing?? I had been tossing around some occult-type romance ideas that might seem
fairly believable when the thing suddenly presented itself. It was simply an
image and I can still clearly remember
the ‘eureka’ feeling it gave me. The
picture in my mind was of a 12 year old boy standing rigidly in a graveyard,
hands by his sides, his glossy black hair - pageboy style - gleaming in the sunlight. His clothes were old fashioned – as if he’d
stepped out of the pages of some 60’s magazine. He wore a buttoned up paisley shirt,
a hand-knitted waistcoat and smart black
trousers. There was something very off
centre about him…
Where that image
came from, I have no idea, but it must have arisen from something in my
subconscious mind.. The scene was so vivid I used it as a jumping off point for
my story. At that point I had no idea what my story would be about but I knew I
had to use that scene somehow. The boy is called Grif and he is central to the
story and the entire plot of the supernatural romantic thriller “The Afterlife of Darkmares.” |
| Eyam Church |
These pictures are all from the real-life place that is the setting for the book and around which the plague village story is woven.
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| The Plague cottages |
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| The Celtic Cross |
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| Cucklett Delf |
So what is your favourite
part of writing a story? Do you dream up ideas or characters first?
