Finding Buried Plot Jewels

Every fiction writer desires to come up with a good solid plot for their work. Plot is what makes stories alluring and riveting. Concepts can be simple and linear or outlandish and bizarre, full of complexity and depth. Sometimes as a reader, you come across a book and think, I wish I’d thought of that. Don’t focus on what you didn’t write, focus on the ideas out there ready to be discovered. Where can you find great plot ideas? All around you. Here are some of the best spots for inspiration.
♦ The News ~ Ripped from the headlines. They do it on Law & Order. Sometimes life truly is stranger than fiction. Be there when it happens. Read or watch the news with your creative ears perked and pen in hand. I do. I’m always looking for interesting facts. Sometimes a little tidbit, an event, a crazy thing someone did or a fascinating person gets my attention. All of a sudden my mind starts cranking out ideas. Create a bookmark folder for articles you find while net surfing or keep a notebook handy so you can jot down those things that enthrall you.
♦ Little Ideas ~ Little ideas may not be big enough for a novel-length story, but they can be used to add depth to a bigger plot or bond together to make a big plot. Write down all your random thoughts and ideas. Mismatched ideas are great. Like a box of fabric scraps, left in the box, that’s all they are, but when put together with other scraps, they can form something of artistic substance. Little ideas can become big ideas with some tweaking.♦ Dreams ~ Plots are calling you from that place where reality meets fantasy, where symbolism emerges on a grand scale, where things may or may not make sense. For Kings & Queens I had this idea for a love triangle but no plot to wrap around it. Then one night I had this dream I was running, for exercise not out of fear, and I overheard these guys planning a church massacre. They chased me to this little town. In that dream, I found the seed for my plot and my setting. Stephenie Meyer found her plot and characters for Twilight in a dream. The odd realm that finds us in our own minds during sleep is one of the greatest springboards for inspiration. So when you dream, use the most wondrous and weird elements as a starting point. That's all I had was a tiny dream-birthed seed, one idea, and the more I worked on my book, the larger the concept became, taking my storyline to unexpected, wonderful, horrific heights.
♦ Characters ~ You can find plot by delving into the motivation and goals of your characters. Once you have a solid character, pick his or her brain. Get close and personal. When you find out what they truly want, put up obstacles so they can't readily reach their goals. This establishes your story question and creates conflict, which makes for a gripping read. Will he find his long lost love? Will she get that one day of peace she craves? Will they be able to mend their splintered marriage? Good, well-developed characters drive stories and come with ideas of their own.
♦ Books ~ When you finish a novel you particularly enjoyed, dissect what made it most compelling. Was it the concept, the twist at the end? The way the author was meticulous on the details? Once you pinpoint what you loved about it, brainstorm your own ideas, characters, concepts, etc. Blend the fascinating and sound techniques of several books and fashion your own great idea. I liked the twist at the end of John Grisham's The Partner. I didn’t write anything close to a legal thriller, but I had that kind of twisty end in mine when I penned Kings & Queens. Borrow and blend.
♦ Villains ~ Sometimes the evil spark comes first. Let's say your own Hannibal Lecter is firmly established. Fascinating. Grotesque. Cool. Hot with the ladies. PETA spokesman. Serial killer with peppermint breath. What’s his motivation? Find out what he wants and create a protag to contrast that. Who will get in his way, challenge him, tickle his imagination, piss him off, turn him on? Your plot can be found in him.♦ Technology ~ Projections for medical and scientific breakthroughs can open up a bunch of what-if questions and plot possibilities. Asking questions is an awesome way to spawn ideas and crank out a plot. So research some geeky stuff with your pen in hand.

Story concepts are all around you, in every nook and cranny of life. Look for and find the things that fascinate you and write about them in only the way that you can. Then readers will be saying, I wish I'd thought of that.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Leaping into Disorder & Chaos

I'm at a juncture in my sequel writing where I'm ready to skip two scenes. One is a party with teens and I'm just not in the mood to do a bunch of mini character sketches so I can fluff out the scene. I just want to drive forward and get to more of the plot stuff. I know what I want to happen at this party and have that in mind, but do not have the interest in writing it, at present. And also in the same chapter, I have this other scene with a amnesiac hired gun getting a call for his next target that I'm not in the mood to write. My inspiration is calling me elsewhere, further down in the book. So, I'm going to make the leap.

I have worked out of order in the past and when I've jumped to the spots that were churning in my mind and tugging at me emotionally, even though I was far from getting to them in my story, I ended up creating some of my best work. If I had waited, I would've lost something in the quality I just know it.

In Kings & Queens, a suspense novel I wrote with a romantic center, I had this idea for a love triangle and I knew exactly who I wanted to end up together. But when I got two chapters in, I knew I was wrong about the couple and that two different people belonged together. So excited was I at this new discovery, I jumped to the second to last chapter and wrote a heart-wrenching fallout. I cried as I wrote it because I had just found this beautiful love and then destroyed it. I'm pretty demented and sadistic, huh? That's what makes good fiction though. Conflict. Heartbreak. The possibility that things won't work out as planned or desired.

After writing that scene, I wrote my last chapter, my epilogue, because I needed to know exactly how it ended and my epiphany had changed everything. My novel is very twisty and complex with various interwoven threads and at least twelve minor story questions/mysteries that are woven around the main story question. I needed an endzone before penning the rest so I could know what plays and moves I needed to engage to get there successfully.

By jumping out of order and going with the raw passion in the moment rather than sticking to step-by-step rigidity, I created a work I am certain is so much stronger than it would've been had I waited. I would've lost some of the sadness, some of the sweetness and overlooked characters who were only meant to be fillers or obstacles.

Work in whatever way is best for you, but if your pen is itching to jump around, don't be afraid to break free and do it. If you end up with junk, that's what revision is for. But more than likely you'll end up with the best stuff you've ever written because it's birthed out of pure inspiration and burning drive. If you ignore the call and wait, you could lose your grasp on what was once vital, raw, captivating, energetic, ecstatic and heartbreaking in your mind. You'll have a scene certainly, but it won't be as good as the one you originally envisioned and maybe you won't even realize why. You'll just know it's lacking somehow, that it's not everything it could and should have been.

Movie directors generally don't film chronologically. Break out of your structured ways if your story or your pen or your characters is demanding it. Get chaotic and crazy. Go with your gut and your heart, even if it's not the way you normally work. When there's unrest and pull, it's for a reason. You shouldn't ignore it. You could lose out. Follow your passionate urgency. Just write.

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

It's refreshing and uplifting when you're able to find the humor that's around you and greater depth and meaning in things. The music of Pink Floyd, for instance, sounds about as trippy as Strawberry Fields but it contains shades of sorrow and joy, irony and societal satire and commentary that is difficult to appreciate and notice at first listen. It's not exactly drug music, it's art. You can infuse and braid and paint multiple layers into your works to create greater texture, secrets for the setting/town that are uncovered little by little, codes to be unlocked, dark humor, irony, satirical statements, mini plots that weave in and out of your main plot.


My dad's mom died in 1994, a couple days after my graduation from college. She was my last living grandparent, so it was especially tough. Old ladies kept coming up to my sister and I at the wake, telling us how much Blanche adored us, her granddaughters, and that she spoke of us often and that we were like gold to her. Problem was, our grandmother's name was Rose not Blanche. "Oh no," I said to my sister. "These poor old ladies are at the wrong funeral." We laughed and laughed. As it turned out, our grandmother's nickname was Blanche, which we never knew. You learn something new every day they say, and sometimes that something new can be funny. I've had several circumstances that were not the best to to go through but my warped sense of humor kept me positive and laughing.


When I was twenty, I went white water rafting with some college friends, and it was far more life-threatening than it should have been. The outfit we went with only had one guide for ten rafts and we had wet suits and life vests but no helmets. Our raft had a 400-pound guy and three skinny chicks. With two people on one side and two on the other, we were little bit ill-proportioned. Not trying to be mean. That's just a fact. Our combine weight was not even as much as this one guy's.

The one guide kept yelling at everyone in the various rafts to row together. Um, does anyone know what happens when there's far more strength on one side versus the other? Anyone? Anyone? Yes. That's right. Circles!!!!! You go in circles. Not forward. But around...In circles or you hardly move at all. Hello! Even an inexperienced rafter, who's done little more than canoing knows this. Most groups were fine rowing together but not ours. The guide was a complete moron. My friends and I kept yelling at each other about how to best proceed FORWARD. We finally found success with two strokes on one side for one on the other.

During the more rapid rapids, we half-capsized and three out of four of us fell out. The big guy and my friend had to be pulled to the shore. I tried to climb back in, but I could hardly move. The shock, the cold? I'm not sure. But I couldn't climb back in and my friend couldn't lift me back in without having the raft flip on us. We managed to push the raft to a large rock and I was able to climb up and in. This was a perilous moment, falling into a frigid river, having all my energy zapped in a snap, but I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. My friend was crying and then started cracking up too. It was just so insane and the danger made rafting ultra-adventurous. Any breaks from the mundane excite me. It wasn't the best way to go rafting, and I don't want to repeat it, but it was a blast anyway. If I just say to my friend 2-for-1, even to this day, she knows what it means and laughs.


As a writer, if you choose to maintain a lighthearted view of life and try to find humor during rough patches or the rich details beneath surface material, you'll not only stay more sane, you're also able to give new dimension to your writing. As long as the things you write flow in the story, it's okay to weave in undercurrents and nods for things, tiny treasures to be unearthed.


For instance, I am a Red Sox fan, so my main characters in Kings & Queens are also Red Sox fans. One of my character's had a dog named Dewey (Forgot to note the significance. haha. Dwight Evans, for those that don't know) and Carlton Fisk's name pops up a few times (one of the best catchers ever). The two jersey numbers worn by Fisk during his career tie into the plot and I refer to Don Mattingly as being from the Evil Empire. Most readers will gloss over these details, but they're there for savvy fans to find.

In the 80's when Family Ties and Growing Pains were on air, Michael J. Fox and Kirk Cameron had an on-going competition with one another to see how many times they could spin in any given episode. Would any viewer even give the spinning a second thought? No. It's a private joke between them. That's funny and cool.

Not everyone sees the richness in the music of Pink Floyd. Don't be afraid to bury those deeper nuances, details and angles into your work for a few select readers to discover and appreciate. For keen eyes and minds, your hidden jewels will make the read all the more enjoyable.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Sneaking in Some Depth

It's refreshing and uplifting when you're able to find the humor that's around you and greater depth and meaning in things. The music of Pink Floyd, for instance, sounds about as trippy as Strawberry Fields but it contains shades of sorrow and joy, irony and societal satire and commentary that is difficult to appreciate and notice at first listen. It's not exactly drug music, it's art. You can infuse and braid and paint multiple layers into your works to create greater texture, secrets for the setting/town that are uncovered little by little, codes to be unlocked, dark humor, irony, satirical statements, mini plots that weave in and out of your main plot.

My dad's mom died in 1994, a couple days after my graduation from college. She was my last living grandparent, so it was especially tough. Old ladies kept coming up to my sister and I at the wake, telling us how much Blanche adored us, her granddaughters, and that she spoke of us often and that we were like gold to her. Problem was, our grandmother's name was Rose not Blanche. "Oh no," I said to my sister. "These poor old ladies are at the wrong funeral." We laughed and laughed. As it turned out, our grandmother's nickname was Blanche, which we never knew. You learn something new every day they say, and sometimes that something new can be funny. I've had several circumstances that were not the best to to go through but my warped sense of humor kept me positive and laughing.

When I was twenty, I went white water rafting with some college friends, and it was far more life-threatening than it should have been. The outfit we went with only had one guide for ten rafts and we had wet suits and life vests but no helmets. Our raft had a 400-pound guy and three skinny chicks. With two people on one side and two on the other, we were little bit ill-proportioned. Not trying to be mean. That's just a fact. Our combine weight was not even as much as this one guy's.

The one guide kept yelling at everyone in the various rafts to row together. Um, does anyone know what happens when there's far more strength on one side versus the other? Anyone? Anyone? Yes. That's right. Circles!!!!! You go in circles. Not forward. But around...In circles or you hardly move at all. Hello! Even an inexperienced rafter, who's done little more than canoing knows this. Most groups were fine rowing together but not ours. The guide was a complete moron. My friends and I kept yelling at each other about how to best proceed FORWARD. We finally found success with two strokes on one side for one on the other.

During the more rapid rapids, we half-capsized and three out of four of us fell out. The big guy and my friend had to be pulled to the shore. I tried to climb back in, but I could hardly move. The shock, the cold? I'm not sure. But I couldn't climb back in and my friend couldn't lift me back in without having the raft flip on us. We managed to push the raft to a large rock and I was able to climb up and in. This was a perilous moment, falling into a frigid river, having all my energy zapped in a snap, but I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. My friend was crying and then started cracking up too. It was just so insane and the danger made rafting ultra-adventurous. Any breaks from the mundane excite me. It wasn't the best way to go rafting, and I don't want to repeat it, but it was a blast anyway. If I just say to my friend 2-for-1, even to this day, she knows what it means and laughs.

As a writer, if you choose to maintain a lighthearted view of life and try to find humor during rough patches or the rich details beneath surface material, you'll not only stay more sane, you're also able to give new dimension to your writing. As long as the things you write flow in the story, it's okay to weave in undercurrents and nods for things, tiny treasures to be unearthed.

For instance, I am a Red Sox fan, so my main characters in Kings & Queens are also Red Sox fans. One of my character's had a dog named Dewey (Forgot to note the significance. haha. Dwight Evans, for those that don't know) and Carlton Fisk's name pops up a few times (one of the best catchers ever). The two jersey numbers worn by Fisk during his career tie into the plot and I refer to Don Mattingly as being from the Evil Empire. Most readers will gloss over these details, but they're there for savvy fans to find.

In the 80's when Family Ties and Growing Pains were on air, Michael J. Fox and Kirk Cameron had an on-going competition with one another to see how many times they could spin in any given episode. Would any viewer even give the spinning a second thought? No. It's a private joke between them. That's funny and cool.

Not everyone sees the richness in the music of Pink Floyd. Don't be afraid to bury those deeper nuances, details and angles into your work for a few select readers to discover and appreciate. For keen eyes and minds, your hidden jewels will make the read all the more enjoyable.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.