It’s a common question for authors.
I was reading an interesting article the other day, from a writer who was facing severe idea-blockage during the COVID lockdowns, until his wife convinced him to get a dog. He found inspiration in the new relationship, as so many people have.
Maybe blockage is a phenomenon tied to more literary, standalone novels. For writers of fantasy/urban fantasy/ sci-fi/horror, I think the ideas just flow.
I could be wrong – I haven’t polled other writers. That’s difficult to do that these days when our inboxes are filled with so much scam email that it’s hard to make a trustworthy connection. (Oh, I’ve had plenty of messages from other ‘authors’ who want to connect, but in reality just want to sell me something.)
But here’s my experience.
I began with a small idea that formed in my head over a decade ago, about Roads that bypass normal space and can take you somewhere else instantly, or a little longer depending on how far away the endpoint is.
Okay. Then what? I had to create an entire ‘world’ around that – who knows about these Roads, who can use them, are they dangerous, do they go to other dimensions or even other planets…?
And then there are all the people involved.
Who would my MC (main character) be, and what would she have to do with these Roads? What would give her a place in the story special enough to write about?
Who else would be involved? Characters don’t function all by themselves. They’re part of an ecosystem of other players in the drama. Where do those others live, what do they do for a living, how do they fit into this world? Are there organizations, cults and so on?
Those of us who write in my set of genres have an unlimited idea bank. There’s also an advantage of writing a trilogy that hasn’t been stripped down to movie-script essentials.
As that trilogy was wrapping up, many of my fans began asking me to write more stories that tied into it, and so began my current journey. I have at least four more books planned, each one part of a larger arc that does two things:
a) Follows the exploits of each of four characters from the trilogy. Some of their journeys are very dark, some more adventurous. But they all have, in some form, ‘Magic in my Bones’.
b) Extends the story of the Chaos Roads with what happens afterwards – because a few NeoAtlanteans are still active, and there are still things among the stars that will change life on Earth. (Oooh!)
I’m very excited to be telling these new stories! The fourth novel, The Summer Door, is a horror tale mixed with spicy dark romance. My original intention was just to tell a horror story, but a friend gave me the idea of adding a twisted romance to my Main Character’s descent into darkness. It will be released in October! (If you’d like an advance peek at the final cover design, sign up for my monthly newsletter through the pop-up on this site.)
My little town of Llithfaen holds a large cast of characters – not that I’d intentionally set out that way, but in real life there are usually plenty of people who become involved in an underlying story. That’s made it easy to start mapping out the next three novels.
The fifth will also be a horror novel, expanding on a character from an ancient bloodline who discovers she’s not alone.
The sixth will take a character back to a place among the stars.
And a very different war is coming – we’ll find out what happens in the seventh book!
Honestly, there are so many facets to the world I created in the Chaos Roads that I don’t think I’ll ever run out of material.
I suppose that speaks to my inventive brain, as much as it does to the power of human imagination. In a recent article (yes, I read plenty of articles – about the writing industry, about fascinating aspects of history, the richness of mythology and ancient culture, science and much more), author Dave Eggers said he tells his students that they’re unique. “You’re unprecedented in the entire line of human history. Only you have your brain. Only you can think of what you can think of. Only you can tell a story in a particular way. Why would you cede that to a machine?“ He was appalled by “the idea of us willingly, without any overlord telling us so, saying ‘I think my voice would be better expressed by an unthinking machine who has plagiarised all of the world’s authors and has come up with this terrible soup of bad writing.’”
I think that says a lot about the difference between human ingenuity and AI ‘slop’ (the official term for it among the writing community). Our human brains are limitless. AI brains can only regurgitate.