Generating Story Ideas

For the last week, I’ve devoted myself to coming up with proposals for cozy mystery series, writing the series overviews and brief synopses of three books for each of the three series. Nine books in all! Hopefully, the literary agent who has requested to see them will like them. It was quite an exercise coming up with all those ideas, me who believes that ideas are her weakest point. How did I do it in less than a week? I wondered if I could break the process down, so that I could help other people.

1) I tried to play on some current trends – Jane Austen, blogging, hoarding, malti-poo dog breeds, scones, unemployment, cruises

2) Then some current controversies – McMansion subdivisions in undeveloped areas of natural beauty; whether pit bulls are inherently dangerous; puppy mills

3) Then I mixed in some of my own life circumstances – raising young children, facing the prospect of a job ending, having Irish relatives, adopting animals, and volunteering at an animal rescue with my daughter

4) I brainstormed suspects in each mystery by typing out a list of possibilities. By the time I reached five on my list, I usually had one, or I had to sit and let the list gel for awhile until I came back to it. By that time, I would usually have a clearer sense of what would work

5) I did research on the internet, following Chris Baty’s (National Writing a Novel in a Month) rule about setting a five-minute limit on research, otherwise it can take over, and you find yourself distracted from actually writing

6) I did research on my public library catalogue, putting holds on books that I thought would help with background information or fiction with similar topics that could inspire me

7) Once I had a first draft of a series, populated with the characters, and the basic outline of each book done, I would show it to my husband, my mother, and my critique partner. They each have different perspectives but all came at it from the “big picture” view rather than word-smithing. The added benefit of seeking their input was that it forced me to let ideas digest awhile longer, so that while I waited for their feedback, I was working on something else. When I went back in to add in their feedback, I had other tidbits of my own to mix in as well.

In all, this was a big accomplishment for me, coming up with so many ideas in such a short period of time and building them into a coherent form. How do you come up with ideas? What strategies work for you?