I thought it might be fun to take you inside a writer’s mind. Readers often ask me, “Where do you get your ideas?” That’s a hard answer to give because ideas come from so many different places. A research tidbit I ran across years ago. A place I visited. A book I read. A television show I watched. A Bible verse. The fact that I wanted something to explode. All of those have been sources of inspiration for my books.
A writer’s most powerful inspiration comes from the question, “What if?” That question opens the door of the imagination.
Here’s an example. Last month the reading challenge I oversee had the theme of reading books with the word Bride in the title. So I created this image of a bride reading. However, the more I look at this image the more I begin to wonder who she is and why she is reading alone in a library in her wedding dress.
Here is a sample of the questions that began running through my head:
- Is this before the wedding or after?
- Was she feeling overwhelmed by all the preparations and just needed some quiet time to settle herself?
- Is she reading a romance novel? The Bible? A marriage guide?
- Where is her groom?
- Why is she in a Victorian-style gown? Is this the 1880s or is she a modern woman with classic taste?
- Is this the church library, or did an evil stepmother lock her in a tower room to keep her from away from her true love?
- Is she even a bride? Could she be an actress from a period piece who is on break? Or a wedding dress model passing time until the photographer is ready for her?
- Was she abandoned at the altar and sent everyone away so she could get lost in a book and not deal with her devastating reality?
- Is she an undercover FBI agent looking for the book from the Victorian wedding venue that holds the key to a cipher that will save the world from imminent destruction?
- When she looks up, will a smile stretch her lips as love glows in her eyes? Or will a tear fall from her eye as heartbreak ensues?
If you were to create story with this image as your inspiration, where would your imagination take you?
Share your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to read them!
PRIZE:
One person who shares will win an audiobook code for If the Boot Fits!
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The bride is reading a note left by the groom. He is explaining to her about a double life he has where he has another wife and kids. That his conscious finally got the best of him. That he’s sorry it had to be on this day, moments from the ceremony, but that he didn’t see another way out. He was trying to find a way to end things with his other wife in the time leading up to the wedding, but he had just received news of her terminal illness. He hopes the bride can forgive him and perhaps they can be finally be together once his double life ends with the death of his wife.. Twist of events! The other wife secretly found out about his double life and is faking her terminal illness in order to keep him around. To be continued…
Wow! Talk about your emotional roller coaster. Great job, Anna!
Does she want to get married or is it an arrangement?
Has she met the groom before?
Does the dress belong to her mother or does she have a vintage dress shop and love wearing clothing from bygone eras?
Ooo – I like the idea of the heroine being the owner of a vintage dress drop. Very fun!
My imagination leans more to the comedy side. How in the world is she able to breath in this dress with the bodice so tight that her waist is unbelievably small? Is she stuck sitting like this because she can’t possibly move?
Yes! Maybe this is the precise moment she passes out. That’s why her head is dipping. 🙂
To me, she’s trying to come to terms with what is about to happen. She’s not really sure she wants to get married to this man, but she really has no say in the matter. And, she’s really wishing she could have picked the dress SHE wanted and not the one her mother chose for her! She’s hoping maybe, just maybe, her husband will give her some freedom to be the person God wants her to be, and not be like her parents, expecting her to be someone she’s not.
Nice! And very realistic motivation. I like it, Trudy. 🙂
As the bride patiently waits for her groom to come, she picks up a copy of Pride and Prejudice wondering if she has been left at the altar. The library, an annex of the church, gives her a moment of silence in the face of the reality that she has chosen the wrong man. Where is her knight in shining armor when she needs him? Will she forever be sad at the choices she has made.
🙂
Ah . . . I’m ready to turn the page and have the true hero come in a sweep her off her feet. 🙂
Oh, my goodness, I am really mopping beverage off my screen. This is so funny. I am my church’s librarian and this is me waiting for patrons to approach me after church so I can give them novel suggestions.
Perfect, Lorraine! Maybe you decided to break out your wedding dress to try to encourage more people to give Christian romance a try. 🙂
I see her sneaking in a little bit of reading to calm her nerves before her wedding ceremony to a man her father has arranged for her to marry. A younger, business acquaintance of her father, who she will fall madly in love with and live a long, happy life with. She just doesn’t know it yet. 🙂
Sigh – I love happy endings!
Love this look inside a writer’s brain, and the picture is lovely!
Brainstorming:
She’s deep in thought, wondering if she’s making a mistake. She just found out something she didn’t know (open for speculation) about her groom. Should she or should she not go through with this.
I like it! A good mystery gets the blood pumping.
This is not actually her wedding dress, but she is convinced she’s doomed to be a spinster, so she dresses fancy every day to feel better about herself while she whiles away her time in the library of her father’s country estate. Little does she know her father’s apprentice has his eye on her …
Ooo – I love a good spinster story. 🙂
I’m not entering the contest, but I find the bride’s hands interesting. They look more like a working woman’s hands, and not someone from a better family that you would expect to be wearing such a dress.
Hmmm – maybe it hints at a past she is hoping to hide . . . 🙂
WINNER: There were so many great inspiration ideas, I couldn’t choose, so I ended up doing a purely random pick. Congratulations got to Karen Kinney. Yay! Karen, I will email you with instructions for claiming your prize.