I have so many story ideas that sometimes I'm not sure what to do with all of them: too many ideas, too little time, too little discipline? Most of the ideas are for things that haven't happened to me since my ideas are for romance, suspense, or fantasy. However, some of my ideas have the germ of something that happened to me mixed with something that hasn't. The following is a setting I know well mixed with a story line that I made up and would require research.
Experience
When I was five, my father found God and moved my family to a religious community in southern Georgia. Similar to Kristi's Pentecostal experience, there were rules about no television, no radio, skirts or dresses only for women, and shunning anything "of the world" (that was the phrase used). We lived isolated from others, only the men leaving to work at jobs not on the farm. My brother and I attended a small school with other children in the community; we attended church services Wednesday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night. We were assigned chores such as working in the garden or orchard, canning vegetables, feeding the pigs, and so forth. This would make an interesting setting for a novel.
Research
The story would revolve around a murder that takes place on the farm. Using a twelve-year-old girl as the protagonist, I would show what life on the farm was like, how she felt about the farm, then what she experiences after the murder is discovered, throughout the investigation, and afterward. Since there were no murders while I was there, although one of the mentally unstable people for whom the "elders" often prayed for healing did stab and kill someone after we left, I would have to research the police force in the area, whether any other police force would have to be called in to assist, crime scene protocol and techniques in the 1980s and so on.
I could do some of the research online but would also have to talk to police investigators and maybe visit the town we lived in and see what kind of police force they have. Using research, imagination, and my own experiences, I could write an authentic novel. I've only recently come up with this idea, and this is the first time I've written about it. I think it would be interesting to write, using some of my own cynicism and thoughts about my own experience there to flavor the story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Dina,
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas about mixing experience with made up ideas. We can't experience everthing so I think you are right about being able to write a believable novel using experience and imagination.
Dina, your idea for a novel sounds like a winner. Your detective could be the character who provides the sardonic and cynical thoughts and statements as she solves the crime. There are several good books out about the forensics of crime investigation that would keep you on track, and you already know all there is to know about the farm.
ReplyDeleteDina, this does sound like a good novel. It's also a good idea to compare notes with Kristi, if that works for you two. The mix of experience and research works well here.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I would love to compare notes with Kristi. I'm curious to see how closely her experience mirrors mine.
ReplyDeleteRay, I like the idea about the detective. Still not sure what point-of-view to write it in.
Thank you to all three of you for your support of my idea.