How I come up with my ideas: Guest Post with Jude Knight, author of Farewell to Kindness

How I come up with my ideas

"How do you come up with your ideas?" people sometimes ask. It's a question I have trouble answering. Ideas sleet all around me, all the time, and I run around with my hat held out in both hands trying to catch the ones that shine the brightest.

Often, I'm not sure what to do with them when I've got them, so I squirrel them away until three, or five, or ten of them collide together in the recesses of my mind and emerge into a story. Then, when I start writing, I dig into the store whenever I hit a speed bump. If nothing there helps me around the block, I've learned to trust I'll get the answer from something in my research or some serendipitous piece of information that passes my way.

Let me illustrate.

First, imagine

Seven of the forty or so historical fiction plots I'd worked out in my head before I began writing the actual books belong to The Golden Redepenning series. The one that's now on prerelease, A Raging Madness, is book two in the series but actually came first in my imagination.

As usual, I started with a character type, in this case a beleaguered widow, escaping from her in-laws by climbing out the window, and having to leave behind her beloved colt, the only thing in the world that she owned.

Which, of course, raised all kinds of questions. What was she escaping, and why? Where was she running to? Who was her husband, and how did he come to leave her dependent on her in-laws? What sort of person was she?

And what of her hero? I knew he was one of a group of cousins (the Redepennings), and fairly early on I made him a military man, largely because her husband had been military, and so she had a prejudice against soldiers for my hero to overcome when wooing her.

That must have been all of four years ago. As always, I told myself the bare bones of the story as I walked from the railway station to the office or soaped myself in the shower.

Then record

Then I wrote it into my notebook and moved on to another one. Here's what I wrote.

Alex comes to the funeral of Lady Melville's mother-in-law, as the widowed Lady Melville was wife of a friend and fellow officer. Realises that she needs help. Tries to visit her but is turned away. Ella hears her brother-in-law and his wife talking and realises that they mean harm. Runs to inn where Alex is staying. Alex agrees to take her with him. Takes her to his sister Susan, where he and she investigate to find out why in-laws are so determined to keep her. Attempt on her life; find out that brother-in-law has kept secret her inheritance. (Thought her only inheritance was her horse).

Next, research

Once I had all seven stories, I sorted them by date, so Farewell to Kindness came first, since it starts some eight months before A Raging Madness. I needed a confidante for my Farewell hero, Rede, and had planned to make it a school friend. But Alex's book came next, so Alex got shoe-horned into the Farewell spot. I needed him wounded for the plot, but how and where? He was a soldier, but what battles might he have been involved in to have him in London and still very much an invalid in late April of 1807? I found battles galore, but only one close enough for him to get back to England in time. And the English were not combatants.

The decision to put Alex there anyway, as escort to an unnamed VIP, was one of those fortunate chances I spoke of earlier. In A Raging Madness, a grateful King gives Alex first a cash reward and then a title and an estate, all of which have consequences for his relationship with Ella.

Explore the characters and explore them some more

Of course, the plot capsule above was just the bare-bones start of the story. I knew a little more, but mostly I knew the characters.

Alex was still an invalid, which fired off a couple of plot threads.

Keep researching and researching

I needed to find out the medical treatment for shrapnel wounds, and likely complications. I thought it would be good if Ella treated him, which meant I needed her to have medical training. I made her father a doctor with the regiment in which both Alex and Ella's husband served. But my research showed that the treatment for shrapnel is to leave it alone until it causes problems. Aha! What sort of problems?

Alex and Ella are running away, but the roads in 1807 were diabolical. How could an invalid escape over them? I love the idea of canal boats, and would adore to travel on them. How about if Alex and Ella escaped on a canal boat? No one would think to look for them there, and it would give Alex a chance to have abcessing shrapnel removed, and to recover.

And I'd somewhere come up with the idea that Ella was being drugged by her in-laws. What drug? Laudanum was the obvious answer, and I was lucky enough to find a personal account by a Victorian laudanum addict. How would this affect her escape, and what might Alex think when she arrived in his hotel room?

Then write

So that's where I started. With the bare bones plot ideas, several characters I was beginning to know quite well, and some ideas about directions. I began writing, researching as I went, and found out what happened as it poured out on to the pages.

So I started writing, researching as I went, and found out what happened as it poured out on to the pages.

And that's how I come up with my ideas.

Genre: Regency romance, historical romance, historical suspense,
Regency noir, gothic    µ Heat rating: PG-13    µ  ISBN: 9780473393670
Page count: 382 pages on Kindle    µ Publication date: 9 May 2017

Tagline

Their marriage is a fiction. Their enemies are all too real.

Blurb

Ella survived an abusive and philandering husband, in-laws who hate her, and public scorn. But she’s not sure she will survive love. It is too late to guard her heart from the man forced to pretend he has married such a disreputable widow, but at least she will not burden him with feelings he can never return.

Alex understands his supposed wife never wishes to remarry. And if she had chosen to wed, it would not have been to him. He should have wooed her when he was whole, when he could have had her love, not her pity. But it is too late now. She looks at him and sees a broken man. Perhaps she will learn to bear him. 

In their masquerade of a marriage, Ella and Alex soon discover they are more well-matched than they expected. But then the couple’s blossoming trust is ripped apart by a malicious enemy. Two lost souls must together face the demons of their past to save their lives and give their love a future.              

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Author bio

Jude Knight’s writing goal is to transport readers to another time, another place, where they can enjoy adventure and romance, thrill to trials and challenges, uncover secrets and solve mysteries, delight in a happy ending, and return from their virtual holiday refreshed and ready for anything.

She writes historical novels, novellas, and short stories, mostly set in the early 19^th Century. She writes strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, villains you’ll love to loathe, and all with a leavening of humour.

Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudeKnightAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudeKnightBooks

Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/jknight1033/

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JudeKnight

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8603586.Jude_Knight

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Jude-Knight/e/B00RG3SG7I

DEFYING REASON with Elizabeth Seckman

Ines de Castro and Prince Pedro of Portugal shared a tragic love. Ines was the lady in waiting to the prince's new wife, Princess Contance Castile. The Castile line had connections and power, so Prince Pedro's infatuation with Constance's maid threatened the unity in the kingdom. So, Pedro's father, King Alfonso forbid the couple to be together. Ines was exiled from the kingdom. 

When Constance died, Prince Pedro sought out Ines and brought her back to the kingdom. His father, the king, still forbid them to marry. Undaunted, the couple lived together openly, resulting in four children. This open defiance, and Ines' powerful influence over Pedro, angered the king, so while Pedro was out of the country, he had Ines killed. 

When Pedro returned, in his fury, he launched a war against his father's throne. His mother was able to bring peace to the father and son, but Pedro never forgot. When the king died and Pedro took the throne, he hunted down Ines' killers. He found two of them and both were executed by ripping their hearts from their chests. He also proclaimed Ines was rightfully the queen, and legend has it, he had her body exhumed and forced the court to pledge their allegiance to her dead body. 

Pedro and Ines are interred in a monastery, their coffins side by side with the promise: até ao fim do mundo...until the end of the world. And ironically, Constance and Pedro's son, Ferdinand, was the last of the First Dynasty. The new king to take the throne married the great-granddaughter of Ines and it was their children who reigned during the Age of Discovery when the countries of Europe started looking across the seas to the new world. 

 

The Blurb:

Jo Leigh Harper comes from a long line of trouble-making, white trash stock.

Tanner Coulter comes from a longer line of wealth-creating, blue blood stock.

Jo graduated college top of her class, moving toward a future full of possibilities.

Tanner dropped out of college, trading a law degree for drinking games and one night stands.

A family crisis throws the rich party boy and the poor genius girl together. The attraction is immediate, though neither one is a heart-in-the-sand-drawing believer in true love. But as the summer sun heats up along the shores of the Outer Banks, so does the connection between them. Maybe, just maybe, they can win at love by defying reason.

 

Author Bio:

Elizabeth is a multi-published author of books for people who are believers in happily-ever- after, true love, and stories with a bit of fun and twists with their plots. The mother of four young men, she tackles laundry daily and is the keeper of the kitchen. She lives along the shores of the Ohio River in West Virginia, but dreams daily of the beach. 

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Jessa Russo, Author of DIVIDE, talks about her writing style

So glad Jessa Russo can stop on by today. Welcome, Jessa!

“My Writing Style: Plotter or Pantser?” 

I’m often asked the question—as most of us probably are—of what my writing style is. Am I a plotter, paving my way with outlines and story arcs, character write-ups and plans? Or am I a pantser—a ‘fly by the seat of my pants, go with the flow, write it all out and hope for the best’ kind of girl?

The simple answer: pantser. And proud of it. *grin*

I honestly just sit down and write. My “motto” is Just Write. (Pretty hard one to remember, huh? So much so that I tattooed it on my arm. Lol!)

But seriously, just write. Write until the words come. Because they will, if only you sit back and let them.

When I sat down in 2010 (2009?) to write EVER, I had a barebones idea: a girl who lived with a houseful of ghosts. Over many months and a gazillion revisions (don’t even get me started on what that first draft looked like, ugh!), that house full of ghosts dwindled down to just one: the ghost of Ever’s best friend and secret love. But I didn’t have the storyline to go with that idea, just the characters. And, truth be told, even Ever and Frankie morphed and changed as I trucked along in that world, though Frankie always remained a greaser from the 1950’s, even when he wasn’t.

With DIVIDE, I sat down on November 1, 2012, for my very first attempt at NaNoWriMo, my full intention to finish fleshing out EVADE: Book Two of The Ever Trilogy. Instead, and much to my surprise, the story of Holland Briggs flowed out onto the page—for no other reason than the simple fact that those were the words that needed to be written at that moment, and that was the story I had to tell right then. I knew I wanted to gender flip Beauty and the Beast, and I wanted to do it in such a way that our beautiful ‘Beauty’, main character Holland, wasn’t just a simple reproduction of the perfect, kind, flawless and aesthetically pleasing heroine. I wanted there to be some darkness, some form of a beast within, something that signified, even just a little, the truth that beauty is only skin deep, and we never know what may be lurking beneath the surface. Although, in this case, Holland isn’t result a monster, and has no control over what’s happening to her, but I’m getting off topic. DIVIDE was nearly completed by the end of November—side note: something I adore about NaNoWriMo is the discipline it forces us pansters to have, even, and possibly more specifically, in the case of already published authors—and by April DIVIDE was out on submission and entering contests. Without a plot or outline to be found.

Eventually, I finished the second book in The Ever Trilogy, and, much to the chagrin of fans of that series, I’m going to tell you all that I have no idea how that series will end. Because when I sat down to finish it, I wrote ARK OF DREAMS (my Noah’s Ark redux), and then later, CHLORINE & CHAOS (my erotic romance, writing as Parker Jameson).

So that’s the flaw of the pantser, or at least, the flaw of this pantser. I have every intention of doing one thing, but often, my words take me somewhere completely different. I mean, contemporary erotic romance? Who knew? Certainly not this YA writer. *blushes*

But there it is. I wrote. I followed the words. I let the stories tell themselves, allowed the characters to forge their own paths, and here I am. Forever a panster, and not seeing that changing anytime soon. Because in my case—and only mine, as I don’t speak for other writers—the second I try to rein it in and put some order to the chaos, I lose my way and just end up writing again.

Because that’s what I do. I just write.

So whether you plot or pants or have developed some awesome combination of the two, just do what you do. Just let the words come.

Just Write.

Nicole here: I'm 95% pantser too! Pantsers unite!

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From senior class president to dejected social outcast, with just the flick of a match.

After accusations of torching her ex-boyfriend’s home are followed by the mysterious poisoning of her ex-best friend, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs assumes her life is over. And it is. But not in the way she thinks.

As Holland learns the truth about her cursed fate—that she is descended from the Beast most have only ever heard of in fairytales—she unites with an unlikely ally, good-looking newcomer Mick Stevenson. 

Mick knows more about Holland’s twisted history than she does, and enlightening as it is to learn about, his suggestion for a cure is unsettling at best. Holland must fall in love with Mick in order to break the spell, and save their future generations from repeating her cursed fate. Having sworn off love after the betrayals of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, this may be difficult to accomplish. 

Complicating things further for Holland and Mick, time runs out, and Holland’s change begins way before schedule. With Holland quickly morphing into a dangerous mythical creature, Mick struggles to save her.

Should they fail, Holland will be lost to the beast inside her forever.