Plot Ideas!

by Linda O. Johnston

          “I need a plot idea,” Linda O. Johnston whispered to Lexie, her tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who sat on her lap in front of the computer.  “Any suggestions where I can find one?”

            “Rrrrr,” said Lexie.

            “You’re right!” Linda exclaimed.  “Plot ideas are everywhere.  This article, for example.  What if I came up with a romance novel with a heroine who was privileged enough to be writing an article for her local Romance Writers of America chapter’s newsletter?  The hero could be someone she needs to interview for it.  Or he could be someone who reads it and takes umbrage at something she said--a built-in external conflict.  Or she can’t think of how to start it, so she goes outside to walk her dog and sees a crime--excellent start to a romantic suspense novel.  Or--”

Okay, so what’s the point of this little excerpt from a story I don’t intend to write?  (In fact, if you like it, you can have it.  There!  A story idea right before your eyes! Just change our names.  And our descriptions.)

Plot ideas are definitely where you find them.  They’re everywhere. 

Most of all, they’re close by.  Really close.  Like, right inside your head.

In your subconscious.

And all you need to do is access them so your conscious mind can run with them.

Sounds simple, and for some people, it is.  For others, it’s a struggle.  I’m one of the fortunate ones, but even I sometimes take time to come up with an idea that makes sense for the market I’m aiming for.  And that’s important.  It doesn’t help to have an idea for a truly erotic romance that contains no element of mystery (except whose clothes will come off first) if the market you’re aiming for is romantic suspense.  Or vice versa.

So how do you access those ideas within you and convert them into a story that you can run with?

Inspiration helps.  Find something or somewhere that sets your mind in the direction it needs to go, then race ahead and write your novel.1

One kind of inspiration I’ve always found particularly useful is location, location, location.  I enjoy traveling, and, with each place I visit, I attempt to think of stories I can set there.  That was the origin of my very first published novel, the time travel romance A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER.  I was driving with my husband in a nice, comfy, air conditioned car through the stark, parched desert.  We approached a mountain.  I considered how a person on a wagon train more than a century earlier might have felt as the group, weak and thirsty, reached the mountain, full of hope that there would be water on the other side.  But what was on the other side of that mountain?  More desert. 

There’s a story there.  Or at least there was.  I told it.

Location also inspired some of my other stories--for example, STRANGER ON THE MOUNTAIN, set in central Pennsylvania, where I went to Penn State as an undergrad.  The football team was called the Nittany Lions--and I didn’t know when I started to research my idea that mountain lions had become extinct not only on Mt. Nittany, but in the whole area.  Another story.

And then there was THE BALLAD OF JACK O’DAIR, another time travel romance, this one set during the Alaskan gold rush.  I adored cruising to Alaska so of course I was inspired to write about it.

Okay, so you don’t travel a lot.  Or new locales don’t stimulate your subconscious to create awesome novels. 

Where else can you get your plot ideas?

As I said, they’re everywhere--especially inside you, straining to get out. 

What about allowing a person to inspire you?

That’s where my mystery series about Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, came from.

Think about your own life.  Would you make a good heroine of a story?  What about tweaking your own situation a bit to create that outstanding heroine?  Kendra isn’t me, even though she and I are both lawyers, we live in the same neighborhood, and she coincidentally also has a tricolor Cavalier named Lexie.  She has some qualities I wish I had, and others I’m glad I don’t.

But if you don’t want to create an alter ego, what about developing a character loosely based on your mother?  Your sister?  Your best friend?  Your worst enemy?

Or even better, the best darned hero your mind can imagine.

How do you then develop a plot?  Stick your fascinating characters in the most difficult situations for them that you can conjure up.  Challenge them.  Elicit their quirks and strengths.

Let them squirm.  Let them rise to the challenges.  Let them shine.

Plot ideas can also come directly from situations... the what ifs. 

What if someone despised their day job a whole lot more than you do and had the guts to tell off the boss and quit?  Who is that person?  What would happen to her then?

What if an aspiring athlete fell and broke her leg, and needed a full-time personal trainer to get back into condition?

What if a murder happened literally in someone’s backyard, and the killer apparently thinks the homeowner knows more than she does... and so does the handsome cop investigating the case?

Obviously, the possibilities are endless.  The only limitation is how far you can let your mind go.  And one good thing is, the more you allow your subconscious to wander and plot, the more creative it becomes.  That makes it a whole lot easier to pick a plot out of thin air and run with it until it ends up in a solid, creative, publishable story.

So... Think about it.  Then, plot on!

            This article first appeared in the LARA Confidential, newsletter of the Los Angeles Romance Authors, in March 2006.