How Do I Do It?

People ask me that all the time, “How do you do it? How do you write all those stories? Where do you get your ideas?” In an ironic twist, last night as Husband and I were binge-watching another four episodes of The Good Wife on Amazon Prime, I turned to him and said, “How do they do that? How do they come up with such great story lines every single week?”

In the case of the TV drama, we both agreed it was probably from the headlines or from reading about law cases that have actually happened. The writing on that particular show is fabulous, so although they may find ideas in real life, they execute them with amazing skill. Each episode is fascinating and the continuing story they tell is seamlessly woven throughout.

All this observation is to say that when you write a series, in a way, it’s the same thing, and I’ve discovered that I am a series writer. I didn’t know that about  myself. Not even after writing the four Women of Willow Bay books. It's simply that I don’t want to leave my characters. I’m happy to invent new people to populate my little towns, but I really hate leaving the setting I’ve created. So I think the answer to “Where do you get your ideas?” might be that they’re seeds, sown in the previous book.

Let me try to explain because, man, I’d love to have a really good answer next time someone asks. When I started writing the Four Irish Brothers Winery series for Tule Publishing (Never turn an opportunity to promote), I had the four brothers in my head. By the way, I guess I need to preface this with the fact that I have always had people in my head clamoring to get out. If I can give them a story, I’ll let them out, but otherwise, they have to go to the back of the line. Anyway, those brothers, all four of them were knocking around in there, tripping over each other to have their story told. Conor shouted loudest, so his story came first, although in the birth order, he was third in line.

But as I wrote his story, the seeds of Sean’s story were scattered—Megan, the mayor, who was thirty-seven and had never been married suddenly began to develop, as did Tierney, the only female firefighter on the River’s Edge Fire Department. When we met Conor’s love interest, Sam, we also  discovered that Sean, who was a high-powered attorney in Chicago, might not be all that thrilled with big-city life. In Sean’s book, Conor and Sam’s wedding happened and when it did, we not only saw Sean and Megan’s happily-ever-after, we also got a hint that Aidan’s glamorous life in LA might not be all that glamorous and that Brendan shared a special friendship with Tierney. Each brother's story revealed a little bit about the others. 

See how that works? As I was watching the continuing thread unspool throughout the episodes of The Good Wife, I realized that is what makes a series happen. That filament that runs through each episode. The continuing story that pulls you in because you want to know what will happen next to the characters even though each episode has a definite beginning, middle, and end. So, it’s the setting and the characters in the previous story that drives the next one. It’s the little town of River’s Edge; it’s the winery; it’s Mac’s Riverside Diner, the River Walk, and the Ohio River. It's also the Flaherty brothers, Dot and Mary at the quilt shop and Janet at the yarn shop. it's the Flaherty wives--Sam and Meg and Holly and soon, Brendan's love. For readers, it’s a yearning to go back to see what’s up with Mac and Carly, to watch the Flaherty family grow, to meet more of the townsfolk, and to feel a part of River’s Edge.

It’s the same for me, so yesterday, I started a new River’s Edge book with a different family—three brothers who are all first responders. You’ll meet all three of them in July, when Brendan’s book releases, but here’s a peek. Ryker Lange is a police officer on the River’s Edge Police Department, Becker Lange is firefighter, and Max Lange is an ER doc at St. Mark’s Hospital. Stay tuned!

I’m not sure I’ve answered my own question, but maybe it's simply that characters breed characters and then breed stories. May it continue.

Stay well, mes amies, get out in the sunshine that’s lighting up your own back yard. Take care of yourselves, take care of others as best you can, and remember that all will be well.

~Nan~