Where do I get my ideas?

I steal them.

Confession is good for the soul, and I feel so much better now!

“Where do you get your ideas?” has to be the question authors of fiction are asked most often and it’s time the truth is told. Most of us just plain flat out steal them. Not from other books or other writers, of course, but from. . . well, it’s best if I give you some examples.

I’m at church. (Yes, I’ve brazenly stolen even in church!) I’m new to this church, so everyone is a stranger to me and I’m quietly helping prepare meals to send to people in Haiti. A couple of other volunteers are talking to each other. One of them says that when she was in the Peace Corps in Haiti, she was in her tiny house when a resident of the town ran in, hysterically waving for her to follow him. She did so and was taken to a house where she found a woman in labor, already crowning. The church volunteer had no medical training, but in spite of her shock and anxiety, managed to deliver a healthy infant.

Way cool, I thought as I innocently continued filling bags. I was in the midst of writing my most recent novel, The Midwife’s Confession and I’d been trying to come up with a scene that would illustrate how Noelle, my midwife, becomes interested in midwifery. As soon as I got home, I wrote the scene: Twelve-year-old Noelle lives with her mother, a midwife, in rural North Carolina. In the middle of the night, a boy knocks on their door and begs Noelle’s mother to come to his house, where his sister is about to have a baby. The midwife takes Noelle with her, and Noelle witnesses her mother’s lifesaving skill and knows that she wants to follow in her footsteps.

Thank you, fellow church volunteers!

My favorite example of stealing ideas took place while I was trying to come up with a plot for my seventh novel. I was sitting alone at the Taco Bell, my pen poised above my ever-present notepad as I wracked my brain for an engaging idea. In the booth behind me, two women were talking.

“Did you hear about Lisa?” one of them asked. “Her husband left her for another woman and he’s fighting to get custody of their year-old son!”

“You’re kidding!” responded the second woman. “If my husband tried something like that, I’d change my name and head across country and start a new life with myself and my baby.”

I started making notes on my notepad:

Woman’s husband (attorney) marries his mistress (also attorney) and they fight to get custody of husband’s year-old son. Woman can’t win against these two high powered people, so changes her name and goes on the run.

Good start, I thought, and I headed home with my stolen idea. At home, I opened my brand new laptop computer. Well, it was brand new to me, but I bought it for a good price at Comp USA because someone else had purchased it first and returned it. I was about to break it in by typing a few more thoughts about my woman on the run. Then I noticed there were already quite a few files on the computer. Whoever owned it before me had left them there, including drafts of personal letters, and I began to read them. The following is only slightly paraphrased:

Dear Bob,

Just got back from a class with the airline. We heard about that jet that went down in Iowa last year. Man, if the real cause of that crash ever comes out, heads are going to roll! Definitely pilot error, dude. Big time.

Hmm, I thought. What if my woman on the run buys a used computer containing information that needs to be turned over to the authorities in order to save lives, but she can’t do it because she’s on the run?

Perfect! In one day, by stealing a few ideas here and there, I had the bones of the plot for my book The Escape Artist.

One last example. The book I’m currently revising, The Good Father, will be out next June. I like to write in a coffee shop in the morning. One day, a man walked into the shop with a little girl about two years old. The guy was about forty and slightly unkempt, as was the little girl. They were an unlikely pair, especially in a suburban coffee shop, and of course my imagination started running wild. Was he her father? A kidnaper? Did the child need protection? The little girl seemed perfectly comfortable with him, though, so my fantasizing went in a new direction. What if he asked me to watch her for a minute while he went back to his car? And what if he never returned?

Bingo! I had the central idea for The Good Father.

I need to add an addendum to that story. The man and little girl became occasional visitors to the coffee shop and while I was working on creating that book, my heart would flutter every time they walked in the door. Although I claim never to base my characters on real people, I was definitely inspired by these two. When the man would try to chat with me, I wasn’t encouraging. I was afraid getting to know him would alter my fledgling story. Now that I’ve finished the book, though, I’ve gotten to know both the man, his daughter, and the new baby he brings along from time to time. The man wonders why I can always remember his daughter’s name, and I feel almost guilty about how intensely I’ve studied them. When the book comes out, I think I’ll give him a copy. I stole from him. I think I should give him something back, don’t you?