Where Do Our Stories Come From?

In everything I write, I like to come up with characters first. I design the main players, and since everything I write tends to be otherworldly/supernatural, I give them whatever “powers” they have. Then I come up with the setting and plot. I imagine it’s the reverse for some writers, who come up with the plot first, then write their characters to fit that plot.

This leads me to my next problem. Well, the first problem is I’m still trying to fine tune A Witch To Live for general release, and my mind is crawling with other ideas. But besides that, I have this character that I think is amazing, and I don’t have a plot yet to put around him. That’s an interesting problem.

For now, his name is Jack. I’ve toyed with Jack in other ideas, always as a side character. He was going to have a part in A Witch To Live, but my wife thought that might be flooding the story with too many characters, and I agreed with her. She also thought he was strong enough to have his own novel, so as soon as some plot ideas come along, that will be next in line.

It’s strange to have characters, and some scenes in which all kinds of cool stuff happens, but no general overall plot, nothing to tie everything together. So, for the first time ever, I took one of those scenes and wrote it out. I normally write start to finish, no skipping around. But I figure if I write a few scenes out, maybe some plot ideas will come to mind.

Jack is an interesting character, something I’ve never tried before. The challenge will be to take a very dark, disturbing man, and make an audience maybe not necessarily care about him, but at least want to see what happens next.

So, this leads into my next post. Let’s meet Jack.