Our plots in their most basic form

[Androxine Vortex]

Looking at all of the novels I am currently working on, I try to think back of how I first got the idea for it. The one novel began with just an idea for a character that I liked: A sort of a Bad@$$ demon hunter. That was it; that was the basic foundation for the novel. I eventually began giving him a background and a story and then a conflict to go with it and before you know it, I had an entire plot planned out. And all of it came from the basic idea of a cool character that I randomly happened to think of.

Another novel started with the thought a battle scene I had been daydreaming about in my head while I was on break at work. I imagined a bunch of demonic forces fighting knights with holy powers. Just that basic idea allowed me to expand on it and expand on it and now it has turned into what will hopefully become a four novel series. I imagined why they were fighting and then what were some characters that would have significance in it? What conflicts were there? And so on and so forth.

So take a look at some of your work. What was the first idea or thought that you had that eventually drove you to create the story that you are working on now?

[Ireth]

Winter's Queen went through quite an odd evolution before crystallizing as what it is now. It began as the story of a woman who is cursed, and her quest to look for a cure; along the way she meets a man who is hunting for his kidnapped daughter, and as the two travel they fall in love. I began wondering what the daughter's side of the story was, who she was kidnapped by and why; eventually the story became that of a human girl kidnapped by a Fae prince who wished to marry her, while her father and uncle sought to rescue her. The woman from the original idea was deleted, but I might eventually write her story in a different way. The idea behind the sequel, Summer's Pawn, is much more straightforward: "What'll happen when the consequences of their actions catch up with the heroes?"

Low Road began as an idea presented by my mother: "You should write a book about a Scottish vampire named Olan!" I took the thought and ran with it, giving the guy a past, present and future. His story has changed a LOT in the telling, and spawned an extensive history, mainly involving the villain and what he was like before he became evil.

[Feo Takahari]

Well, my current project began with something I thought while mulling over a question of philosophy: "Just because you go to Hell for doing something doesn't mean it's bad, it just means the universe is bad." From this, I built a character who'd gone to Hell and come back, and who felt a tremendous amount of guilt for something that really wasn't all that awful. Then I started mulling over the mechanics of the setting, and it grew and grew.

[Androxine Vortex]

Well, my current project began with something I thought while mulling over a question of philosophy: "Just because you go to Hell for doing something doesn't mean it's bad, it just means the universe is bad." From this, I built a character who'd gone to Hell and come back, and who felt a tremendous amount of guilt for something that really wasn't all that awful. Then I started mulling over the mechanics of the setting, and it grew and grew.

Sounds like an interesting premise. I think a lot of good movies and books originally came from a, "what if" mentality.

[Ankari]

Mine is the story of a people rising against their masters, their heritage, and the plots of various nations to become their own nation. That is about as basic as I can put it.

[Lorna]

The idea behind my world - 'the world is an artwork' - actually creating a fantasy world from this idea came to me when I was working with horses on an event yard in Hertfordshire whilst thinking about Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy And this world being dominated by technology and nature / the elements and the arts biting back.

The very first time I began to write it my MC was a school girl (now the 'good visionary' and a minor character) taken by a magician (now my MC) to a weird and wacky world that was like a fantasy version of 'The Futurist Manifesto' crossed with Sonic the Hedgehog. It featured mechanical pegasi and a villain like Robotnik. Boy, have things changed.

[JonSnow]

So mine began when I was 14.... I started by trying to write my own short story based on the main characters from the Dragonlance Chronicles. Of course, I eventually wanted to create my own original...but for a long time I had difficulty creating my own world that could deviate from the only narrow fantasy world I knew.

So over the next few years, I did a lot more reading and my knowledge of fantasy expanded, as well as the scope of ideas I could draw from. Eventually, the story grew, and I became less and less attached to my original inspiration. That was when I could start creating my own fantasy world, and no longer had to use every cliche in the book... the grumpy dwarf, the angry wizard and the muscle-head brother, the God in goofy wizard disguise, and the half-elf leader who didn't know his parents.

My actual story, I don't know where it "originated" anymore. I've had so many re-writes, dreams, moments of inspiration, start-overs, and complete overhauls that the only remaining thing from my original is the main character. And even he has changed a lot.

[ThinkerX]

Hmmm...

Various stories I think I can salvage, each with a different genesis:

From World 1:

'To Cross the Sea of Shadows' ... been so long I don't remember the exact idea of origin. The inspiration for the part I have was a sort of 'character study' between two radically different people who do not trust each other yet have to work together.

'After Battle' (Yes, its a horrid title)...inspiration here was from the poem 'To the Dark Tower Childe Roland did come' I might have mangled the poem title a bit. Very powerful imagery. Basically, my story is about a lowly foot soldier wandering about a scene of near total destruction - the aftermath of a cataclasmic battle.

'Labyrinth' ... well at the time I wrote the first version I felt I was lost in a vast maze of more than one sort. (delivery job, dealing with a baffling bureaucracy, ect). So I tossed in some Lovecraft and made it into a story.

'Cenotaph City' ... a new one, from what I was able to salvage of a 'idea' presented by a friend. (about 80% of his idea was a Glen Cook rippoff, so I had to make do with the rest).

'Empire'...another new one. Starting point for the first book was the first few lines of an online Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying adventure. I found the opening to be very believable and very chilling...but I ignored everything else in that adventure.

From World 2:

'Falling Towers' was inspired by an old 'play by mail' game from the early 1980's. The game set up an interesting world situation but didn't do anything with it. I saw story potential in the situation, started writing...and made the elementary mistake of combining my working notes with the story.

'Pilgrim' is inspired by a novalla from Kim Stanly Robinson and from LeGuins 'EarthSea'. Down through the years, I've made several efforts to get underway with it, only to find each time that despite a lot of worldbuilding, I didn't know the characters or their culture well enough to tell the story. As a result, I have notes and fragments.

[Androxine Vortex]

When I first got into Warhammer 40K I made my own Space Marine Chapter and made their background and stuff but then decided I wanted to take that story and actually use it for a novel. Just had to change some things around but I would say 95% is exactly the same.

[Jabrosky]

The one novel began with just an idea for a character that I liked: A sort of a Bad@$$ demon hunter. That was it; that was the basic foundation for the novel. I eventually began giving him a background and a story and then a conflict to go with it and before you know it, I had an entire plot planned out. And all of it came from the basic idea of a cool character that I randomly happened to think of.

A lot of my story ideas have begun similarly. I start with visual images of my characters and attempt to build stories around them. Other times I may imagine a setting and devise characters and plots within it.