I get asked a lot how I come up with ideas for novels. I'd love to say there's one set formula but there isn't.
What I can say though, is that I get my ideas from everything and anything. Generally when I'm driving because that's when I have the most time to think (as long as I am alone or the kids are being quiet!).
For P2, it was a little different, I was watching the Formula One, having recently finished Red, White and Royal Blue and suddenly thought, what if two team mates fell in love? The idea blossomed from there and with each day, new elements of the story came to me until I wrote it down.
Sometimes, the idea is fleeting. I once wrote a novel idea down (in my notes app, which is a total mess or random ideas) that said "girl is a serial dater, who takes home lots of men back to her parents. She loves love and thinks every single one of them is the one". I haven't pursued that idea *yet*.
For me, I know whether to write it or not by whether it sticks in my mind. If I can't stop thinking about it and I get excited about an idea then I know I should write that novel. This one hasn't stuck. I might come back to it, I may not. Who knows.
I listen to a lot of conversations when I'm out and about, I let my mind wander and imagine scenarios and then I write them all down.
Dreams are also a great source of creativity for me and I am lucky enough that I remember a lot of them. At the Top of the Hill (the first novel I ever wrote) was the product of a very odd dream, featuring Zac Efron.
I recently wrote down another idea from a dream, that I plan on writing in the future too.
Stories are everywhere. You just need to be open to them.
S x
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