Isn’t that the question that gets lobbed out to writers at public speaking events? I remember having a book about being a writer (which my maternal grandparents gave to me in an uncharacteristic show of support for talents. To give you an idea of my grandparents, a few weeks ago my maternal grandmother said that my five year old daughter had a good, slim figure, so, yeah, um, okay) and that was pretty much the entire book Where do writers get their ideas.
So in case you’ve ever wondered where I get my ideas, here is an example. I read a book about a lifeboat. I am now writing a story about …. wait for it … a lifeboat.
There you go. You can all marvel at the intricacies of the meghan mind. Pretty much how I read a book about faeries and then decided to write a story about faeries.
In any case, my lifeboat story will likely be short and have fewer characters. I got confused with the number of characters in the lifeboat story I just read. Also, my story will probably not be that good. But it’s the thought that counts, as long as the thought doesn’t involve too much outright, blatant theft from the book I just finished.