Guest Post – Where Do Ideas Come From? By Katy Cannon
I am over the moon to have one of my favourite authors on Tales today with a fab guest post for a brilliant blog tour!
And Then We Ran by Katy Cannon is released on the 6th April 2017 published by Stripes Publishing and is set to be an unforgettable road trip!
I’ve been a huge fan of Katy’s for a few years and I love her writing so much!
So today Katy is sharing a little about ideas and where they sometimes come from in this fab guest post…..
A road-trip story about following your dreams and embracing the unexpected.
Megan knows what she wants out of life and she intends to get it, whatever her parents say.
Elliott has given up on all his plans for the future – but then Megan bursts into his life with a proposal that could change it forever.
Together they embark on a road trip to escape their hometown and chase their dreams. But life is a journey and not even Megan can control where theirs will lead…
Perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Rainbow Rowell and Non Pratt.
Where Do Ideas Come From?
There’s a pretty standard list of questions you tend to get asked, once people find out that you’re a writer. After a while, a party full of new acquaintances becomes a bit like a game of Writer’s Life Bingo, as you cross off all the questions and comments you’ve heard a million times before.
Things like:
“Oh, so you’re going to be the next JK Rowling then, huh?”
“Boy, you must be loaded,” or it’s more realistic counterpart, “So what do you do for money?”
“I’ve always wanted to write a book, when I have the time.”
And, my personal favourite:
“I’ve got a great idea for a book. How about we collaborate? I’ll give you the idea, you write the book.”
The fallacy at the heart of this question is the belief that getting the idea is the hard part of writing a book.
In fact, ideas are the easy part. I can have a dozen ideas for books in a single day, if the world around me is particularly inspiring.
That’s also the problem with the other top five question: “Where do you get your ideas from?”
Because the truth is, ideas aren’t something I go shopping for. I don’t have a secret online store I can order them from, £5.99 for two and free shipping. I don’t steal them from other people’s brains with a machine my husband made in the garage (not least because I don’t have a garage). I don’t even breed them in captivity, in an inhumane idea farm.
If I’m lucky, ideas come to me. The basic premise for my latest novel, And Then We Ran, emerged complete in my head when I woke up one morning: two teens elope to Gretna Green, even though they’re not in love.
Other ideas are given as gifts – a comment from a friend, an article in the newspaper that starts me thinking ‘what if?’, a tv show that does something I disagree with, and start thinking of alternative stories I’d have preferred. Or even my agent saying, “You like baking. How about a baking book?” (That one became Love, Lies and Lemon Pies.)
Sometimes, ideas float up from my past – a memory, twisted. For instance, I performed in a lot of plays in high school, and later on, working as a production assistant in London, I helped out backstage in a costume department. Those two memories merged into one to become Secrets, Schemes and Sewing Machines.
Some of the best ideas don’t even have a real starting point. They’re the ones where the things you see every day, or hear, or observe, slowly come together in your mind and make something entirely new. And suddenly, from nowhere, you have a new idea.
What you’ll notice in all these cases is that the initial idea is only the very beginning of the book’s journey. It’s where the real work starts.
That real work – building up the idea, improving it, adding contrast and conflict and characters, finding a way to make it feel new, different to what else is out there; developing the backstories and the plot and the story logic; outlining the scenes, writing them, revising them, revising them again; submitting the book, selling it, editing it, copy editing it, proof reading it, promoting it… and a million other things I’ve probably forgotten – that’s the truth of being a writer. Because while it might start with an idea, unless it’s actually written, then that’s all it will ever be.
Where do I get my ideas? When I hear that question, here’s what I really want to answer:
“Anywhere and everywhere. Same place you can get yours.
But you’re starting with the wrong question. Getting ideas isn’t the important part.
It’s what you do with them that counts.”
You can buy a copy of And Then We Ran here or from you local bookshop!
You can find a previous post from Katy on Tales by clicking on the below link….
Bake Club Christmas Wish Lists
Review – Secrets, Schemes and Sewing Machines
About Katy Cannon
Katy was born in Abu Dhabi, grew up in Wales, went to university in Lancaster, spent a few years splitting her time between London, Hertfordshire, and an assortment of hotels across the world. She now lives in a little market town not far from Cambridge. She has a husband, two children, a goldfish, and far too many notebooks.
Katy likes to write stories about the importance of friends and family, and especially those friends who become family. She considers herself most fortunate to have been blessed with an abundance of all three.
As a teenager, Katy was constantly in trouble for reading when she should have been doing something else. These days, she mostly gets in trouble for dreaming up new stories when she should be writing the ones she’s already working on.
Katy’s debut YA novel, LOVE, LIES & LEMON PIES, has been translated into eight languages. Her next book, AND THEN WE RAN, will be released in April 2017.
Katy is represented by Gemma Cooper of The Bent Agency.
You can find out more about Katy on her website – www.katycannon.com
Or why not follow her on twitter – @KatyJoCannon
Blog Tour
You can catch up or follow the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
A huge thank you to Katy for such a wonderful post and to Beth at Stripes Publishing for organising and having me as part of the tour!
Have you read And Then We Ran? What did you think? Are you intrigued to go and grab copies? Have you read any of Katy’s other books? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button above or tweet my on twitter using @chelleytoy!
Happy Reading!
