Where do ideas come from? Imagine sitting in front of a blank computer screen and poof!. A sudden stroke of serendipity? Perhaps. but not likely. The ideas for plot come from long before the moment of looking at a computer’s cursor. Maybe they’re from many years ago, Or maybe they have always been with you. An example?
The Signs of Destiny’s plot originated in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island during the 1963 Christmas vacation from Complutense University in Madrid. While there I met a young lady from Liverpool, England. Her name was Lucy, and I helped her heist bananas out of a Swedish smorgasbord for her sister Rosalyn. Our association extended to Madrid and to New York.
One day, Lucy told me about a girlfriend who visited a Spiritualist (Fortune Teller) in the Burlington Arcade, and the woman revealed remarkable facts from the past but she refused to foretell the future. However the girlfriend was persistent, and paid to learn her tragic destiny: She would die a horrible death in her 24th year.
This knowledge ruined the girlfriend’s life. She became promiscuous, tried drugs and rapidly burned both ends of her life’s candle. Unfortunately. Lucy lost contact with the girlfriend, and I lost contact with Lucy before the fateful birthday.
The story stuck with me for years, and I created a novel with the inspiration from the tragic prophesy. Obviously, I needed to improvise. The fated young woman burning out her life’s glow would make a horrible story until s-p-l-a-t! So I added a wrinkle or two. For example, the young woman would meet the love-of- her life in her 24th year. At that time, with the love-of-her-life, the sand would flow out of the hourglass and she would proceed to immanent death (made considerably worse by the addition of true love).
I was stuck again. I had her dying in early versions of the novel in a tear-jerking finale. There was only one problem: I had already fallen in love with her!
Okay, I’m devious. I was beyond killing off Alison (the name I gave her). I had this lovely relationship–Alison and her true love– that really worked. Also, I devised an end that didn’t include s-p-l-a-t!
Then Alison left my script and jilted the love-of-her life by jumping into bed with another man, My hapless heroine had a mind of her own, and for two weeks I was depressed (jealous!) and I couldn’t write.
The truth is: I had a real story in the moment Alison took control! And that’s how an idea becomes a story. And how a good plot comes out of loosing control of the story .
