Today’s guest post comes to you by Melissa Stevens, author of Choosing Happiness.

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People often ask me where I get my ideas. The short answer is everywhere. But let me give you an example. A few weeks ago I was vacationing with my family, it was a limited electricity vacation. And I was doing as I tend to do, reading in bed for a little while before sleeping. I didn’t like the direction whatever book was going. I thought what if. What if instead of, this guy turning out to be the average bad guy he was secretly good? What if there was a book or series of books where…

No, I’m not going to give the idea away, because in the short amount of time I’ve been home I’ve actually been working on developing the idea. I’m hoping to turn it into a series. But this is how a lot of things work, at least for me. Driving through traffic to pick up the kids, something pops into my head. I wear a headset on my phone for times just like this, I hit the voice recorder or texting app while sitting at a stop light and tell the phone my notes. It’s not perfect but when I go back to it later I can figure out what I meant.

It’s not unheard of for me to sit at baseball practice with a notebook, working on whatever story I’m caught up in. Often a change of scenery helps if things aren’t flowing to suit me. If I can’t figure out what’s next, I’ll pack up and go to Starbucks, or do whatever I have to with the kids, taking notes in the notebook that goes everywhere with me, and putting them into the computer later.

Personally I think everyone has these flashes where things pop into their heads, I’ve just learned to really listen to mine.

Characters

I’m often asked if I base my characters on people I know. No. Each character’s personality is different. I do sometimes steal mannerisms, haircuts, personal preferences, but more often than not it’s what the character has told me about themselves and yes, they actually speak to me.

Sometimes I’ll be sitting in a restaurant with my family and over hear something at the next table that makes my mind spin. It may give me an idea or it may just sound so much like one of the people living in my head that they end up saying something similar in the future.

I may see someone somewhere who inspires my physically, and actually for Jade’s Peace, Steve was inspired by my mental image of what Model Jeremy Aaron’s personality might be like. I kept a picture of him on my desktop and when I had doubts about how Steve might behave, how he would react to something I could look at the pic and I just knew. Often, though I don’t need a visual aid. With Jade, she spoke to me, and told me things I didn’t have planned at all. She started out as an only child. And I was writing along and she says to me, “Watch out, my brother will be here tomorrow.” My immediate thought was, “You don’t have a brother.” She was adamant though and replied, “Yes I do and he’ll be here tomorrow.” Sure enough, he showed up, and I had to go back and fix a few things but I’ll admit, he made the story better.

I find that my best stories, at least to me, at the ones where I start out with a vague idea of the story, I have two characters and a rough ending, (Hey, this is romance, they always end up together, right?) and let the characters tell me their story as I go along. The characters always seem more alive when they lead their own stories.

I totally agree Melissa. Glad to know I am not crazy and other authors go through that as well. Thanks for sharing!

Click here to learn how Melissa got her start.

Choosing Happiness by Melissa Stevens
Publication date: July 21st 2015
Genres: Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Jake and Andrea met once. When Andrea was in college, Jake came with her brother Ben who was visiting on leave from a deployment in Afghanistan. Now, years later, Jake gets a job in Ben’s home town to be close to his best friend. He hadn’t counted on Andrea. The attraction he’d felt then was still there. And this time he wasn’t headed back to a war zone where he could very well be killed.

Andrea is drawn to the man who calls Ben brother. Something about him speaks to her, but she’s not sure what. She falls into things head first, but when something makes her question how fast things are going she slams on the breaks. Can the two of them figure out what’s going on with them before it’s too late?

Add Choosing Happiness to your Goodreads shelf.

Purchase Choosing Happiness on Amazon | B&N

About Melissa Stevens

Melissa was born and raised in Arizona, she’s spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She’s found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city.

She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she’s found that there’s little she won’t read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.

She’s been writing since 2009, and enjoys nearly every minute of it.

Connect with Melissa: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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