Using Idea Gems and Imagination to Create Short Stories and Novels

Writers are often asked what the basis for their short stories and novels are. For me, the answer is simple. I use idea gems pulled from real life as the springboard for my imagination. Once my imagination kicks in, I polish or revise the mixture to create polished short stories or novels.

For example, in my recently published collection of short stories, With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, the first story “Thanksgiving in Moderation,” tells the tale of a family Thanksgiving dinner where a would-be fifth husband of one of the women doesn’t survive until dessert. The idea gems were family Thanksgiving meals I have attended and an older widow who, despite her daughters’ pleas, believed marriage was more acceptable than living with the man in her life. The widow only remarried three times, but my imagination, as I wrote the story, thought five was a funnier number.

In another story, “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” in With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, the idea gems were the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, memories of a red-light district in Atlanta in the late 1970’s, and different candidates’ political campaign speeches.

My imagination added a brothel, a madame, a politician, and a small boy. “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” was originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and was a finalist for the Agatha and Anthony awards.

Two of my favorite recently published short stories, “Who Shot J.R.?” and “The Opera Dinner Club,” (Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun and Anything but Murder: Larceny and Lies) also have reality as their idea gems.

The anthology call for Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun required one to use something from the 1980’s as the story’s catalyst. Although I could have gone with the Berlin Wall coming down or many other historical events, the first thing that came to mind was the whodunit frenzy created by the shooting of J.R. on the television show, Dallas. Once I zoned in on that as the historical basis of my story, I remembered how I once heard a woman who had been a private investigator distinguish her approach to the job from the men in her office. My imagination filled in the blanks to create a woman PI charged with discovering “Who Shot J.R.?” before the television show revealed the killer.

My Facebook feed periodically contains a post about two non-Jewish sisters who smuggled jewelry and clothing from Nazi occupied Austria to England so that Jews who were able to flee during the Holocaust would have something to start their new lives with. The sisters would attend operas and then return to London carrying other women’s jewelry and wearing their finery. Other than a reference to the sisters, I removed them from the story. Using my imagination, I created the four couples in the Opera Dinner Club who were engaged in a similar smuggling operation.

For a chance to win a copy of Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun, tell me, have you ever used or recognized an idea gem to spur your imagination?

While you’re here, click over to our May contest for a chance to win two cozy mysteries. CLICK HERE

Want to learn more about our author Debra H Goldstein? Visit her WEBSITE