Is This Normal?

When I began writing fiction, I came up with one story idea, something I felt passionately about. I wrote on that one "Big Idea," straying neither to the left nor the right. When I came to the end, I went back to the beginning and began the arduous task of revising. Then I went back to do the picayune edits. Only when that was done did I allow myself the luxury of thinking at length about the next book.

Then I wrote the second manuscript. It's in revision now, but I find I cannot hold at bay other book ideas. Already three middle-grade plot lines are playing around in the back forty of my mind. Further, I'm plotting a historical novella. It seems to me idea begets idea more prolifically than an Old Testament patriarch. Have you found that to be true? Do you write more when you're writing more?

Write on!
Because of Christ,
Sharon

The Birth of a Book

~Gran'ma, where do books come from?~

~Well, my child, sit down and I'll tell you. First, the spark of an idea is conceived long, long before the book can be held in your hand. It could take months, years or even decades for the idea to germinate, incubate and grow. The idea might spring from a feeling in the air, a random memory sparked by the fragrance of wisteria or night-blooming jasmine, a child's giggle as he somersaults through a bed of spearmint, a random comment overheard in the grocery check-out line--or an old photograph such as these.~

Dear fellow writers, from whence come your ideas? Have you ever looked into the face of someone in an old photo and been inspired to write about that person, known or unknown? Please leave a comment describing that time.