Guest Post from Kathleen Kole, author of Breaking Even

I would like to thank Kathleen for this guest post on my blog.
Today she discusses how she comes up with plots for her novels.

Kathleen writes:

I would think for most writers, no matter what the arena, one of the biggest “issues” is subject matter.  How do I come up with ideas for an article, a commentary, a story.  How will I develop that article, commentary and/or story.   

For myself, I’d say that before I can even think about writing a story, I must have feelings about it.  I must have some sort of “ah-ha” moment, where I feel inspired by the idea.  Depending upon the day, it is either a blessing, or a curse.  By that I mean I have had, or heard of, so many wonderful ideas, but if they didn’t capture my feelings I had no choice but to move on.  Plain and simple, I cannot fake enthusiasm.  My readers would feel it.  My heart has to be in the mix in order for me to discover my characters and tell their stories effectively. 

“Breaking Even” is, in my humble opinion, an example of a blessing day.  Each of the characters, as they came to life in my head, captured my attention and I knew they had a story I would happily tell.  I could imagine what it was like to be in their separate pairs of shoes and, from there, the tale almost wrote itself. 

Thankfully, I have had many more “blessing” days than “curse” days.   As a result, I’ve managed, thus far, to create two more novels (both in the editing process) and have ideas on the back burner for even more tales to come.  I’ll continue to give it my best and, with a heart full of feelings and fingers on my keyboard, make every effort to do my characters justice as I bring their stories to life.