Copyright © 1998 Karleen Bradford

How often have I been asked that question! It seems people think a writer is a person who walks around, or sits around, waiting until an idea strikes. Pow! The idea hits, floods through the brain and out the fingertips onto the computer keys and a story is born. Just like that. Those of you who have struggled to write know better.

I like to think of a writer as a walking sponge. Going through life open to everything that is happening around him or her, aware of everything that is going on. Listening, smelling, tasting, always thinking the writer's magic words: What if...? That's how you get ideas.

My first book was easy. I had been writing and publishing short stories for several years and had finally decided to take the plunge and write a novel. What to write about? They say an author's first book is often autobiographical and that was very much the case with mine. (Although the hero is a 13-yr old boy, and I've never been a 13-yr old boy--in this life, anyway) It was about a boy who has to go and live with his grandfather for a year while his parents are away. The boy is an environmentalist / conservationist who thinks that hunters are little better than murderers. The grandfather is a fanatic sportsman who thinks that the boy is a wishy-washy nerd. When I got married I was a big-city girl who didn't see any reason for shooting birds and animals when you could buy perfectly good steaks and chicken all nicely wrapped in plastic at the supermarket. I then married into the huntingest, fishingest family you could ever imagine. My mother-in-law's idea of making me welcome was sharing her fishing worms with me. We had a hard time getting to know and understand each other. It turned out to be the perfect idea for my first book. (Wrong Again, Robbie, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1977, 1983)

A visit to a pioneer village with my kids gave me the idea for the second. Looking around the old buildings I began to think: What if a girl from modern-day Canada came here to visit and suddenly found herself back in time when these buildings were actually being lived in? What if she landed back smack in the middle of the War of 1812? I started researching and a year later my second book was finished. (The Other Elizabeth, Gage Educational Publishing, 1982)

A trip to a school in northern Ontario gave me the idea for another of my books. I was driving along on a hot, late spring day and passed a crumby little service station. It was run-down, with piles of old tires stacked against its walls and was painted in garish orange and white stripes. A sign hanging out front said: Coffee, Snacks, Worms. I laughed, imagining myself walking in, ordering a coffee and a chocolate bar and a nice, big, juicy bowl of worms. Then I drove on and forgot about it. I thought.

At the school I was talking with a group of keen young writers who told me that they had to ride the school bus for over an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon.

"What do you do all that time?" I asked. "Homework?"

Surprisingly, none of them did. One girl said, however, "I plot stories." In that instant Kate, a girl who lived in a run-down service station on the side of a dusty Ontario highway, was born. She hated her home, hated her life and spent nearly all of her time inside her head, writing stories. (Thirteenth Child, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1994)

Living in England, I heard the story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days and then had her head chopped off. That was much too good an idea for a story to pass up. (The Nine Days Queen, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1986) Also, while we lived in England, we went travelling and exploring around the countryside as much as possible. A big, gloomy house on the side of a cliff just cried out for a ghost story to be written about it. (Haunting at Cliff House, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1985)

In Germany, a few years later, I found out that the first Crusade of all the holy wars that swept across Europe and Asia in the early middle ages had left from a town near where I lived. The research for that book has carried me through it and a second, now I'm writing about the Third Crusade. (There Will be Wolves, HarperCollins Publishers, 1992; Shadows on a Sword, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996)

Things that happen to you, good or bad, can give you ideas for stories. I almost drowned once, rescuing my dog who had fallen through the ice. (One of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life) I couldn't get the experience out of my mind. Night after night, I relived it and had nightmares. Then I wrote a short story about it, (Not Ever Again), and have slept peacefully ever since.

Your own particular interests can be a goldmine for ideas. My daughter desperately wanted to be a ballet dancer when she was growing up. She ran into all kinds of problems and I got all kinds of ideas for a book about a young girl who wants to go to the National School of Dance, but is taken away by her mother to live in a small town. (I Wish There Were Unicorns, Gage Educational Publishers, 1983)

Do you love sports? What would happen if you had a chance to make the Olympic team and then suffered an accident? Do you like animals? I met a woman once who had a three-legged dog. At just that time I had bought a Golden Retriever. As I watched the woman's dog and my own bounding around together, the three-legged one just as agile and happy as my own, I began to think: What if a boy bought a pedigreed dog and wanted it to become a Champion and what if it lost a leg...? That's been published with Scholastic Canada as A Different Kind of Champion.

Personal problems getting you down? Disguise the characters, disguise the problem as much as you can, then write a story about it. Chances are when your main character works his or her way out of the problem, you might have some very good ideas about how to solve your own as well.

Ideas are all around. All it takes is for you to make the effort to find them. Don't wait for that bolt of lightning to strike. Get out in the world and make like a sponge!

This is an excerpt from Chapter 8 of Karleen Bradford's book, WRITE NOW!, How to turn your ideas into great stories, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1996). Karleen (karleen.bradford@sympatico.ca) writes fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults and has published 16 books and many short stories and articles. The books include contemporary, fantasy and historical novels. As well, she has published two non-fiction collections of true stories of animal heroes.

Visit Karleen's web site at www.karleenbradford.com.