Ideas from songs and movies
February 9th, 2010 by Edie Ramer
Last week I had two ideas for new books. Just the kernels, but they gave me shivers. I scribbled them on a scrap of paper. For one I wrote “Something like [actor] in [movie title]. Then I have an eleven-word sentence describing it. (Amazingly, it’s grammatically correct.) For the other idea I wrote “The song where [something happens].” This summary is ten words of a song with a title I couldn’t remember.
It’s been about six days since I wrote this, but because of the movie and song reference I still understand what I meant and what excited me. By the time I develop whichever idea I decide to go with, it won’t be like the movie or the book. For the idea based on the movie, the movie had a man as the main character. Mine will have a woman. The book will be women’s fiction. For the other one, the characters will be completely different too.
I started this blog, then took a snack break and turned on the TV in our kitchen. “Law & Order” was on. A middle-aged man and woman were in an interrogation room with two district attorneys. About three seconds after I turned it on, the wife broke down and, impassioned, said they took money to keep silent about a criminal because their son had a bad heart and needed an operation they couldn’t afford. They needed to take the money or he would have died. The mother said, “What would any parent have done?”
Wow! What a great idea to hang a plot around. As I listened to the show a bit longer, I realized the person they took money from was a pedophile who had molested their other son. No hero or heroine of mine would pay off a child molester, but I can see other ways to use the “What would a parent do for her child?” question.
What if the single mother heroine had a dying child, and a cloaked man offered her money to have his child and give the child to him? Later she finds out the cloaked man is a demon. I just thought of this but I’m already developing a story in my head. I might actually use it. I’m sure you can imagine an entirely different story around the question.
In the Carrie Underwood video above, she’s singing “Temporary Home,” which has three scenarios of people in temporary homes. A foster kid, a young mother, a dying man. Maybe I’ll incorporate a character from this song into one of my other ideas.
Some people get ideas all the time and have more than they’ll ever have time to write. Me, I struggle to get the idea that clicks. But that’s crazy. They’re all around me. I just need to pay attention.
Off the top of your head, can you think of a song, movie or TV show that might have plot or character possibilities?
Well, its that time of year again. WRITER’S CONFERENCES. (Note the capital letters.) This is the beginning of the year when a lot of writers turn their attention from their solitary existence and make plans to socialize with like minded people. Doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie, midlist or a best seller, there’s something about attending a writer’s conference that’s exciting.
Roses is an epic spanning three generations, and the memory of it lingers still. I blogged once about my love of sagas, and Roses is definitely one!
The question Michelle asked in her blog this week is one that, no matter how many times you hear, there’s always multiple answers. Why do you write? Simple question, but oh so layered with emotions. My blog isn’t about the why, Michelle did a great job on that one. I want to talk about the emotions. 



Well, it appears that the RWA board has come to a decision with regard to the whole Harlequin/Del Arte debacle. A meeting was held last week and the Hot Sheet was released to all members. This involved the “findings and recommendations of a task force that was charged with reviewing the publisher evaluation system and recommending changes to RWA’s policy.”
Award-winning Medallion author, Kathy Carmichael, will be our guest on Feb. 4th, with a giveaway of her newest humorous mystery, DIARY OF A CONFESSIONS QUEEN, to one lucky commenter. Adrienne Giordano, our guest on Feb. 11th, is a writer, a marketing consultant and one of the founders of Romance University. Be sure to mark your calendars for Feb. 16, when the awesome Margie Lawson returns. Margie is our favorite how-to writing teacher/psychologist/professor/sex therapist--and much more.. Rachel Bailey is up next on Feb. 18th. Her debut Silhouette Desire, CLAIMING HIS BOUGHT BRIDE, hit the US Today lists at #94 right off the bat. Abby Gaines is our last guest for the month on Feb. 25th. Abby writes for Harlequin's Superromance and NASCAR lines, and has two books out back to back in January and February this year, HER SURPRISE HERO (Superromance) and THE COMEBACK (NASCAR). Please join us in welcoming these amazing writers.



