Writers are
often asked where they find their stories. Betsy Byars gets inspiration for her
topical children’s books from newspaper articles. Sue Grafton was a screen
writer before she wrote mystery novels. Her protagonist, Kinsey Millhone, the
author’s alter ego sans husband and children, solves mysteries as if she were
cast into one of the author’s TV or movie action plots.
Family
stories about an intrepid female relative of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century inspired mystery writer, Juliet Kincaid. She researched that
period of history in Kansas City for a new historical mystery series. A
facsimile of her relative, a sassy, independent young woman much like Juliet’s
ancestor, is the sleuth who solves period-appropriate mysteries.
Like many writers, I keep a journal. Mine
isn’t formal. Formal would be good. I have
several beautiful, hardbound notebooks in which I’ve written story starters, rambling
outlines, and snippets of conversations. But, it never fails that my journals
are nowhere near when I find the best stories, interesting situations, amazing
people, or startling settings. I end up recording my impressions on restaurant
napkins, on my phone’s memo app, on used envelopes, or in my head.
My head is the worst and the best
place from which to retrieve my stories. Something I’ve heard or experienced
may come back in bits and pieces—frustrating when I can’t remember details that
made it a good story. On the other hand, the important parts of those stories
are what made them stick in my memory, and I’m free to use imagination to fill
in the details and create even better tales.
For my cozy
mystery series, I used a story a friend told me about a “psycho cat” that she
swore saved her life when she was a young apartment dweller. Her cat story, a
bit altered, combined with a bizarre story one of my rental tenants told me
about her life, formed the basis for the first Psycho Cat and the Landlady book.
In the
second book, I used impressions I gathered while visiting a small Ozark town and
combined them with more of my landlady experiences and crazy cat stories
provided by…well…everyone I know who has or has had a cat. The skeleton in the
attic came from my own demented imagination.
For years, one story stored in my
memory begged me to use it. At a meeting, I heard a speaker bring the house
down with her account of attending a conference in another city where the eerie
elevator in her hotel wouldn’t go to her floor. She gave me permission to write
that story, but by the time I wanted to use it in my third book, I couldn’t
remember exactly how the story went. By filling in details that fit, adding
some mysterious goings on that happened in my mother’s retirement building, using
ideas from a story about some suspicious tenants told to me by another
landlord, and, again, imagining a murder, I gave my protagonist plenty of
mysteries to solve and difficulties to overcome.
Writers
could spend their time tucked away in attic turrets, but the only stories
they’d learn would be about spiders and dust. Get out there and collect good
stories as you enjoy life. And if you have a story tucked away—mysterious,
funny, heart-warming, or otherwise interesting—share it, even if you don’t
remember all the details.
I’d love to
hear one of your stories. It might show
up in one of my books or short stories. You can comment here or contact me on
Facebook or on my website at http://www.joyceannbrown.com . Also, you can find out more about
my Psycho Cat and the Landlady series
on my author page at: http://www.amazon.com/Joyce-Ann-Brown/e/B00OL6JH08/ .
Joyce Ann Brown (http://www.joyceannbrown.com/) owns rental properties in Kansas City with her husband, but none of
their tenants have been involved in theft, kidnapping, or murder. Besides being
a landlady, Joyce has worked as a story teller, a library media specialist, a
Realtor, and a freelance writer. Her writing has appeared in local and national
publications.
Twice award-winning Catastrophic
Connections is the first of her Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mysteries, soon
to be an audio book. The second is positively reviewed Furtive Investigation.
Lifeline will published this spring.
Catch a glimpse of Joyce Ann’s writing about many
cozy subjects on her blog at: http://retirementchoicescozymystery.wordpress.com/; read about trails she walks in Kansas City at http://hikingkctrails.wordpress.com/.
