Writing a Book

People always want to know how I come up with a book. The funny part is, I never start out with that as a goal. I start with little nuggets and build around them as far as I can. Sometimes that turns into something substantial and other times it turns into nothing. For example, “Quest for the Red Sapphire” all began with the idea of a sword that held the soul of another living animal with it. From that nugget I had to decide what kind of animal was held within and why. Then I had to create a master for the sword. That took some time. Then I decided to kill off that character and have the sword fall to his son; but not in a conventional sense. So the son, Linvin, had to be created. The longer I worked, the more his story grew. Then I needed someone to restrain his youthful exuberance. It had to be someone to be a tutor and guide to Linvin. Anvar was created and connected to Linvin’s father, Dirk. Then I needed something for them to seek. I discarded rings, amulets, necklaces and the like because they had all been used so much before. I always liked sapphires. The blue ones were spectacular. I envisioned an opposite to it. It only made sense to pick red. Since I was 13 at the time I went to my older brother and asked if there was such a thing as a red sapphire. He responded by saying, “Yeah, it’s called a ruby.” I just smiled. My character would look for a red sapphire instead of a ruby. Now I would need to come up with a story as to why it was a sapphire. That took a whole backstory which would only be eluded to here and there. Then I needed a couple of antagonists to keep the story interesting. Enter cousins Bander and Rander, the biggest pains in the neck I could create. They ride Linvin about every choice he makes. After all that I just needed to put things in order and make a storyline. Soon I found I had a book. All that came from just a little nugget.