Writing Notes: Plots from Titles (& a peek at my 2012 schedule)

Last week I was sitting at the bar,
watching my hubby play pool (billiards, if you prefer) with his team.
This happens pretty much every Weds night (in fact, I'll be there
tonight too), so you can imagine I occasionally run into a story idea
or two. How could I not with all those people around?

In any case, across the room, one of
the other teams was discussing vegetables. Lettuce, to be exact. In
all fairness, I have no idea what they were saying about lettuce, but
it was amusing my husband.

Which made me wonder, of course – how
would you kill someone with lettuce? Or any vegetable, for that
matter?

A writer's mind is a dangerous place,
I tell ya.

In any case, I'll spare you the whole
sordid thought process (and save some plot secrets for myself), but
long-story-short, I decided to write a set of short stories
collectively called "Death by Vegetable" under my Westhaven pen
name next year. Naturally, since I was on a role, I started thinking
about titles for the stories.

By the end of the night, I had a set of
five stories titled and tentatively plotted for the veggie
collection. And then I had the brilliant idea to give the whole of
2012 a food theme, and brainstormed two more collections of five
stories each – one for my Marlow name, and the other for the "main"
me. Although to be completely honest, the title for my romantic
suspense collection was brainstormed awhile ago for a cover
project…but the nice thing about that is, I just have to "claim"
the cover from my lovely artist.

I love titles, and I love brainstorming
them. I often use titles as the catalyst for entire plots…and if
it's not the first thing I come up with, it's normally the second
or third. Some of them give me no end of trouble, but I normally sort
them out in the end.

So…a peek at next year's tentative
schedule for romantic suspense – release dates still to be
determined:

Novels

The Wise Critique
The Minister's Maid

Novella

Falling in Pubic

Short collection: BeauTeaful
Summer

Chai'd Up
English Breakfast
Earl Grey
Sencha Green
Jasmine Betrayal

The short stories will be tea themed!
I've been thinking about doing something like that for a few years
now, so I'm excited about getting started on those. I may even
start one before the new year, if I get a chance.

Writers, do you ever just sit and
brainstorm lists of titles, and use those to create your plots?

Readers, what's your favorite book
title of all time?

Enjoy
this post? Support your author:  Tempest
| Desert
Heat | The
Biker's Wench 
| In a Dark Place

**Please
note - comments take a few moments to appear. Refresh the page to
view new comments. If this is your first time posting, your comment
will be moderated.