Ideas come like the rabbit pulled from the hat . . .
It has to be one of the most asked question of writers: Where do you get your ideas? I think most of us have a stock answer for when we’re at a party, or saloon. I usually say, “From reading the newspaper.” It’s true, but it’s not the only way story ideas form.
Of course, sometimes I lie and tell people it’s magic, like pulling the rabbit from the magician’s top hat. I wish it were magic. Though, I’m often surprised when an idea forms and wonder myself where it came from.
A couple of weeks ago I sat at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon with a friend, Reef Perkins, who published his biography and recently a short story collection, “Screwed, Blu’d and Tattooed.”
I have encouraged Reef to write fiction. Reef is a Key West character. A veteran from the Army’s Mekong Delta patrol boats during the Vietnam War and later as a salver and drug smuggler, and a guest of the government for a year or two. He has stories to tell.
Reef told me, “I don’t have an idea what I’ll write next or if I’ll write anything.”
He didn’t know what to write about and asked me how I kept coming up with story lines. I gave him my old standby about newspapers and looking for those short quirky pieces. We kept talking and I mentioned music.
“Reef, I just jotted down a story idea yesterday afternoon,” I told him. “I was driving home and listening to Waylon Jennings sing about warning someone to get out of Tulsa before the sunset.”
No, I am not going to write about Tulsa. The song is about a pregnant woman and her no-good boyfriend who’s still out partying. It got me to thinking, what would Mick Murphy do if a female friend he was close to had a bad relationship, got pregnant and then died from a beating by the no-good boyfriend. Baby dies too!
I got this all from a three-minute song. I believe good songs are a novel cut down to the essentials.
Let me tell you, once that idea settled in, my mind took off on a trip that would put LSD to shame. I have taken it and added a meth lab, strip club manager, Panama City, Florida, New Orleans . . . I don’t see an end in sight as Mick Murphy goes in search of this scumbag and brings justice for the dead.
I hope I got Reef to think about music and newspapers and what he hears people say in saloons. Down here, they say some weird things. Ad “what if” to some of the things we hear, in a song or saloon or read about and you’re off and going. At least I am.
Where do your story ideas come from?
To keep up with the inaugural Mystery Writers Key West Fest, please go to, www.mysterywriterskeywestfest.com Lot of info there and more updates to come.
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