A Goodreads user asked Sherryl Woods:

I'm sure that this is a question you get asked alot, but where do you get the ideas for your characters? And what is your writing process? Do you make a outline? I love your books! Thank you?

Sherryl Woods Abigail, I get ideas for characters from people I meet, see on TV, read about in newspapers, in other words, just about everywhere. I'll take a trait from one person, a career from another, a background from yet another and weave them all together into a new character. As for the process, each book starts with some nugget of an idea. I don't outline,but I do write very long synopses, a bunch of scenes that almost become a short story version of the book. Then I break those scenes apart and spread them out through the book. Then it's a matter of filling in the scenes to bridge those scenes and pull the whole story together.

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