The question I am asked most is where do I get my story ideas? Do I start with characters, or does a plot come to me? When does an idea become strong enough, compelling enough that I must write it into a story?
Some writers can
say they always start with a character who has intrigued them, and others see
the plot first. I think I start with little seeds of ideas that gather like snow
on a snowball. I can't be that specific. For me, it's many things coming
together. Sometimes when two contradictory thoughts collide, I find myself
asking a question about how the impossible could become possible.
Stories to me are explorations, adventures into the human experience. I want to lead myself and my reader through the trial and conflict, all the way to the triumph. I want a story with a strong external conflict, an impossible situation that is overcome in the end. But even more, I want to take the character's deepest distress, most difficult flaws, and go with them through the journey that makes them whole. I want heroes and heroines who must dig deeply into their souls to find a way to make a love that could never be into one that is unstoppable forever.
LADY WICKED is a story that came first out of research into the early Nineteenth Century in which married women of the aristocracy were not persons in their own right. Once married, they became "one", and that "one" was the husband. Their property became his. Their lives became his. He might be the worst philanderer of all, a drunken rake who beat her, who used up all her dowry, and there was nothing she could do about it. He had all the power, and was backed by the men who had all the power in the country. And if he should then wish to be rid of her, he could divorce her, but with very few exceptions, she could not do the same to him. She could not even defend herself from the charges.
The question then is, how could a woman who is in such a powerless situation overcome it? That's a pretty dark concept, true. But as Davina emerged in my mind, I saw a woman who would not, could not be defeated. I saw a lady curmudgeon with a thick protective shell and a deep desire to become self-sufficient, to protect herself from an entire society that readily blamed her for being set aside. I saw her as deeply hurt, but too stubborn and strong to ever bow to what others saw as the inevitable. She's a fallen woman, through absolutely no fault of her own.
Her hero, Lord Savoury, emerged just as quickly. An aimless, good-natured rake who finds himself suddenly about as down on his luck as a man can be. A man who has spent very little of his life worrying about how others see him, and even less in concern for others. She looks like an interesting challenge to him, a diversion from his troubles. And worse, he is her husband's worst enemy. And if Davina isn't careful, she could find herself caught between the two men on earth who are most dangerous to her.
Then a house came into the story. It became Savoury's reason for being in the little village where Davina had been exiled. It had to be derelict, abandoned, virtually worthless, but all Savoury has left, and he has to somehow turn it around, for the sake of his own survival.
When in my research I came upon Haddon Hall, I knew this was to be the model for Savoury's home. And as I learned more about the ancient place, I understood Savoury, who is transformed as he struggles to save the hall and make it into a home. His heritage begins to come alive for him, and through his struggles and his growing relationship with the heroine, his life and heart open up. He sees her differently. She is not simply to be an exciting conquest. She becomes, among other things, a friend, and one he could never betray. He finds himself taking in strays, not just rescuing a house from ruin, or saving Davina from the villagers who don't want a fallen woman in their midst. In his attempt to help Davina, who doesn't want his help, he finds himself empathizing with a retarded man who just desperately wants to work to support his mother, and he hires Jimmy because he knows Davina can't say no to the man either.
And thus, piece by piece, I imagined Savoury growing into a responsible, compassionate man, and Davina losing her hard shell, slowly warming to him and falling in love despite the disaster that must fall upon her, and finding her place in the hearts of the very villagers who had shut her out. And neither of them imagining that Jimmy, the retarded man they had taken to heart, held the secret that would change their lives forever, and provide the keys that can make their impossible love a reality.
Without Haddon Hall, I don't think this story would have quite the same effect. I stole it, and moved it to another location that looks suspiciously like the curve on the River Wye. And I rebuilt it where I needed, to make Steynes Hall. I even gave it an ancient, broken portcullis because my story demands one. And at night, when Savoury walks the courtyard, the shades of his ancestors walk in the mist and moonlight with him. Steynes Hall became a character in LADY WICKED, as truly as Thomas Steynes, Lord Savoury and Davina, Lady Wyckham.
And so, when I had finally finished this story of triumph of the human spirit, I knew I must go to England and see Haddon Hall for myself. I'll take you there in my second installment of my tales of England, which will be coming up soon: In Search of Heroes, Part 2: Haddon Hall.
In the meantime, have a look again at the picture above, Haddon Hall by moonlight. And I'll tell you a secret. We only saw it in the light of day. But I happen to be very good with PhotoShop, and this is the way I want to remember it, as if Savoury and Davina are walking in the mists with all those who came before.
To see that more artistic side of me, check out my "book covers", those I've made for myself, some I've made for other e-book authors, and even some I've just made up for fun, to inspite my writing.
LADY WICKED has won numerous contests and is now a Golden Heart finalist for the second time. It is truly the story of my heart, that I hope will someday become the story of your heart, too.