Spotting the germ of a novel

Sometimes I think I can see exactly where the idea for a novel was born, what small notion or situation birthed a story. I might be wrong, of course, but sometimes it just feels like "Aha! Right here is where it began."

For example, Stephen King's novel The Eyes of the Dragon--when I reached a certain point in reading that, I thought, "Hah! He's writing a fable for his kids about why it's important to use their napkins." His youngest son was ten when the book was published (1987).

Even if that's a complete miss, it just clicked with me.

Have you thought this about any book, and what was it?

Now I'm thinking about a line that came to mind as I was drifting off the other night, and it seemed to me the sort of starter you could wrap a novel around:

You knew this all along, didn't you: that only one of us could be happy.

I'm not going to write it. And nobody else in these litigious times will either. But it's rattling around in my brain as if it could grow up to be something.

If I recall rightly, King wrote Eyes because none of the books he'd written and become so famous for were ok for kids to read and his kids had been asking about why they couldn't. So he wrote one they could.

The napkin thing works though. I never thought of that, but I haven't read it in a hundred years. It has another wonderful iteration of Flagg though.

>1 Meredy: I've definitely done this, but I can't say I remember for which books now.

I don't think you should let whatever times we're in dictate what novel you write when it comes to you. Novels can be altered or edited to fit society better later if you're so inclined but the story you write should be all about what you want and feel before its for anyone else.

There have been times when I think: whoa, that would make a great story! But I’ve never taken the time to try and write one.

>5 catzteach: All I can say to that is - Do it. I love to write. I don't do it all of the time, but when I do, when I get into the zone. It is so wonderful watching your story come to life on paper. Don't worry about it sounding stupid or odd to someone else, or even to yourself at first. Like I said, it can be edited and altered if needed. Just write to make yourself happy. Someday I still hope to write my EPIC NOVEL, but it always comes down to sometimes I just have to write and get my story out, even if no one ever reads it but me.

>1 Meredy: I can't say I've ever done that, but it sounds like a good thing to keep in mind or reflect on after the read. I'm generally so caught up in the story, characters, etc. that the author is a very removed entity. I only think about them if I'm not liking the story. :)

Your line sounds like something that Rosemary Pilcher or Daphne Du Maurier or someone like them, could weave into a very moving and thoughtful tale.

>7 MrsLee: It does turn out to be a kind of haunting line. I've taken my shots at writing fiction, and I don't aspire to it any longer, but sometimes those impulses still arise.

I think the author is usually in my mind to one degree or another, probably because of my career as an editor. While focusing on the actual words on the page, I also had to be able to relate to the author and the reader simultaneously with the guardian and watchdog role of the editor. So I often think of what the author is doing at a given point. For me it does not detract from the story.

Those aha! moments occur to me when I'm actually absorbed in the story and the current scene or even a single line strikes me as a likely starting point. I don't think I'd even remember them afterward. But I am curious about whether others do this in any fashion at all.

>8 Meredy: I love what you share about how you experience a book. It opens windows in my mind. I relate it to watching a great chef work with, or talk about food and cooking. They experience it on a different level or depth than I do. I can cook a good meal. Possibly one that even a great chef could eat without pain, but I don't have the understanding that they do about the process. I think we both enjoy the cooking and the food; but each in a different way.

I feel it is like that with you and me for reading. I can enjoy a book, a story; but you have a different level of enjoyment because you know much more about what goes into it. I love that you share that with us.

>9 MrsLee: Thanks. That's a lot to live up to, but I like your comparison. I can't see into food as you can, but I can admire those who work magic with it. In the book I just read, I felt like not just an audience but a witness to the author's process, and in places I felt that I could recognize her exhilaration as the words came forth. I hope I can render that when I write my review of the Alice Hoffman book I just finished.

>1 Meredy: I have these moments. One that bothers me for not knowing if anyone else has thought it is "The Light Princess" (1864) by George MacDonald (d. 1905) inspiring F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925). That could have easily been subconscious. A flighty love interest symbolized by green light across the water and a few other niggly parts made me think of Fitzgerald's novel when reading "The Light Princess" for the first time, though the stories are overall very different.