Behind Jamais Vu and Déjà vu
Readers are always curious as to how writers come up with their stories. I’ve been asked a million times where my inspiration comes from. In my experience, an idea can bloom anywhere at any time, if your eyes are open.
I’ve had dreams and used those dreams to derive plots or build characters, I’ve seen television shows that sparked my interest and then went on to research the subject only to have it wind up being the center of my latest novel, and sometimes, such as in the case of Jamais Vu and Déjà vu, the ideas come from real life experiences – my own or someone else’s.
Originally, the story concept for Jamais vu came from an incident that happened to my mother when I was just a child. She was playing with a gun she thought was unloaded and was accidentally shot. Of course, the stories are nowhere near identical, but you can see how the concept of Jamais Vu evolved from the memories my parents shared with me.
In both Jamais Vu and Déjà vu, there are mini-stories within the novel that came from my own experiences. For instance, when Darby first meets Kasey Kibodeaux, she is in her car and sees him crossing the road. He stops in front of her car and tells her in sign language that she’s beautiful. Just when I’d begun to write Jamais Vu, this actually happened to me on my way to work one day.
In Déjà vu, there is a scene where Darby gets stuck behind a train in traffic, she gets out of her car to watch the train and is approached by a woman who doles out a bit of wisdom to her. This was something I also experienced once while I was out shopping.
There are opportunities every day to draw inspiration from our lives. All we have to do is open our eyes and see the beauty around us. Practice becoming aware of the little things that occur in your life that would make great stories and jot them down. I think you’ll be surprised!
Cheers,
Monique O’Connor JamesAuthor of The Keepers, Jamais Vu, Déjà vu, The Mulligan Man – published by Astraea Press
Coming Summer 2012 – Becoming Jolie from Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing
Good reminders, Monique. I was just thinking about this same thing today. :)
ReplyDeleteI also weave a lot of real life happenings into my stories. I believe it makes it a more, well, 'believable' experience (for the reader).
ReplyDeleteI love doing that too, Monique. I wove in a couple "personals" into a couple books. But I'll never tell!! *giggle*
ReplyDeleteI like to write about real-life situations. And sometimes it's unintentional - my brother read my first story and asked me if I was thinking about him as I wrote, because I included things that happened to him. It must have been a sub-conscious thing!
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