Crystal asked: Do your children ever give you ideas for story lines?
A: Oh, all the time! We are watching something together and they might ask a question – mom, what would happen if….and there I go with a story idea from the scenario they’ve asked. Not only that, but I have them trained now to ask me the right questions when I’m developing a story idea to determine if the story will work – “What are the external obstacles of the story?” “What’s at stake?” “Why would your character do that?” Recently, my son, (who is also writing a book) was helping a friend with a story, and as I read his advice about point of view I thought…hmmm, they could probably teach a class on writing, just from listening to my angst all these years! No wonder all these authors kids go into writing as a profession…they’ve been programmed!! Arrgh!
(Susan May Warren spent the summer collecting “Ask and Author Anything!” questions, about life, writing and anything (within reason) her readers asked. Stop back every week this winter to read the answers to those questions!)