How Do You Get Your Ideas?

UPDATE: Immortal Cobbler is now 30% written!

Originally shortly after finishing the first draft of Last Song of the Leviathan, I began trying to envision what the next big project would be. I assumed I would set to work on a sequel. It would, I thought, be a combination of a heist and an espionage thriller, but something grim; something in the vein of the George Smiley novels by John Le Carre.

That didn't happen.

I realized, at some point, that there was no point in sinking effort into a sequel when I couldn't know whether or not Last Song would be picked up by an agent! So far, they've been reluctant.

What, then, to do?

As I considered writing a stand-alone novel set in the same universe (which I think of Sanguinarius), I also began to think in terms of set-dressing. In other words, what were going to be the peripheral activities in which my characters engaged while the plot was happening.

One of my more recently cultivated passions has been classic menswear; I learned about dressing well to combat not only my basic ignorance of what I should be wearing, but as an extension of my growth as a person. As one of the "weird kids" in high school, I had dressed in the most casual, thoughtless way I could manage. Unfortunately, this habit carried on into adulthood, even into my professional career. For years, I was arguably the worst-dressed teacher on campus. That changed when I decided, totally without prompting, to try to find style mentors on Youtube. Surely there was some kind man willing to pave the gap of my deficiency!

Over that Christmas break, I dove deep into the world of menswear and how to shop for it on the cheap. I also threw out more than half of my wardrobe and replaced the discarded items with thrifted things that upped my style game. I discovered waistcoats, jackets, and shoes. Experiments failed more often than they succeeded, but I began to build outfits and a wardrobe that represented how I felt about myself in a more honest--- less lazy--- way.

So, could the new book be about a tailor?

I thought about it, but ultimately decided that I didn't know enough about tailoring to make it convincing. On the other hand, I had watched TONS of videos on shoemaking and repair. Why not make the protagonist a cobbler instead?

But not just any cobbler, of course. A magical cobbler. One who could make better shoes than anyone because he magicked them.

From there, I began to work plot and character. I thought about marriage and the reasons people struggle to stay together, even when they both want to. I thought about communication and the traumas that sometimes damage a person's ability to connect with another. I thought about masculinity and how the responsibilities of an adult person might warp into an obsession that merely covers a separate problem. I had found my themes.

Plot, of course, is where I tend to struggle. It took some tweaking and some consulting with friends, but I eventually ironed out. a basic outline. Now, unlike Last Song, I'm not sure what archetype I'm working from. That said, I believe I've made the appropriate promises to the reader, and am working toward paying them off.

In about a week, I had enough material to begin typing.

At 30%, I have all of my conflicts in place and am trying to escalate them toward the midpoint when, hopefully, they will explode and the plot will tumble downhill toward the end, carried by its own inevitable momentum.