Personal Experience, Research or Imagination in Your Book

Rhobin’s topic for this month is another interesting one.

In designing your plots what do you rely on most: personal experience, imagination, or research?

For me, it’s mostly a combination of all three. A Cruise to Remember I wrote after I had taken my second cruise. The setting was the cruise ship, the various islands we stopped at and even some of the stores. I researched amnesia and Interpol. The actual plot was my imagination.

Hunted, the first book in my Hawkins’ Ranch series started with a personal experience. I was staying at the Empress Hotel, a historic and very expensive hotel for a conference in Victoria, BC. I could see the lobby being a setting in a book and it had to be a cowboy in spurs walking across the granite floors. I researched Witsec, the Witness Protection Program. I researched Montana and decided where to set the small town of Duster. I did research on ranching, particularly the business end. The rest of the story was my imagination.

By Design came more from my imagination. I read articles on cloning and then stem cell research and wondered what would happen as it continued to be more accepted. So maybe a little personal experience and thinking. I came up with a plot developed on what might happen. I researched cloning and groups who might use it. I researched Northern California to set an isolated hospital and travel distances. I researched being in good physical condition and time frames for running distances. The rest -my imagination of course.  

On my way to check out the other authors below and read what they have to say.

Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1IK

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Rhobright: in Court http://www.rhobincourtright.com