How did you come up with your premise for your books?

Jul 3, 2014 | Q & A

How to come up with the premise for books

How to come up with the premise for books

There are a lot of different ways I come up with the premise for my book and stories for anthologies.

These include:

  • Rewriting history – some of the chapter books I use memories from when I was a child and put the endings I wish had happened.
  • Something bugging me – with the story of the Princess and the Pea that was included in Teapot Tales: a collection of unique fairy tales, it had always bugged me that the princess hadn’t done anything to work out what was causing her to have a miserable night sleep – so I changed it in my retelling.
  • Something I’m interested in – there are a few stories I’m working on that started because I wanted people to learn about some cool things in history.
  • Random ideas – occasionally, a random story idea will pop into my head and, as I write it, it will turn into a book.

For me, I never know what is going to prompt a story idea. It could even be a comment on a blog!

Latest Blogs

Worth Reading: Our Family Zoo

Worth Reading: Our Family Zoo

If you've been around for a while, you'll know that I love picture books. When I had the opportunity to review a copy of Our Family Zoo by Maura Pierlot and A. Yi, I jumped at the chance. This is a delightful story about a child who lives surrounded by a wide variety...

Worth Reading: Gnoming About

Worth Reading: Gnoming About

This weeks book worth reading is Gnoming About: Tree Mail Adventure by Liv Lorkin. Three gnomes, Daisy, Lucky, and Rocky, are on the hunt for a missing gnome. They need to retrace his steps, find some postcards, and spot some mushrooms, but not everything is as easy...

A New Chapter at Elmsbury Bookshop

A New Chapter at Elmsbury Bookshop

I'm excited. I have a new book out today. This is another romance novella - A New Chapter at Elmsbury Bookshop. I started writing this story back in 2016. I got an idea and wrote 10,000 words in a couple of days. At the time, I was writing more stories for children...