Once you have several ideas, how do you choose which idea to use?

If you can be sure which idea is going to be most marketable, then that may be one way to decide.  One of the advantages of the e-publishing market is that you can publish information for a particular niche very economically.  Try to spend some time researching your market to make sure your book will be similar enough to the other offerings while being different enough to be distinctive.  For instance, the romantic comedy where the couple doesn't actually end up together may be creative, but may not garner you many fans.

Another way to choose might be which idea has a message that you think is most important.  You may choose an idea with a message that you are passionate about over an idea that is funnier or more creative.  The trick is talking about your passion without getting "preachy".

As for Broken Toys: China's Song, I chose to write it over a notebook full of other ideas for one reason:  the characters would not leave me alone.  Any time I let my mind wander, it would wander into their world and I would learn a little more about them.  A cast of characters that are original, funny and creative, will always make a lesser idea better than a great idea with two-dimensional characters that the reader has a hard time caring about.

Since I'm currently working on a doctorate, I'd like to take a moment to explain something about this blog.

This blog is not intended to be "scholarly" in any way.  I can't back up any of my assertions here with research.  A lot of these posts exist as a "My say so".  (Which, in my not-so-scholarly research, makes this   

Everyone will tell you "Write what you know". To a certain extent, you will want to "Write who  you know".

Try to write about people who are from a region and culture with which you are familiar.  People from your home town might sound pretty boring to you, but every town has parts of its culture that make no sense to outsiders. I live in Lubbock, Texas.  Anyone from Lubbock right now would love to see a ballgame, picnic or parade rained out -- because it would mean it's raining. (It's been very dry.)

So, think about the people that you like to spend time around.  What draws you to them?  What are the idiosyncrasies that make them interesting?

Another important character building exercise is determining how the central conflict concerns the character and how it will bring them into conflict with other characters.  My older kids have been watching the TV series Stargate SG-1 the last few weeks.  The central characters of the show each bring their own viewpoint to the conflict with their enemy.  "Jack" often sees a military solution to every conflict. "Sam", with two doctorates to her credit, goes for a scientific solution whenever possible. Teal'c understands their enemy best, having served them for his entire life. As an archeologist and anthropologist, Daniel often sees the perspective of the people they come into conflict with and seeks for a way to negotiate a solution.  Their differing perspectives often put the team in conflict with each other, despite their friendship.

Another important character building exercise is to determine the character's internal conflict.  As mentioned before, the conflict in Stargate SG-1 is externalized in many ways, but it also exists in each of its characters.  Since Daniel has no military training, he often serves as the moral compass for the group.  However, he is also desperate to reclaim his wife from their enemy, which causes him to often want to set his ethics aside.

When you are coming up with characters try to think about their "Arc".  In other words, how will the character change over the course of the book?  It doesn't necessarily always have to be improvement on the part of the character.  Consider the characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Some spoilers here...)  Aragorn grows from a "Ranger" to a King.  Legolas and Gimli grow from enemies, to competitors, to friends.  Sam grows from a timid eavesdropper to a brave warrior.  Gollum is ultimately consumed by his obsession.  Frodo succeeds in his quest, but is left so scarred that the Shire becomes a foreign place to him.

Your characters need to have faults in order to come off like real people.  Be honest, there really isn't anyone that you know well that you can't find some fault with. In Broken Toys: China's Song, the toys are just what the title implies -- broken.  Some of their scars can be seen from the outside, others they keep hidden deep inside.  This is especially important in Christian literature. Psychologists like to talk about cognitive dissonance -- the idea that we aren't always the kind of people that we say we want to be.  Characters who are torn between warring aspects of their own personality behave unpredictably, which makes them interesting to read about.

Be warned, that your characters may take over the book from you.

In Broken Toys: China's Song, I originally envisioned the china doll as a minor character--not much more than a symbol for how much stock we put in the way we look and how vain that is when our lives are so very fragile.  But I had one problem: why would anyone made of porcelain ever leave the attic? If China was afraid of being broken, wouldn't she stay forever on her doll stand?  Surely, someone who was this desperate to get her song back was made of some pretty strong stuff.  As I worked through the first draft, I found China's character growing stronger in each scene.  She, in many ways, becomes the conscience for the group of toys.  In the final edits, she pushed her way past the leading man into the title of the book.


One final note, in the interest of full disclosure:  Stargate SG-1's pilot Children of the Gods contains nudity.  How much nudity depends on which version you get.  Please preview your copy before showing it to anyone else.  We have not shown the unedited pilot to our children.  Parents may also be concerned about the language and the violent content of the series in general as well. Our older children are teenagers and we also have a "TV Guardian" which blocks some of the profanity. 

(I'm relatively new at e-publishing and don't have a huge portfolio.  But here are my thoughts, for what they are worth.)
So, if you're wanting to get started in e-publishing, how do you get an idea on what to write about?

Harlan Ellison reportedly said the following when asked the the question "Where do you get your ideas?":
"A post office box in Schenectady. You send in two dollars and a self-addressed stamped envelope and they send you back an idea."   (Barry B. Longyear, in his book It Came from Schenectady)

Non-Fiction:

If you're considering writing a non-fiction book, on what are you the world expert?  What are you really passionate about?  
What do you think people need to know?  When you look at the books available on the subject, what is the perspective that's missing that you can provide?

Fiction:

What unique personal experiences can you draw on?  When you talk to people, what stories do you tell about your life or the lives of the people around you?

Fantasy and Science Fiction:

I cannot pick up an issue of the National Geographic without getting some new perspective on the world we live in.  It may be a different source that feeds your creative process, but exposing yourself to new ideas is a must.

Children's Books:

My wife and I have five children.  If you spend much time around children, you'll discover they have a wealth of ideas.  Occasionally, you'll find you can tell them things in a story they wouldn't sit and listen to if you tried to tell them outright.

Christian Themes:

Christian books often begin with a message.  Our book, Broken Toys: China's Song, has a fairly simple message: God is in the business of healing broken hearts. Don't be afraid to pray for guidance when looking for an idea.

Value your ideas. When you have an idea, write it down even if you don't have time to write more than a sentence about it.  I've been looking through some of my "Idea Notebooks" recently and it was like running across an old friend.

So, when you decide to put pen to paper, where do you get your ideas?

If anyone has that PO Box in Schenectady, I'm listening...

I recently had an opportunity to publish a manuscript on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing website.  My wife and I wrote Broken Toys: China's Song some time ago and we thought it would be a good experiment to see what would happen if we published it in a Kindle format.  It's still an ongoing process, so I expect for us to learn many unexpected things here.

Personally, I have a short attention span.  So, my aim is to keep these blog posts short and to the point.