Jenny Hinsman Blog Tour

Welcome to the Jenny Hinsman Blog Tour

‘How do you come up with the story?’

This is a question I get a lot from friends, family and fans.

My love for writing comes from my love for reading. Books have always been a huge part of my life. I grew up watching my mom read all the time, I cannot remember a time in my life where my mom was not reading a book. I was also very fortunate to have wonderful teachers that had a love for reading and dissecting stories.

Ideas for stories come from events, places, people and even dreams from everyday life. I try to tap into emotions I get from music, art and even other books to create stories that I enjoy and hope others will as well. Once I write an idea down I try to set up the scene, like one you would see in a movie. I picture the background, the lighting, the mood, the characters, even the scent and feel of the scene. It may start as just be a brief dialogue between two characters and then I build around it. I ask myself after I write the scene, how did the characters get there? What is their relationship? Why are their personalities this way? Where will the story/scene take them? What is exciting about this? Are there answers? It is quite thrilling for me to find the answers!

The process for me is fun and I think that is the key, if I felt stressed or pressured my enthusiasm would wane. I try not to worry about spelling, grammar or those types of things when the story is really flowing because it slows me down and that can all be fixed later. I think the reader would be able to tell if the author was not passionate and excited about the story being told.