Richard Derus asked Jonathan Janz:

What ignites a story in your head...a character, a situation, a random fact/event you read about/see on TV?

Jonathan Janz Hey, Richard! I'm so sorry I missed this question until now.

My story ideas come from all over the place, but I'll give you a couple examples of "ignition points" (I love your verb "ignites").

My debut novel THE SORROWS grew out of a single image and a song. The image was a tower standing by itself, unattached to a castle. In the uppermost room of the tower, there was a piano. Then, for no apparent reason, the piano began playing Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C Sharp Minor." The song is so shattering and ominous that, when coupled with the tower imagery, it was able to generate the entire backstory of my villain. Then, the rest of the narrative grew out of that.

In my upcoming novella EXORCIST ROAD, I thought of all the exorcism stories I'd seen and read. William Peter Blatty's LEGION did a great job of creating a mystery within the horror, and I wanted to do something exorcist-related that focused on the mystery as well. So when I thought of the idea for the Sweet Sixteen Killer, the mystery I was seeking began to grow.

This sort of answers your question, and it sort of doesn't, but it shows how diverse the sources can be.

Thanks, Richard! :-)

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