Q and A with Barbara

IDEAS AND STORYLINE:
Story ideas, plot development, Barbara's favorite books.

Where do you get your ideas?

This is the question I am most often asked. The answer? I get ideas from the newspaper, which I read every day. I get ideas from magazines, from movies, from the evening news, from stories friends tell. My very first full-length book, Finger Prints, was inspired by one of my lawyer-husband's cases. Another early book, Heart of The Night, was sparked by the lyrics of a country music song. A Woman's Place came from a tiny article I read in "Working Woman" magazine, and The Woman Next Door from a not-so-tiny newspaper piece on infertility. The Summer I Dared was inspired by September 11th, while Looking For Peyton Place, quite simply, was born of my long-time admiration for Grace Metalious and the original Peyton Place.

I also get ideas from my own life experiences. When my youngest children (the twins) went off to college, I wrote Together Alone, about the empty nest syndrome that so many of my friends and I were experiencing. When the aunt who raised me developed Alzheimer's disease, I wrote Shades of Grace. When I questioned the emotional underpinnings of The Bridges of Madison County, I wrote For My Daughters.

The key for me is opening up my mind to the world. Take people-watching at the mall. I have a vivid imagination that can take a facial expression or a piece of body language and build it into a full character.

How do you decide on a storyline?
Instinct. I gravitate toward what happens to catch my fancy at a particular time. An idea that sounded wonderful four years ago may feel stale to me now. I like my storylines to be current, because that's the kind of book that would interest me.
Do you develop the storyline before you write the novel, or does the story unfold as you write it?
I start with an idea. The story unfolds as I write it. Some endings are quite different from what I initially envisioned.
Do you work from an outline?
Nowadays, I do. My stories are too complex not to have some sort of organization. That isn't to say I have every detail of the book outlined. I did a 75-page outline once and then felt that I had already written the story! No, the best outline is less than a dozen pages long. I supplement it with character sketches.
Do the stories drive you, or are you able to control them?
I control them—which isn't to say that characters don't take off and do their own things. When those things are bad for the book, I edit them out. When they're good, I go along for the ride.
Why do you so often write about New England?

I've lived in New England all my life, and one of the first rules of writing is to write about what you know. Well, I know these six states. Then again, I also know California's Big Sur, after multiple vacations there, so it was the perfect setting for Coast Road, which goes to show that the New England thing isn't a hard-and-fast rule.
Of all the books you've written, which is your favorite?
Many of you have asked this question. One reader even said, "I'm sure they are like children and you love them all in different ways." How right she is. I do love all my books. The fact is that I couldn't spend months pouring my heart and soul into a book if I didn't love it. The pleasure I get from writing is similar to the pleasure I get from reading. In other words, I write the books I most want to read!

That said, do I have favorites? Well, For My Daughters will always hold a special place in my heart not only because I personally relate to it and cry each time I read it, but because it was my very first in hardcover. I love Coast Road for its setting (Big Sur) and because I liked the challenge of creating a woman who was a main character, though she was comatose for much of the book. I love Three Wishes because it is a beautiful story of eternal life. I love Flirting With Pete because it was based on a novella I wrote that I think was – is – the best thing I’ve ever written.

Over the course of my career, I've worked hard to broaden my stories and hone my writing style - in short, to become a better writer. So, if you were to pin me down about my single favorite book, I'd have to say what I've been saying for years: Which of my books is my favorite? The next one. That's The Secret Between Us, which will be published in 2008.