Do you dream of writing a novel and jacking in the day job but don't know where to begin? Sara Shepard, author of All The Things We Didn't Say, offers her top 10 tips for starting your story...

When starting a new story or novel, some people outline feverishly, planning everything before they've penned a single word. I, on the other hand, just go. But no matter whether you're a meticulous outliner or a haphazard free-writer, you have to start from something. So how do you find inspiration? Here are the top ten things that inspired me...

1. A memory. Write what you know, goes the old adage. Memories are fantastic ways into stories, and I've been fortunate enough to have kept a journal through adolescence, college, and beyond. A lot of the entries are rich with feeling and detail-I have firsthand accounts about disastrous holiday events, memorable family trips, first loves, and embarrassing moments, all of which I can draw from for ideas.

2. A place. My novel, All the Things We Didn't Say, began with several places in mind: the Promenade in Brooklyn, New York and a town in Western Pennsylvania where my parents grew up. I knew I wanted to make something out of both these locations, hopefully merging the two. When I was first working on the book, I went up to a friend's apartment in Brooklyn Heights. It had a roof deck that overlooked the city, and suddenly I knew that this was the apartment that Summer Davis, the main character, lived in. Everything came together, and I was off and writing.3. A person. Stella, Summer's great-aunt in All The Things We Didn't Say, was based on a combination of my grandfather, various aunts, and my mom. Some things in Stella's story were lifted right from their lives-Stella's love of smoking, how she scoffs at prim girls in sweater sets-and other things were based on what I thought the people who inspired her might do if put in the same situation. It was great having real people as a guide for her-not only was it heartwarming to write a character based on people that I know and love, but it gave me a very clear, unwavering picture of Stella in my mind.

4. A song. When I was getting my Master's of Fine Arts in Fiction, we were required to write three short stories each semester. I'm very into music, and sometimes the mood of certain songs, the pace of the notes, or even a certain word was very inspiring. For one story, I used the lyrics the song The Blizzard of '77 by Nada Surf as a jumping-off point.

The song is about a deadly snowstorm in Buffalo, New York, but it ends with the line, "I miss you more than I knew." I interpreted the images and the lyrics into a story about a man training for a marathon in the midst of a chilly winter in New York City; his wife had perished in the World Trade Center disaster a few months before. Very different from the song, but if it hadn't been for the music striking me at the right moment, the story might not have existed.

5. A true story. Ideas are all around us in the news. For my second novel, which I'm still working on, a friend told me in passing about a wrestling coach who was charged with taking part in hazing rituals with his team. It got me thinking about whether or not the coach, an adult, should have known better, which then got me thinking about what kind of person would even allow such a thing, which somehow led into a story about the accused coach's mother, his brother, and his brother's wife. Scandal always makes for good inspiration.

6. A snippet of dialogue. An overheard conversation between two strangers can go a long way. Bored on a bus or a plane? Sitting in a dentist's office, unwittingly listening to the conversation next to you? Writing down speech as it happens is a valuable exercise to in creating realistic dialogue in fiction, and the conversation just might spark an idea. I incorporated quite a few overheard conversations in All The Things We Didn't Say, especially the idle banter Summer hears in doctors' offices.

7. A dream. I often dream that I've hit on the best story idea ever, an idea that is fully outlined and trouble-free and practically writes itself. In the morning, I wake up and don't remember the idea at all. Other times, my dreams are just so strange that I just have to write them down; I've used them here and there in stories. And apparently, lots of other writers-like Franz Kafka, for instance-documented their dreams, too.

8. A reinvention. I've always admired writers who can reinterpret a story that has already been told-like Emma becoming the movie Clueless-or writers who base a story on historical times and even real people-like The Other Boleyn Girl, Becoming Frank, and The Master, just to name a few. Some of the most fascinating stories are those that bear some resemblance to fact; it might be worth mining the past and reimagining it in a story.

9. An author. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. When I started writing seriously, I had no idea what my style was so I simply copied other authors I admired. (Short story writer Raymond Carver was one of my early favorites.) The whole point of writing is to develop a style of your own, but it's sometimes useful to write a passage in a beloved author's style every once in a while-doing so might help pinpoint the author's strengths. And who knows, maybe that exercise will become a story idea.

10. Perseverance. Even if you've hit on the perfect idea, a story won't get off the ground if you don't actually sit down and write it. That means writing a first chapter that gets scrapped. That means writing for a few months and realizing you're going in the wrong direction. That means writing when you don't feel like it. A novel might seem effortless when it's finished, with its glossy cover and pretty typeface, but more than likely, the author has suffered through tons of revisions, hours of heartache, pages of deletions, and a lot of self-doubt. (I know I did.) But don't let that deter you-if you start, maybe you'll get to page two...and three...and even finish. So get going!

Lots of luck!


All The Things We Didn't Say is published by Harper Collins for £5.49