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in this lesson I'm going to talk to you about how
I came up with some of the ideas for my books and
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try to help you find some inspiration of your
own I've written 20 books and I've had loads
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and loads of ideas sometimes I've come up with
two different ideas and realize that they could
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later work together in the same novel so you
can never be short of ideas no idea is wasted
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even if it's not a groundbreaking one I of find
that when I'm in a creative head space like if
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I'm actually writing my next book or even if
I've just got time to sit and you know on a
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long car Journey or go out for a nice long walk
and listen to music that's when I come up with
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all of my ideas so it's really really important
that you get yourself into a creative head space
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I think doing anything creative like watching a
movie reading a book listening to music watching
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the news and and seeing if a story inspires you
that's all really really helpful in in coming up
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with story ideas what is it that really inspires
you maybe it's going out to an art gallery or a
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museum just do whatever you can to be inspired
wherever you possibly can so I'm going to talk
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to you about where I came up with some of the
ideas for my books starting with music the song
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Someone Like You by Adele inspired my sick book
one perfect summer in the song Adele is talking
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about how she's heard that someone is married
now and she still thinks of them hopes that
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they're happy and I just wondered you know what
would it be like to be the person that that song
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was written about you know what would it be like
to be living an ordinary life you know with your
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husband or wife and have this incredibly massive
celebrity still thinking about you and writing
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songs about you so I decided to flip the idea
on its head instead of writing about Adele Uh I
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decided to write about the person that the song
might be written about I decided to write about
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a character called Alice who when she's 18 she
goes to spend this summer Endor set in the UK and
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she meets a boy Joe Alice and Joe have the most
incredible summer they have one perfect summer
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together and at the end of the summer tragedy
tears them apart they go their separate ways
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Alice goes on to University she eventually
meets the man that she's going to marry and
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in the meantime Joe is having a journey of his
own we don't know what Joe's getting up to but
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one day Alice sees him on the big screen and has
discovered that he's a movie star and she still
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thinks of him she's still in love with him along
it seems with every other woman on the planet and
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then one day Alice hears Joe talking about her
on a television interview and she realized that
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he still loves her too so that's kind of the
idea of the story as I say it was inspired by
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adell's someone like you in which she talks about
someone who she still thinks about many many years
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later so I'd like you now to practice being
inspired by some songs I'd like you to make
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a playlist write it down in your notepad of
all of your favorite songs hopefully there
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are some love songs in there because obviously
this is that's what this course is about it's
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about writing a love story and then really
listen to them listen to the lyrics Listen
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to the way that they make you feel write down
the emotions that they dredge up in you write
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down lyrics that really appeal to you maybe
even song titles all of this stuff is really
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good inspiration and you might find that a
lyric or something unlocks some little idea
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inside your mind which leads you to come up with
a much bigger idea that could form the basis of a
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novel throughout the entire process of coming
up with ideas I'd like you to keep in mind
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how your characters will meet for the first
time your main love interest and your main
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character this moment where they meet in film
is called a meet cute and it can be like a
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funny or embarrassing it can be packed full of
chemistry you know it could be anything at all
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just be thinking about that because that's the
really really important key scene that's going
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to form the basis of Your Love Story next we're
going to look at films and how they might inspire
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you I've been inspired by films so many times
I can't even tell you often it's just an emot
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that I'm inspired by you know that I want to
try and recapture it might be a character or
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I might think I wonder if that character had
gone on to do something else and then suddenly
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that whole you know something else you know that
I imagine them coming up to do can inspire a whole
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story idea I could be a bit embarrassed about
this but my book if you could go anywhere was
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actually inspired by the Disney movie Moana
so inspiration really can come from anywhere
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Moana is the story of a girl who's trapped on an
island who was longing to travel and you know she
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just desperate to get off this island so she can
go and see the world and I wondered I mean I love
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the emotion that that captured in me I love that
feeling of longing and I wondered whether or not
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I could write an adult book with this as its theme
and I came up with the idea of a character called
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Angie who lives in a tiny Outback opal mining
town 8-hour drive from you know the nearest
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city and she's been stuck there her entire life
she's 27 when we meet her and it's on the day
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that her grandmother passes away and she
has been looking after her grandmother for
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the last 10 years just as she was about to go off
traveling her grandfather had passed away so there
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were all these reasons that had kept her rooted
to this tiny spot and in the first six chapters
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she discovers that her father lives in Rome Italy
and so that is where the story takes her and it's
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a story about breaking out and discovering this
whole other world out there but primarily it's a
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love story we don't meet him until chapter 7 but
the first six chapters very much about you know
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based on this idea of Moana and longing so that's
what I'd like you to do right now is to come up
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with some ideas based on films that you've watched
again make a list of all of your favorite films
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hopefully there are some love stories in there
think about the emotions that they capture watch
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them again next time you're watching a movie think
about you know other characters who are in this in
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this film you know does anyone else interest you
or Intrigue you you know could you imagine a novel
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based on that character and and what they might
get up to it will be really interesting to see
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which choices you write down what sort of films
you're drawn to if you're writing down a lot of
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romantic comedies then chances are you'll start
to write a romantic comedy um as a book A lot
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of my favorite movies are emotional love stories
and that is what I've ended up going on to write
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I like to include a little bit of light-hearted
humor in my books but on the whole I like just
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to be packed full of emotion and like one of my
favorite movies of all time is The Notebook and
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that moment when Ali is choosing between like a
really good kind man who she's engaged to or the
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man that was like the love of her life when she
was younger you know that sort of dilemma that
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really really inspires me to write about forbidden
love and unrequited love so definitely take note
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of all the things that really inspires you because
that chances are it will be what you end up
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writing I also get some of my ideas from books
when I worked at heat magazine I was asked to
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review a biography about Robbie Williams I wasn't
like a huge Robbie fan or anything but I remember
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you know the author Chris Heath talking about
Robbie's PA and I thought to myself what would
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it be like to be an ordinary girl being injected
into that crazy woen lifestyle of a celebrity to
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be the person that that celebrity you know talks
to above anyone else potentially and I thought
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I would love to write a book about a personal
assistant to a celebrity and that was where I
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came up with the idea for my second book Johnny Be
Good Johnny Be Good also is INSP spired a little
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bit by Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility and
in this novel maranne Falls head over Hills for
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this Rogue Willoughby and she ends up with this
sort of safe Colonel Brandon who's a little bit
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boring and my heart was kind of aching for her
you know I wanted her to be with the guy that
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she was really in love with and that's basically
what inspired me for to write Johnny Be Good Meg
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Falls head over Hills in love with this bad boy
Rockstar she becomes a really good friends with
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his best friend and at the end she's very much
torn between these two men so have a think about
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the sort of books that really inspire you what
emotions they bring up Do You Love a Forbidden
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Love Story is there something in there that you
know might inspire you maybe even a historical
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novel that you could do a modern take on make
a list of all of the books that you love all
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of the emotions they bring up and see whether
or not there might be a character or something
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that you could potentially take in another
Direction and come up with a story idea of your
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own so now we've talked about how you can come
up with a different ideas is by putting a spin
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on a on a film or a book or a you know song that
you might have listened to now just have a think
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generally about people that you used to know is
there anyone who's interesting in your past who
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might be able to inspire you to come up with
a book idea my 10th book the one we fell in
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love with was based on three girls that I went
to school with who were identical triplets I
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was thinking about them years later when I came
up with the idea for my book how they were like
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celebrities you know people used to say oh she's
one of the triplets and just everyone knew who
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they were basically but I thought at home you
know they're just one of three and it must be
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really quite difficult to be living in a home
where you literally are one of three all the
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same age all going through the same things at
the same time having to share everything from
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birthday parties to the knickers that you put
on in the morning and it just really inspired
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me and I thought I'd love to write a book about
identical triplets and then I imagined you know
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what if a gorgeous guy moved in next door what
if all of them fancied him and initially he
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would fancy all three of them because they all
look the same and one of their personalities is
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going to be the one that's most closely aligned
to you know his soulmate or you know whoever but
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I just thought if somebody saw him first maybe
he'd end up with her when actually he's meant to
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be with her and that was what the story the one
we fell in love with was all about I think it's
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really good if you can think about people who you
used to know rather than people that you actually
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know if you come up with a really great book idea
based on something that's happened to like one of
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your friends right now please get permission
from them before you decide to write this book
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because otherwise you'll end up changing so many
details and feeling so uncomfortable and it might
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actually hold you back when you come to write it
so you know whereas people from your past it's a
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little less sensitive so have a think about people
that you used to know who might have intrigued you
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when you were at school maybe someone that you
worked with whether they could you know form an
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idea for a character maybe it doesn't even have
to be the main character you know it could be you
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know one of the side characters but just make
a list of anyone that you still feel inspired
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by the other thing that can really inspire you
is an anecdote told to you by a friend one of
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my books the minute I saw you was inspired by
my friend who told me about how she went to an
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optician who was really good-looking and he was so
up close and personal with her really staring into
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her eyes and she got the giggles so I thought
to myself this could make a really fun opening
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to a book I turned it around so my character
is the optician and this absolutely gorgeous
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guy comes straight in and she has to get really
up close and personal with him staring into his
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eyes and he basically sort of smiles at her
and and there's a bit of a flirtation going
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on so it's a nice way to open up a novel so
have a think about things that you might have
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heard from Friends next time someone tells you
a funny story see whether or not that might be
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able to make like a really fun opening for your
novel or something funny that happens within I've
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definitely taken a few anecdotes from friends over
the years and even if it's just to add a little
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light-hearted injection of humor I always ask for
their permission first though so definitely do
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that another thing that might inspire you are
inspirational words when I was younger as I
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said in unit one my father said to me when I was
going through a difficult point in in my life he
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said five years from now you'll look back and
understand how this happened and those words 5
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years from now you'll look back and understand
how this happened inspired my book idea 5 Years
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From from now so have a think about words of
wisdom words that have rung true to you over
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the years you know something that you've heard
maybe an inspirational quote and see whether
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or not that might even inspire you to come
up with a whole novel idea now I'm going to
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talk about lived in experiences so this is an
experience that you've actually lived through
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and something that has happened to you lived in
experiences are really good because if you can
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later be able to talk about them where your
idea came from in an interview then it's a
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really really good publicity for your novel so
your Publishers would love to be able to write
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a story that might be Loosely based on your own
experiences life experiences even negative ones
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can make really good material for a book so
if something bad happens to you or positive
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you know it could potentially form the basis for
your novel idea a friend of mine who's an author
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Zoe fig she met her husband because he was on the
train traveling to work on the same train as her
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and she liked him she liked the look of him and
one day she plucked up the courage to pass him
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a note turned out that he had a girlfriend at
the time but about a year or so later he had
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split up with his girlfriend and he got back in
touch with her and they're now married with two
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children now that's a great story and she ended up
writing about it in her debut novel The Note Zoe
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and her husband Mark have been on TV countless
times and in news papers and magazines doing
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all of this all of these interviews that have
ultimately really helped turn novel become a
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huge success so if you can write about something
that happened to you and you can later talk about
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it you know maybe even on TV a publisher is
going to love that so definitely try to write
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about a lived in experience at least somewhere in
your novel even if it's not your main idea try to
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include some real experiences in there that
you might later be able to talk about in an
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interview also it's a really good idea to write
what you know not least because when you come to
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research your novel you will be doing so much
research that it can really hold you back so
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if you're writing about something that you feel
really comfortable about that will definitely
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help and again it gives you another reason to
be able to talk about that in future interviews
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write a list in your notepad of all of the jobs
you've ever done in your life and also what are
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your hobbies you know what are the things that
you really really love to do so write everything
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down because ideally you'll be pulling from some
of those ideas to include them in your debut novel
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as well as writing a list of all of the jobs that
you've done and all of your hobbies write down a
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list of things that you would love to learn more
about because research can be really really fun
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especially if you're researching something
that you're interested in so you know make a
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list of those things too and and you know the more
engaged you are with your story the more that will
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come across to your readers and sometimes research
gives you a really fun anecdote that you can later
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tell your friends and it might even make it into
into a future novel you never know while you're
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dreaming up ideas I'd like you to keep in mind the
beginning of your novel most novels start with a
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character who's just going around their ordinary
day and then something happens to shake things
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up a bit and take them out of their comfort zone
so really think about what might happen in those
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opening Pages for that character to be taken out
of their comfort zone cuz that might end up making
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its way into your novel I really hope that hearing
how I came up with some of the ideas for my novels
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will help you to find inspiration for finding
some of your own definitely just watch movies
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read books listen to music and start coming
up with some ideas and that will really really
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help in the next lesson I'm going to be talking
to you about the sort of Love Story you would
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like to write and I'm going to help you
to pin down your personal writing style
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