Who, What, When, Where & Why of Your Idea

With my Silhouette Romance, The Groom Wore Blue Suede Shoes, there was no problem remembering how the idea originated. The moment my daughter saw Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock, and fell in love with him, the novel idea was born. Of course, it went through various stages--from thriller to mystery and finally evolved into a romantic comedy. A favorite interviewing question is always: where did you get your idea for the book? Over and over again, I used the story of my then four year-old falling for Elvis. Reporters and book reviewers enjoyed it. It gave them a hook.

Looking back on various projects I'm involved in now, I see something very important missing from my notes. I can't remember how these ideas originated. There's no notation about how I came up with the title or the plot line. Or how I met the hero and heroine. I feel at a loss because I can vaguely remember feeling extraordinarily excited about a couple of these stories.
So take a tip from me: keep very good notes on how you pull your books together. Jot down where your idea came from and why you feel so excited about it. Capture the emotion you feel toward your project. These notes will help you create promotional material and give interviews. And it might even help motivate you back to the project after a long break. There's no such thing as TMI when it comes to making notes regarding your books. Get it together from the get-go, and keep it together until the very end.