The Story Behind the Meant To Be Series
By Richard Alan
I’m often asked where I got the inspirations for my books. It may sound strange, but I don’t. My stories tumble from my head fully formed. No inspiration involved. No creative process. They just happen. Many people ask where I get my ideas from. The honest answer is; I have no clue. Once I sit down at my desk each morning, I start writing and the story grows from there. I may be doing or thinking about something completely unrelated to my story and a storyline for a chapter will occur to me. It’s not something I need to try to do. It just happens. Once I have a storyline, I can use events in my life or perform research to develop the feeling I need to incorporate. Note that the storyline comes first. An example would be that I had the story of a teen suicide in my first book. Fortunately, I have no experience with this so I spent time researching family member’s reactions to a teen suicide. I also spoke at length with a psychologist who specializes in family counseling.
Some writers have asked me how I get inspired when I get writer’s block. I have the opposite problem. The storylines have not stopped flowing. This is, however a good problem, which has allowed me to write four books in the last fifteen months.
Some writers use an outline when writing. I don’t. My characters tell me their story and I just write it down. I have no idea where it is going or where it will end when I begin writing a manuscript. Very often I think of excellent stories that don’t fit in the current book. I write them down and save them for a future novel. Often I will have a minor character in a story that I enjoy writing about to the extent that he or she becomes a major character in a future book. This happened with a four year old named, Jonah, who appeared near the end of my first novel. He became a main teenage character in my second and third novel and is an important young adult character in my fourth novel.
I am in my 64th year of life and began my writing career a little over a year ago. I had not done any writing prior to this except I vaguely remember writing a short story in seventh grade. I also wrote short stories for my children when they were young where they were the heroes in the story. I thought so little of these stories that I didn’t save any of them, even though my children enjoyed them immensely. If they tumble from my brain again, I will write them down and publish them as children’s stories. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy writing whatever my characters tell me.
Richard Alan lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with his wife, Carolynn. They are the proud parents of three wonderful adult sons.He is a Vietnam combat and 101st Airborne Division veteran.
After an education in mathematics, a 17 year career in manufacturing engineering and a 22 year career in software engineering, he has started a career as an author. Richard writes novels about people trying to find their life-partner, soul-mate, the person they are meant to be with for life. His first two books, Meant to Be and The Couples, are available on his website and most online retailers.
Richard’s other interests range from mathematical analysis and photography to anything with an engine. His current projects include writing the third (Finding Each Other) and fourth novels in the “Meant to Be” series, and discovering the properties of functions of p-adic numbers. Having completed a potting bench for his lifepartner, Carolynn, he is busy driving her to watch salmon runs, visit National Parks, and anywhere that provides an opportunity to view her avian friends.
His latest books in the Meant to Be Series are Meant to Be and The Couples.
You can visit Richard Alan’s website, VILLAGE DRUMMER FICTION at www.villagedrummerfiction.com.
The Story Behind the Book 