Skip to main content

How a doorbell ringing at 2am can spark many story ideas

People often ask me how I come up with my story ideas. THIS is how I come up with story ideas. The following is a true event.

I woke to the sound of the doorbell ringing and glanced at the clock. It was 2am. I thought I had just woken from a dream.

Then my husband rolled out of bed and stood up to stare out the bedroom window.

I mumbled, "What's up?"

He said, "If you can believe it, the doorbell just rang."

"So it wasn't a dream," I said.

Our front doorbell had chimed at 2am in the morning. Our front door is downstairs, we were sleeping upstairs. The husband was staring out the bedroom window which overlooks the driveway, but I don't need to get up to know that we can't see down to the front door. 

I gave him the most logical explanation I could think of at 2am in the morning. I said, "It's probably the battery dying."

He agreed, and we both did a quick look out the front and back windows before heading back to bed.

I never went back to sleep. My writer's brain went into overdrive, coming up with any number of scenarios. I narrowed it down to these:

  • My thriller writer's brain: someone is waiting downstairs.
  • My supernatural writer's brain: something is waiting downstairs.
  • My horror writer's brain: someone or something with an ax is waiting downstairs.
  • My sci-fi writer's brain: a signal from the real world is trying to reach us in the virtual world.
  • My children's writer's brain: a cat is playing 'knock and run'.

My logical brain kept telling me that it was just the battery failing. But I couldn't convince myself to go back to sleep.

Then, 10 minutes later, the doorbell went off again. Then again. Then again.

This time we both got up, looked out through all the windows on the top floor - no way was I going outside - and then the husband leaned over the balcony railing to stare down at the front door. 

"I can't see anyone," he said. Then he added, "that's just the pot plant down there, isn't it?"

I leaned over. There was enough moonlight to confirm that it was indeed just the potplant. Logically, if we could see the pot plant, then we could see that there was no-one there. We'd have seen a pair of feet. Unless this person had run around the side or was clinging from the eaves.

Our doorbell has a button downstairs, and it connects to a chimer in the kitchen. Neither of us was going down to take out the battery.  This chimer is always plugged in. We unplugged the chimer.

I eventually went back to sleep, but I woke up at 8am, very tired, and with dozens of story ideas swirling around inside my head.

There are so many possibilities for a story based on a doorbell ringing at 2am. One day I might write that story. 

What story ideas might you write? 

Labels:

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest news! I've signed up to write a post-apoc series

When I started writing, I had one set goal: to become a prolific author. At the time I was into reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz, and I wanted to write books, lots of them. 

Now I have that chance. After writing, publishing, and promoting 10 books, I've signed up to to write a series of post-apocalyptic fiction books for Mission Critical Publishing. The reason I signed up was simple. They're innovative. The publishing industry today is fast and fluid. 



I've agreed to write 3 books in 6 months. Each book will be around 60,000 words when completed. I'll need to become a writing machine. To accomplish this I'll need to do 2 things:




#1 Write fast



The only way for me to write fast is to write an overview of the entire book (or series). This can be one page per book. Then I write dots points that become the chapters. Complications, conflicts, solutions, all fit into these chapters.


Then I set a daily word count. I'm now at the stage where, provided I know what I'…
Post a comment
Read more

Top 10 Australian independent magazines for teenage girls

First up, I have to say that there aren't 10 blog/magazines listed, only 9. I couldn't find 10 so if you know of any please please please let me know who they are so I can include them on this list.

Flicking through the internet for stories is a bit like flicking through a pile of magazine clippings on the floor. It can be fun putting everything you want to read together in one pile, but after a while you might want to sit in a chair and have that pile put together in more manageable fashion for you to read, say maybe like the magazines or blogs the articles were cut out of.

Okay, that's enough of that analogy. This article is about finished product of blogs and magazines that compile together a host of articles on subjects a reader is interested in. I'm featured ten nine Australian independent magazines both virtual and tangible which I came across during one of my wild searches through hundreds of internet sites.

Magazines have really taken a bashing over the past decad…
1 comment
Read more

The great Aussie drop bear

Just for fun, I thought I'd write a post about a great Aussie icon, the drop bear.

A drop bear is a hoax in contemporary Australian folklore featuring a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala. This imaginary animal is commonly spoken about in tall tales designed to scare tourists. Why? Because Australia actually has some of the world’s deadliest animals. And Australians truly are larrikins, so we love a good joke. 
If you don’t know what that word is, then you’re missing out on some great Aussie slang. Here is an extensive list of Aussie slang and their meanings if you're interested. If you ever set foot in the Outback (make that most of Australia), you will hear Aussie slang. Watch Crocodile Dundee and you'll pick up some Aussie slang: larrikin, strewth, fair dinkum, esky, bottle-O.  It’s like another language. 
But that’s not all that Australia is known for. We are also known for our dangerous animals.
There is a common perception amongst tourists that everything in Aus…
Post a comment
Read more