do you let ideas stir around in your mind before you write the story?

I’ve thought about a book for as long as two years before I actually wrote it. The problem with me wasn’t the fact I didn’t want to write the story yet (heck, it was in my mind, driving me nuts!), it was that I didn’t have the time to write it yet. So while I’m working on finishing one book, the other story sits in my mind and grows and morphs, characters are invented, their friends, their likes and dislikes, internal conflicts manifest out of nowhere.

My mom recently asked me how I come up with the stories I do…I really don’t know. They’re just vague ideas/concepts rumbling around in my mind until a cohesive story begins to form.

I recently just finished up a proposal for my agent that I’ve been thinking about for over a year and a half. The idea came to me while I was walking on the beach on vacation…kind of in a “what if” scenario. From there the idea grew, taking life and form all its own until I finally had to sit down and get the first several chapters written. Even then the rest of the story beyond those chapters was already changing, developing new layers and conflicts…all inside my mind. I used to think it was difficult to work on more than one story at a time. Now…well, I’m currently working on three stories at once while thinking about another one in my head. LOL!

I know my critique partner, Cheyenne McCray, and I recently talked about having some stories in our heads for years before we finally wrote them. For any authors reading this blog, how about you…what’s the longest you’ve thought about a story before you finally sat down and wrote it?

And what about any readers checking out this blog, did you realize authors can have ideas mulling in their heads for years before they finally write the stories?