I’m always suspicious when I see the words “inspired by real events” applied to a movie, TV show, or book. How many books, in particular, are not inspired by real events?

Many people are pointing out, for example, that Game of Thrones is based on the War of the Roses. As far as historical notes indicate, though, dragons were not involved in that war. (If you’re a fan of history-inspired dragon tales, be sure to check out Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Not only is it great fun, it’s also complete.) If high fantasy can be inspired by real events, then it’s obvious not much adherence to ‘realistic’ is necessary to slap that label on.

But that’s the marketing side of things. What about the writing side of things?

How do you turn an inspiration into an entire novel, particularly if you’re not inspired by an entire historical epic with ready-made characters and plot?

Between plotters (those who plot their entire novel) and pantsers (those who sit down and write ‘by the seat of their pants’), I’m somewhere in the middle. I know the beginning, middle, and end of the book before I start writing, but that leaves a whole lot of details to fill in.

For me, filling it in begins with characters. While my plot moves the characters around like the invisible hand of the market (or some other such imaginary device), they are free to wander in whatever place they find themselves.

So my plot is inspired by something, often just a single thought “What would happen if…?” or event written about in the news. That’s not enough to carry a novel.

And my characters are inspired by something. At simplest, by a name: What would a girl named Ivy League be like? (I’ve written this book, and I’m working on another related book at the moment.)

From there, the various scenes are inspired by different sources. Sometimes the mood of a particular day, other times by the necessity of moving toward my plot goalposts.

By the end of the novel, there are hundreds of things I could say the book was inspired by. On one editing pass, I go through and strengthen some of these inspirations and weaken others to draw a clearer thematic arc through the book. This arc is, for me, distinct from the plot arc.

What inspires you enough to write a whole novel?