Inspiration Strikes - Now What?

Feeding Shiny Book Ideas So They Don't Die

Olivia/O. J. Barré🪄🌎

Jan 14, 2026

low angle photography of trees at daytime — Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Part II on How I Gathered Story Ideas for a 1250-Page Trilogy.

💡When the ideas stop flowing, the story is done. ~ O. J. Barré✔️

Excerpt from Part I — When Inspiration Strikes::

What if something hitchhiked up my roots, into me, then escaped into the world?

…I couldn’t get that root idea out of my head.

So, I decided to give it more thought. Could I work the idea into a story? If so, what type of story would it be? A “thing” hitchhiking up an energetic root is not something one would stumble upon in regular fiction. In a metaphysical work, yes. Or a fantastical one. But a friend in SoCal had hit a wall trying to sell her metaphysical novel. So, fantasy it was.

And fantasy means magic. Which opens up new worlds.

Now, I had an inciting idea. And the notion that I could use it as a springboard for a fantasy novel. But that’s all I had. Nothing more.

Except for plenty of time to ponder.

Part II: Inspiration Strikes, Now What?

Hatching ideas and connecting them is a natural byproduct of silence. Musing. Letting the mind wander.

So, I did that. I pondered. Agonized. Daydreamed. Lollygagged. Let my mind play in the literary sandbox.

I don’t know how often I ruminated. Or for how long. But as I pondered the choices for magical heroines, I ruled out witches (so Harry Potter), werewolves (so nooo, don’t make me), and vampires (so Twilight, Anne Rice, et al).

Then, one day, I was flipping through an Atlanta newspaper. The real estate section. Or maybe it was a sales flyer. But the name ‘Druid Hills’ jumped out at me, and my mind went, “Huh. Druids. They do magic.”

A thrill seized me. We’re on the right track. This is confirmation. Another bright, shiny idea. And a main story component, at that.

Magical druids. A society sworn to protect Earth. From… something.

I may not have told you this before, but I was infected by Terry Brooks a few years earlier when I read his Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold series. I knew that any fantasy story I told would have to take place in the real world. (Oddly enough, I never read his Shannara series, the books for which Terry is most known. Maybe I should. I mean, druid protags.)

And, since Druid Hills is a ritzy suburb skirting downtown Atlanta, it lends credence to the presence of Druids in modern-day Atlanta.

So, we also have a setting. Another thrill.

Now, we have an initiating idea — something wants to escape Inner Earth and will do that by hitchhiking up the heroine’s (or someone’s) energetic roots during a meditation session.
We have a protagonist — modern-day magical druids.
And a setting — their headquarters in Druid Hills, GA, US.

Now to come up with an origin story for the druids. And an antagonist that needs fighting. Or a problem that needs solving. Or both. Did I tell you that during this pondering, I was still trying to finish that women’s fiction novel? No? I was.

I do not know the exact date the initial idea for the Awen Trilogy came to me. An exhaustive search through old journals would probably reveal a date. But of main importance is that at some point, I finally threw up my hands and abandoned the women’s fiction book.

That freed my time to research the new story. I read everything I could find online (back in 2010) about druid lore. I bought and read books about druids and druidry. About druid magic. Fiction. Nonfiction. Whatever I could get my hands on that seemed pertinent.

I studied ogham (druid runes for writing). I bought the staves. I read about trees and plant medicine. But one of my main sources of inspiration came from an oracle deck I found at a Borders Books during its going out of business sale in Douglasville, GA. I was at the mall with my sister-in-law and nephew when I came across the Carr-Gomms’ Druid Animal Oracle Deck*. The artwork is fabulous. But I wanted it for the lore.

I studied those cards and the accompanying hardback book, soaking up all that I could. Today, fifteen years later, they are a bit bedraggled, but as precious to me as they were then. The druid animal elders in the Awen Trilogy, including their names, came from the oracle deck. And the druid lore from it (and other sources) is woven throughout the trilogy.

*(I’ve recently purchased the newer Druid Plant Oracle Deck. The book is softback, but the cards are just as beautiful as the animal ones. I’ll be using it for CROSSED, Cursed, & Nearly Dead, Book II. Rona is a plant whisperer.)

So, we’ve talked about the initial idea. And discussed two more main ideas. Next week, we’ll get into the search for an antagonist that lives inside Earth. And then the Druids’ origin story, if time allows. Soon thereafter, we’ll talk about building a world. Or worlds in the case of the Awen Trilogy. One in AboveEarth, a second in UnderEarth.

~ la fin

Now, it’s your turn:

I know you’ve been struck by a story idea. Or maybe an idea that inspired a career, a poem, a song, a new business, a hobby, a love, or some other fabulous life-affirming experience. Afterward, you had to come up with other ideas to put your vision into action. Please share it with us in the comments. We’d love to read about it.