The Lounge

How do you come up with inspiration for your stories? Do the ideas just come to you?
I think inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. Everyday life and what's missing or what you've got in excess can be inspiration. My stories though are about people who go through a tough time and come out for the better. Encouraging and stronger are my characters. They learn that no matter what they are stronger than they thought they were.

Are there books you reference when writing your stories?
I should have been worded this question differently. Are there books you use to help you flesh out your characters and the situations they are going through. Yes there are books I use. For example, in the classes I'm taking I've used multiple books to help me with the description of what's going on in the scene.
Romance Emotion and Erotica Writers Phrase Book by Jackson Dean Chase.
Thinking like a Romance Writer by Dahlia Evans
The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi has been helpful too. Their website goes along with their books. www.Onestopforwriters.com
There are other books I use to help with outlining the story or figuring out what needs to be included in the story.
How to write a Bestselling Contemporary Romance and How to write Bestselling Erotica and Erotic Romance by Just Bae
Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
Passionate Ink by Angela Knight
This list doesn't even include the 20 plus titles on Kindle and Nook.

Are prompts better to write for or with than writing without prompts?
This depends on the author. I sometimes like prompts because a story comes out easier with a prompt. You can do pretty much anything you want with a prompt. Granted on WDC there are rules and genres to follow. Think about it, "Can you believe I made it to fifty? After all that's happened?" I found this prompt in an eBook 101 Writing prompts for fiction Now there could be a lot of ways to go about this, romance they found love with problems in family relations or physical constraints. Fantasy: the world is ending, there's 50 people left, and everyone has to live without magic. Action/Adventure: Shipwrecked captain comes home to tell his story about all the adventures out at sea. Prompts can take a writer anywhere they want to go.