A few weeks ago, I attended by Zoom a meeting of the Desert Sleuths, which is the Arizona chapter of Sisters in Crime. The topic of the meeting was Make a Mystery. They had a panel of three authors who solicited ideas from the other attendees.
Over the next 90 minutes we came up with a setting (RV park in Arizona), heroine (Felicia, park manager), a villain (Pastor Bob), and a bunch of other characters. Plus a basic plot. When we were done I asked if it was OK for us to use all this in our own story, and they said that was fine. Even with the same basics, every author would produce a unique story.
So over the next few weeks I wrote a 7800-word story called “Angels Grove.” I changed the heroine’s name, but crammed almost everything else in. Personally, I think it came out great. Last week I sent it off to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. We’ll see if they take it. Oh, and next week is the next meeting, so we’ll see who else wrote something. Stay tuned.