How Do You Pick a Topic?

Writing a book, and doing the research for it, takes a lot of time. The subject had better be something that really interests you. Otherwise:
a) it will really bore you, and
b) you will do a lousy job.

That is my current problem. I am struggling to find a plot based on background world events in Europe of the late 1880s. Without that basic to weave a story around, I am getting nowhere fast. As this will be a sequel I am keen to avoid jumping to far ahead from 1883. Oh I need a drink.

It sounds a bit odd, but I like making lists of things if I don't already know what I want to work on. Most of the time though, I already know by my story idea. Not straight historical, but I've had an idea about a woman being stalked by a vampire in the 1920's. And the novella I'm researching takes place between 1895-1910.

I don't. But I sure don't believe that a topic picks anyone. A topic is inanimate and has no choice. A writer does have choice, and always chooses what he is or isn't going to write about.

But I don't even think about a topic. Whatever type of novel I'm writing, I drop an interesting character into an interesting situation, and let him try to get out of it the best way he can. If this situation happens to take place during the Civil War, fine, but it won't be a Civil War story.

Here's how it worked on my current WIP. I found the bones of a story (the possibly apocryphal origins of the Claddagh ring design) with a number of associated names and places. I did some research into the era, and realised that I could create a rich and exciting world around this story, filling in the blanks that history had left me. (I also realised that Buffy may have created a market for this story, since that was the ring that Angel gave her.).

Here's how it worked with the other story that I'm incubating. I took a trip to a place that was once a smuggler's haven (Kinsale, Ireland), and then created characters that would work in that setting. The story comes out of the setting and characters (there's a widow and a pirate. Swashes will buckle).

So in one case it was story first, setting later. While in the other case it was setting first, then story.