Ideas

So many times in interviews with authors, I’ve heard the same question asked.

“Where do you get your ideas?”

I think the subtext is: “How can I come up with million dollar ideas like a wizarding school, or tremendous sand worms that burrow deep underground?”

That’s a tough question to answer. Some ideas spring on you while you are driving to work. Some germinate for years before being ripe. Some ideas only work when combined with another.

I know that a lot of people want to write a story, but are trapped by the lack of ideas. I faced the exact same problem. So, where do these ideas come from?

First thing’s first, you need to be sitting on the toilet.

Don’t laugh, it’s true. Sort of. You need to be using the restroom, or washing dishes, or driving, or swimming laps at the pool. The point I’m trying to make is that ideas will come at the strangest time, and you need to be ready for them. Try to have a pen and paper by your bed. Just trust me. I’ve lost a lot of ideas to not writing them down.

Secondly, be open to and ready to follow any kind of idea. One of my favorites is when I’m at work, and I see the spread of people surrounding me, and I think: I wonder what would happen if we all got trapped here? How would he react? How about her?

Will it become a story worthy idea? Probably not. But what about that dream of a really weird city you had last night? (See? Pen and paper)

By the way, if you discard ideas because “they’ve already been done,” I have some bad news for you.

It’s all been done.

Every. Single. Thing.

The point is not to be original, you can’t. The point is to put the idea through your brain, which is unique. What are the cortical stacks from Altered Carbon–a way to live forever by transferring it, and by extension you, from body to body–but a continuation of the Fountain of Youth? Same idea, different interpretation.

Lastly, for those of you who are proactively searching for ideas, try juxtaposition.

Take a couple of cards and put names of things on them. Shuffle and pull out two. Tree and dog. A tree dog? A dog made of wood? A dog in a tree? Sounds like a story to me.

In the end, ideas do come, the trick is not to come up with them, but to recognize them when they are there.