Thursday, January 19, 2012

Where Ideas Come From

I've realized that not only have I not been writing, I also haven't been talking about writing. I guess those things sort of go together. This post was already half written, so if you were interested in how these weird story ideas end up in my head, hooray for you!

By far the easiest part of writing for me is getting that initial spark of an idea. I have dozens, possibly hundreds [I refuse to count them all up] of summaries, questions, characters, worlds, titles, scenes, etc. that could easily become their own story. Note I said story and not novel. Some of them are short story material, while I have only a few that would encompass a more lengthy series.

These have come from lots of different sources, all of which involve me spending a lot of time thinking and daydreaming and actual dreaming. Off the top of my head, I've been inspired by:
  • Clouds (twice)
  • Anthropology class
  • A circling helicopter
  • Other books
  • Hypothetical questions
  • Bizarre dreams
  • Quotes
  • Road signs
  • The Russian Revolutions
I promise, this is the short list. I could go on and on. As one of my favorite authors, Maria V. Snyder, put it in this interview, life itself is fodder for stories.

Case in point:

[My mother walks into the room after retrieving the mail.]

Me: Is there anything good?

Mumsy: [pause while she sorts through all the junk mail] Manatees?

Me: [considering] How do you know they're good though? What if manatees were secretly trying to take over the world? Wouldn't that be cool?!

I need to mention manatees more often so I can justify posting adorable pictures.
Sometimes Most of the time inspiration strikes at the most random moments.

However, this little speck of an idea does not translate to immediate best-selling author status. First you have to wade through all of these bits and pieces to find the ones that will really work. [My dreams are especially iffy in this aspect. Some of them are just too weird to be useable.] And then you have to have the patience to sit down and piece them all together. I'm having trouble being that patient.

Hopefully, one day I'll get an idea that's so good that I need to sit down and write 60,000 words in a month. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I would have been happy to finish a book in a month. This fabulous author gets it done in a matter of days. You should read all her books. [And her blog, she's rather hilarious.]

No comments:

Post a Comment