Where Do Ideas Come?

Writers are sometimes asked, "Where do you get your ideas for your stories?" Ideas come from a pazillion places. If you pay attention during your day to day life, you'll meet up with dozens of them. Some come from snippets of conversation you overhear. Some come from encountering a total stranger in the checkout line. Ideas can come from life experiences, dreams, feelings, and things you read. They can even come from a statement you read on the back of the cereal box.

Keeping a little notebook handy to write down these fleeting ideas is a wise thing to do. If not written down, many a great idea vanishes into thin air within an astonishing short period of time.

Ask Questions

A good way to blast through "writer's block" is to ask questions. What would happen if...? How would it feel to...? What's another way to do this? Or describe this? Or solve this problem? What's another way to say this, other than use a tired old cliche?

I substituted in a junior high technology class the other day. The reading assignment had to do with innovation and invention. 

I wanted the class to get a tiny taste of what innovation means, so I held up a paper towel and asked the students to come up with different ways of using that paper towel.

At first they kind of just looked blankly at me, but gradually the ideas started come and before long it was hard to stop the overflowing creativity.

Not a bad little exercise to try to jump start the brain into writing fresh, exciting material.

Ideas

Where does an author get his or her ideas about which to write?

Ideas are all around us. They come from reading a newspaper or magazine article. They come from overhearing a snippet of a conversation. They come from a dream...or a nightmare. They come from asking question, like "What would happen if...?"

There is no limit to the number of ideas out there. The problem is capturing those ideas before the flea, for ideas for very elusive.

I keep a little pad of paper and pen on the nightstand so that if I think of an idea during the night, I can jot it down because chances are I'll forget it by morning. Carrying a small notebook, or even a folded up piece of blank paper, in one's purse or pocket is a great idea--especially if you develop the habit of actually jotting down ideas and thoughts on it.