Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
As I struggled to come up with an idea for this week’s blog, I thought of the question that just about every writer I know, or have heard of, gets asked. . . Where do you get your ideas? There are the good old reliable answers – Where don’t I get them? A small town in (you can fill in the state). I dunno. Dreams. Shut up – what a stupid-ass question. The list goes on.
For me, my standard answer is where don’t I get them. Right now I’m listening to the rain come down outside my window. For whatever reason I just thought of acid rain – hydrochloric acid raining down on the earth. Oh, the possibilities. So the idea goes on a piece of paper and placed in my ideas file (see 8-13-08 blog).
Okay, that’s for fiction. Lies are easy. I can’t wait for the day when my books (see what an optimist I am – I’m using the plural, as in I’m going to publish more than one book), make me bunches of money (even more optimism), and when people ask me what I do, I can tell them I lie for a living.
But on the blog front, where in my first blog I promised to be honest, well, that must use a different part of the brain. I’m really having trouble coming up with subject matter. How tough can it be coming up with one topic for writers per week? Of course there are a multitude of writing tips, but the vast majority have been beaten to death by writers far more prolific and elegant than I. (Hmmm, fiction – optimist/ nonfiction – pessimist. I wonder what that says about me?) I want to write articles (or I guess they’re called blogs) that will help the reader/writer and also entertain while at the same time giving a glimpse of my life. So, I’m asking you, dear reader, send me your ideas. I’ll tackle any subject as long as it is somehow related to writing. C’mon people – what do you want to know (about writing)? Hell, back me into a corner and I’ll even do (shudder) research. Tell me, where do you get your ideas?
February 18th, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Hi David,
Had to come and check out your site after getting your email. Love it! And the ideas blog just pulled me in.
I just had an interesting experience in my own writing life. I’ve been fighting a story out for 2 years. A few weeks ago, I saw a music video that just happened to speak to the heart of what I wanted to write – BAM all of a sudden my writers block was gone.
I think ideas are like love – they come at you when you aren’t looking. If you go on a quest to see out an idea, it will flit and flirt with you but never fully form. It’s the side trips and detours we take in life, I think, that give us some of our best ideas.