Sunday, January 29, 2012

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Ideas quote


As a writer, this is a question I hear often. Where do I get my ideas from?

I get them from all over the place. Sometimes, I wake up from a particularly vivid dream and realize that it would make a good basis for a story. Sometimes I hear a song that reaches into me and whispers, "You must write a story to go with this."

The people around me help me to form ideas for stories. I watch the people who take the bus with me, or the people who stand outside the shops in town and try to think up stories to explain the way they dress, the way they move or even why they are on the bus, where they are going, why they are standing outside of a particular store. These ideas can be endless.

Conversations with friends and family sometimes help me come up with ideas. Last night, my husband and I went to see a movie, and after the movie, when we went to dinner, we discussed some of the new movies that were coming out. That discussion became a discussion of how we would write about simlarly-themed stories and then we came up with several story ideas and a way to research even more stories.

My children are wonderful little inspiration-builders. Tonight, my son woke up from a bad dream and told me he couldn't get back to sleep because he was worried that he would have another bad dream. I made up a story to allay his fears, and that story has given me an idea for both a children's story and an adult short story.

So let's hear it: Where do you get your story ideas from?

3 comments:

Hannah Holt said...

I'm like you, ideas come to me from all different sources. Sometimes it's hard to tune them out. My middle of the night ideas tend to be my worst. The ideas brought from interactions with my children tend to be the best. Happy writing!

Kate said...

My best ideas come right as I'm drifting off to sleep or while I'm in the shower. I still haven't figured out how to put a notebook in the shower, but I'm working on it.

Scott Spinks said...

Great topic! I seem to find stories almost everywhere I go. If I come across something that inspires me, I always try to create a story for it. For example, I recently visited an unusual novelty shop. They owner revealed to me that she thought the place was haunted. This inspired a pair of stories for me.

I believe if you take time to study the environment around you, a good story can come from most anywhere.