Where Do Ideas Come From?
Ok, so, in real life nobody ever asks me that. Mostly they look slightly pained when I say I'm writing a book and then ask whether I've ever considered taking a MasterClass or reading On Writing.
But regardless of the total lack of curiosity, I'm here to answer the questions you never asked. (Hey, I was an English teacher. It's what I was trained to do.)
Have you ever been driving to work, listening to the radio, and a song came on --
"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream..."
And even though you'd heard it a hundred times, suddenly you were thinking... what kind of boat? Which stream? Where is this character going? What if it was actually a huge yacht and they're rowing it with the shinbone of the dead captain through a maze of icebergs, trying to find Frankenstein's monster because he's the only one who can help avert the impending zombie apocalypse?
This probably happens to most people between 4 and 200 times a day; maybe not that cohesive, maybe not that silly, but little daydreams. You're hanging out at your desk and you smell the coffee and you remember that time in college you had a crush on the cute barista and you wonder what would have happened if you gave her your number, or just leaned over the counter one day and gave her one perfect, beautiful, nonconsensual, problematic kiss.
The thing about ideas is that they're 5 for $10, save $2 when you buy 5. Everybody has ideas. I'm willing to bet 90% of people, if not higher, have, at one point, thought "Hey, that would make a cool book!" And you know what? It probably would. The strength of the idea is not what gets you there. It's discipline, commitment, sticking to a schedule, and prioritizing the work.
(You see now why it takes me years to finish a draft, because those things are what I would refer to as "areas for improvement" if I was giving myself an academic evaluation)
Ideas are cheap. They're easy. They're fun. Turn everybody in the room into super-models in your mind. It's free!
"How do you narrow down your ideas?" might be a better question. Or better yet, "How do you know which ideas are bad?" That's such a good question that there's just no way to answer it, which is always my favorite kind of question, and it drives high school students NUTS, by the way.
"Ms. Finhill, what does this poem mean?"
"Well, Billy, what do you think it means?"
"Um, like, he's... sad?"
"Interesting. And why do you think that?"
"UGH JUST TELL ME WHAT TO SAY SO I CAN GET AN A!"
"No Billy, you have to use your actual brain and think thoughtful thoughts, thinkingly."
"NOOOO IT BURNS UGH YOU'RE THE WORST."
Poor little imaginary Billy, who is definitely made up and not at all based on a real student nope not even a little.
You can get ideas literally anywhere. Dreams, music, movies, books, conversations... all of life is full of idea-fodder. Dream logic has a wonderful way of bringing the unexpected, the unusual, the unique, to the forefront of your mind.
Say you have a dream about an enchanted rubber duck that is somehow simultaneously also your daughter but then sometimes it just belongs to her, and you keep losing it, and you're freaking out because sometimes it is her, but then she disappears and you find the duck but she's not the duck so she's still missing and whenever you see the duck you feel sad. That's some straight nonsense right there, but maybe what sticks in your head is the idea of sadness being symbolized by a yellow rubber duck. From that one element, you can begin to build a story. Maybe someone lost a child, maybe someone's toy store was run out of business, maybe the character never sees the duck at all but it bobs, just out of their view, noticed only by the omniscient and the reader.
For the project I'm working on now, the core element was the dynamic between two people. I was caught by the idea of one complex dynamic, and that one idea has morphed into so many different stories, taking so many different forms-- small town California, a summer camp in the mountains, a suburb at the edge of global war, a post-apocalyptic city in a desert, and now, in what I hope (please God, knock on wood, throw salt, beg for mercy) is the final version, a post-apocalyptic biodome with no connection to the uninhabitable outside world. I've joked over the last 10 years that this could have been 5 different books by now, but it couldn't have, because they're all built around the same core. Without a heart, it's all just setting.
Another novel I'm working on came from the idea popping into my head, "Snow White, just like it's told, but there's extenuating circumstances that make the step-mother the hero." The world that grew up around that idea was dark, rich, gothic, and complicated, and that's what makes me think there's a book there.
Think of your mind as a stream. A stream of consciousness? Pun admitted. We all have thoughts rushing through us all the time, from "I need to pee" to "purple elephants?" to "I regret everything." Some of these thoughts stick. They grab onto the rocks... of... ok I don't know what the rocks are but they're in there, ok? The stream and rocks of consciousness. These thoughts are the ones that don't just pass us by ("Look at that cute girl") , but that keep appearing, popping up in the current, circling ("I want to marry this cute girl"). The good ideas are the ones that stick in your mind, the ones you can't shake. This is why you don't have to be worried about always writing down ideas the moment you have them. If it's an idea you're truly passionate about, like, ten years, five drafts, bloodshed and tears and sweat, epic, passionate about, you'll remember. It will circle back.
(And ok fine I still write down all my ideas and yes I'm glad I do and no forgetting things doesn't mean you don't care about them because if it did I would be the most uncaring person in the world)
If you're stuck for inspiration, try one of these two methods (or one and then the other, if you want.)
One, clear a space. Make everything quiet and still and boring around you. Remember that getting zen is just learning to be ok with boredom. Stare at a blank wall or a flickering candle light for, minimum, thirty minutes. See what your mind comes up with to entertain you.
Two, and this is the polar opposite, sensory flood. Find some amazing music, browse DeviantArt, and eat a food you've never tried, all at the same time. Read a book while listening to classical symphonies. Learn to do a cartwheel. Jam as much new input into your head as you possibly can, for one hour, and then see what sticks.
And after you do those things, sit your butt down, and write. Because the best way to access creativity is to use it.
Happy Monday! Thanks for reading, and as always, if you have any questions or topics you'd like to see me write about, drop me a comment and let me know!
Today's Song Recs:
Pillowcase by Gabbie Hanna because it's raining and I'm feeling that drama today
Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin
Why Do You Love Me by Charlotte Lawrence (TW if you have an opposite-ASMR response to whispery singing like my sister does)
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