Where do I get my story ideas?
I get asked this question a lot. It’s probably one of the most frequently asked questions, and one that doesn’t have an easy answer, because ideas for stories come from everywhere. They pop into my head at the oddest times- while watching television, while driving, while lying in bed or taking a shower–usually anytime I’m nowhere near my computer or a piece of paper. :gah:
Sometimes it’s nothing more than a single thought–a line, a character, a scene, a face. Sometimes it turns out to be nothing. A fleeting glimpse into an idea, and poof! It’s gone. Other times it’ll catch on and develop into something more concrete, and I’ll mull it over in my head for awhile and see if it takes shape into something I can use.
And I have to say that I usually get story ideas when I’m not looking for them. They usually hit me when I’m knee deep in deadlines for another book, when I have several books I know I need to write. Then another story idea will come to me.
So what do I do then? I write it down, of course, letting my imagination take flight. At that point it may be nothing but gibberish. A lot of random thoughts and ideas. Maybe something a character is doing, or a plotline about something happening. Either way, I take notes of whatever is hammering away at my head and file it away in my plotlines folder. I have an entire folder on my computer for nothing but random plotlines. This is my well of ideas that I go to when I need to pull out something new to write.
And sometimes, when I hit a wall with my current book, I’ll open up one of those ideas and toy with it a bit, see where it takes me, develop it a little further, then close it again until I have more time to work on it.
A writer never runs out of ideas.
And ideas never stop popping into our heads. It’s like a constant turning wheel.
I love my job. :sasmokin: