There’s one question writers seem to get a lot. We all get it. We all have a rote answer for it, that differs from writer to writer. Here’s the question: Where do you get your ideas? My answer to this is: from everywhere. Ideas are literally everywhere. I have twenty ideas for stories every morning before I have my coffee. They’re not GOOD ideas, all the time. They need to be sifted through, but they’re there.
This seems like a flippant answer, and it’s not a very satisfying one to the people asking the question. There’s no ‘One Neat Trick!’ which it feels sometimes is what people are looking for. Most writers, and other types of creative people, report that they have more ideas than they will ever get to. This certainly is my experience. But I’ve also run into a handful who say that coming up with ideas is difficult for them.
I think it all comes down to how intently you’re paying attention to the information the universe is feeding you. Are you noticing things that are happening under the surface? Are you listening to snippets of overheard conversation and extrapolating where the rest of the conversation could go. Are you thinking about the stories you consume and thinking, ‘yeah, but what if THIS happened?” To be struck by ideas the way we need to be, we need to have our antennae out, ready to pick up the universe’s various signals, wherever they come from.
Because they’re out there, just waiting to be noticed. It does take some practice for some people to catch them, though. One thing you need to do is get into the habit of really examining the things you encounter, whether it’s a story, or an idea, or a strange situation. Let your imagination go to work. This means paying attention to things. And I know that sounds rich, coming from my ADHD ass. But we need to develop habits of attending to what is in front of us and not being lost in distraction as much as we are. It’s easy to walk through life with our attention directed elsewhere. We all carry with us a little device that demands our attention at every moment. And this is not all bad. It can be a source of information and inspiration, but the way apps are designed, it never lets us stay with one thought for very long. It’s all about showing us the next thing that will keep us scrolling. Nothing really sticks. So, we need to develop the ability to focus on one thing for more than ten seconds. This means putting limits on how much you pay attention to your distraction device. Set a timer, then disconnect. Then really think about what you’ve seen, and decide which subjects you’d like to follow up on.
When we are not in a state of distraction, a part of our brain activates. It’s called the default mode network, and it is active when your brain doesn’t seem to be doing anything else. It engages when you’re mowing the lawn or washing the dishes. It’s what it feels like when your mind is wandering. That wandering is important, because that’s your brain making connections between things guided by your own inner voice. It’s especially important that our brains have this down time. It’s also where ‘Shower Thoughts” come from. Your brain can mull everything you’ve seen while your body is occupied with its own concerns.
So, if you want to have access to more ideas, pay attention to what is going on around you, set limits on your distracted times, and find ways to engage the default mode network.
But there’s a flip side to ideas. I was discussing this with my therapist. I talk about my work a lot in sessions, not usually in any great detail, but about the challenges I am having. And I was describing all the different ideas I have for books and series and short stories and lamenting the fact that it would be forever before I got to them all, and she asked, “Well, you have all these ideas you can’t use. Can you sell them to other people?”
And yes, to her that was a valid question, but it made me laugh because, no, that is not a viable strategy for earning more income (God, I wish it were, though). And it’s not only because most writers and creative types have more ideas than they can cope with. The dirty little secret is that ideas, by themselves, and pretty much worthless. They can be a spark, but without someone’s unique energy and development, they go nowhere. Thousands of books have been written that all have the same basic ideas. All these books are vastly different from each other. A lot of writers are precious about their ideas to the point they don’t want to share them with people lest they be ‘stolen.’ But that’s not how it works. Even if an idea were ‘stolen,’ the work someone else did with it would be vastly different than what the first writer came up with. You can’t copyright ideas. You can copyright specific executions, but even that is iffy sometimes.
And a lot of times writers get locked-in to one idea they have for a story and then work it to death. They’re afraid to let go of this precious idea, but if you want a full creative career, you eventually must move on with things. Trust that more ideas will come.
I have a list of projects that will take me at least through 2036. And I have more I’m developing beyond those. There is no shortage of ideas if you learn to collect them as you go.
Ideas are everywhere. You don’t have to be too precious about them or hold onto them too tightly. And someone else using a similar idea to yours is not the end of the world. The most valuable part of any idea is the individual things each person brings to it.
But if anyone out there really DOES want to pay me for a couple of ideas, call me. I have some real bangers floating around in the attic.