She is also my favorite writer. I’ve come to realize, that even though she’s never published a novel (she has published a short story, though. Check it out.), I’ve ‘read’ many of her books through her telling me about them.
Continue readingTag: ideas
Where do I get my ideas? A question that seems to be asked of authors everywhere. I’ve tried to think of an answer that I might be able to rattle off quickly if I ever become famous enough to be asked that question (lookin’ to the future), but it’s not something that I can answer so easily.
I began writing earnestly just over two years ago. I’m a newb, technically. My first short story, Bridge to Limbo, was an idea I got from reading a story by Hugh Howey (The Plagiarist). The next short, Galileo Among the Stars, was my way of solving the problem of time travel using the theory of quantum entanglement (sometimes my mind wanders when I hear about new technology). The third one, The Strange Life of Walter Moody, was kind of a love letter to the woman who is now my girlfriend. I imagined how it might be possible to change reality by writing it (a la Death Note, but in a good way).
Sometimes we get on a roll (like the proverbial un-fuzzy boulder), and have a time where writing is like an unbidden spring pouring forth from your brain directly to the paper/screen. When this happens, it’s very much like a bus or tank, loaded down to the hilt…. plowing down the city street, pushing and crushing cars along the way.
One thing nice about the seeds that we find for our writing ideas… they will last indefinitely. Yeah, we might want to stick a little label on there… remind ourselves of just what that idea is about, but if you get in the habit of recognizing those little seeds of inspiration… you’ll get better at not having to make those labels.
What to do with that seed once we want to grow it? We nurture it. Treat it with care, water it with the knowledge we’ve gained from the hundreds of books we’ve already read. And that special touch? It’s what makes your books and stories so special. YOU. We add ourselves to our work without even realizing it.
Where do our story ideas come from? I’ve heard that authors get asked that all the time. If someone asked me that, I’d probably just stare at them. I’ve heard everything from dreams, to real-life issues that need to be dealt with, to them just popping up out of the blue… even so far as a misspelled word.
