A Writer’s Guide to Infinite Ideas

Where do I find them? Ideas, that is.

Each time I hear an author asked “Where do you get your ideas?” I cringe.

As Stephen King says on his website: “I get my ideas from everywhere. But what all of my ideas boil down to is seeing maybe one thing, but in a lot of cases it’s seeing two things and having them come together in some new and interesting way, and then adding the question ‘What if?’ ‘What if’ is always the key question.”

No, I’m serious, Stephen. Where do you find ideas?

As King says in his book On Writing: “…a small, bloodthirsty elf who lives in a hole under my desk.”

Did people ask Beethoven and Monet that same question?

Ideas for stories are everywhere! Honestly, ideas don’t hide. They’re in front of you, behind and beside you (figuratively and literally), waiting to be seen, developed, and told.

How does one actually see ideas?

In the movie Her Alibi, a small group of writers sit in the back of courtrooms listening for ideas for their manuscripts. Well, there’s one place to start.

LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN

Note: silent and listen are spelled with the same letters.

Have you ever shopped at a Goodwill, Arc, or any other used store? What are those smells? What’s the story behind that antique desk? Search its drawers, look on the bottom of drawers, observe what type of people check the price tag and record their reactions.

Try visiting a JC Penny’s hair salon or a nearby Walgreens, and wait for that one “thing” from a person or group of people to shake your imagination.

Writers should experience life! Even if that merely involves a walk around Crown Hill Lake (Crown Hill is a cemetery—there’s an idea right there). What do you see? Sense? Smell? Feel? Hear? What do you know about death? Think about it? Wonder about it? What secrets are below that incredibly carved headstone? Who carved it? Why? What happened on that land prior to it being purchased to house human remains? What’s it like inside that spooky building? Have you seen the simple headstones for veterans of the Spanish-American War? The Great War? WWII?

Meet people, ask questions, taste new food, drive or walk somewhere you’ve never been. What are the main differences between your favorite place in winter vs. summer vs. fall vs. spring?

James Galvin wrote The Meadow, a story told from the point of view of a meadow. Original, fresh, and a nice read.

READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ

Have you ever been to one of the used book sales that Jefferson County holds at the fairgrounds? OMGosh! Utilizing a clever marketing approach, newer smartphones give their owners a chance to sample the latest bestsellers. Sometimes, people are given free access to complete books! Whoa!

See here for a fun example from Diana Gabaldon (thanks, Judith) on how she creates a sentence (with known characters).

Ready? Toss your ideas out like dice at a Yahtzee tournament.

One of the best smells ever is old horse poo and a sweaty horse blanket in the barn. (I’m sure my copyright on the perfume will arrive next week.)

Have you tried to get onto a horse with no saddle? Or maybe a Western vs. English vs. Australian saddle? Back in my youth, those stirrups were above eye-high. Not much has changed in the height area; however, now I’m physically stronger and a far more experienced rider, making mounting easier—usually, sort of. Still funny to watch.

Write what’s happening to your stomach, heart, mind, memory, and mouth when you—fearful of heights—are on a Ferris wheel.

What or whom did you encounter on your last, best, or worst vacation?

WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE

What if you put the above seemingly unrelated ideas together? (Free writing, or as I call it, “What the heck.”)

There you are on a blind date with a guy who loves to rock the Ferris wheel, but instead of tossing a few cookies, you find yourself concentrating on a pile of horse poo and a large bone floating on what appears to be a sweaty horse blanket near the south shore of Crown Hill Lake.

Come to think of it, Uncle Rob was supposed to call last month from his vacation home in Peru. (No, there is not a Ferris wheel near Crown Hill, this is fiction.)

Do writers/storytellers/authors run out of ideas? Yeah. Okay. Maybe as you begin your first manuscript, plots will run askew, settings won’t put your characters in the best place, or you can’t type as fast as your mind thinks. At some point, you as a writer may fail to find the best words, have difficulty connecting paragraphs, draw a complete blank because of fear of failure or a pending deadline, get super stuck on subplots, experience a slump, or be unable to move your story forward. Maybe you’ll become discouraged because the agent of your dreams never replied to your query letter. Ouch.

Hey, it happens. Keep writing.

Continue listening, observing, reading, and definitely WRITING. And get outside no matter the weather—experience life, give those elusive endorphins or whatever a change of scenery. No, you don’t have to be in the mountains. Be wherever you are.

Need places to see more ideas? Have you tried:

AM radio? Late-night radio with those PSAs? Idea farms right there 24/7.

When is the last time you purchased a newspaper and picked apart small print, or read a story taking up only a square inch of room on page thirteen? Obituaries?

Museums?

Have you ever been to a baseball game? What if there was no baseball ever again?! Or North Koreans took over and held you hostage during a March Madness game?

Can’t afford to go away for the weekend to get fresh air to your imagination? Pack a picnic and observe people at the buffalo overlook near Genesee Park, take a bus ride, or bring a camera and a friend for a stroll along Clear Creek or the Platte rivers. (I suggest going with a friend—safer.)

Brainstorm with buddies.

History tour of downtown Denver?

Loudly play your favorite iHeart station while watching a soap opera or dog show on television, with no sound.

National Western Stock Show? If concrete and wood could talk.

Internet?

Family genealogy? History that has yet to be told—what? How could that possibly happen?

Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall? Denver’s 16^th Street Mall?

A lottery ticket you found in the weeds?

There I was last week, observing and listening while waiting at the DMV. Who should appear but an older man who kept removing a roll of cash from his suit jacket, counting it out (in front of me; mostly ones, fives, and tens), and then returning the roll to his pocket. He then held hands with a young woman wearing a new blouse (with the price tag still hanging on it). She giggled and giggled at him, even attempted the American language—until he mentioned a million-dollar lawsuit had been filed against him. Hmmm…

What if you don’t go for the obvious story here, but created a sci-fi mystery instead? Or western/sci-fi? Or international thriller? If you go for the obvious, go about it like nobody else. You’ve probably been in love before. Or desperate.

Join RMFW, and then a critique group.

Write what you know.

Do yourself and your favorite authors a favor. Never ask “Where do you get your ideas?”