Where do Writers Get Their Ideas

Hello Fellow Readers and Writers–

For you Readers–Smothered in Yarn is now available for your Kindle or Kindle App.  YEA!

For you Writers–The most-asked question to writers is, “Where do you get your ideas?”  So, here goes…

It’s how writers view the world–the actual world, and the worlds we imagine.  I wore a T-shirt yesterday to a meeting with a fellow writer.  My T-shirt read “I live in my own little world.  But it’s okay, they know me here.”  That’s kind of how we writers are–living in our own little worlds.  It’s hard to explain it to non-writers.

The other day I was at the market, and was accosted by a grumpy old man who wouldn’t move his cart so I could get by.  I said, “Excuse me,” and he looked at me with a frown, but wouldn’t move his cart.  I backed mine up, but still couldn’t get by him.  I said, “Excuse me” again.  His comment?  “What do you want me to do, go out into the parking lot?”  He was shouting.  When I finally got by him, he followed me throughout the store, yelling at me.  He’ll be a character in one of my books, you can be sure of that!

Other times my husband and I will be driving down the mountain, he listening to some garbled sports news on the radio.  I’ll see a road worker, inspecting the post on a guardrail and think, What if he just sawed that post and plans to push his wife’s car off the cliff at that very spot?  Or my characters in some book I’m working on will start playing whole scenes, complete with dialogue, in my head, like a movie.  Your brain must never stop working.  It’s 4AM and I wake to an idea.  (It’s a good thing my husband is a sound sleeper.)

So, dear Writer, take a look around you.  What mystery do you see?  Make up stories in your head about everything…two mismatched shoes tied together by the laces, sitting over a bus bench…a bird that’s acting oddly…a grumpy old man at the market…an overheard conversation at a restaurant…someone you see at Starbucks…make up stories in your mind about everyone, everything.  Oh, and always, ALWAYS have a small notebook with you, to jot these down.  Trust me, you won’t remember them if you don’t. 

Happy Reading and Writing to you all,

                                                       Jill-Ayn