Consider This: Where do you ideas come from?

I was considering this question yesterday as I prepared for a visit to a High School during Book Week next week. It is the question all authors are asked: "Where do your ideas come from?"

For me, my ideas are usually sparked by a snippet from a dream that then raises a "What if?" question and away I go. Although, there is one manuscript I am working on that was sparked by sitting in many, many violin lessons, listening to my oldest son screech away (and then he got good) and looking out this window. It was a window that overlooked the back of shops. It wasn't a pretty view. And I wondered, what if out that window I saw, instead, a world that was not there? A world of green grass and blue sky and mountains. A fantasy world. What would it be like?

When I visit in Book Week I have been asked to run a workshop for some Year 8 students as well as talk about my journey as an author/writer. I have also been, more recently, helping my youngest son with his HSC English. And it occurred to me that every exam or every creative writing exercise that high school students undertake starts with a stimulus; something to spark their imagination. And, yet, so many students like to have a pre-written piece of creative writing and then try to mold it to fit the stimulus.

How wonderful it would be if students could be encouraged more to stimulate their imagination and work with the stimulus as a spark for something new. Then again, the stimulus can sometimes be rather confusing and requires its own analysis. And here lies a problem. What if the student (especially a STEM student) does not know how to analyse the stimulus or does not know that the stimulus requires analysis and then just writes? Are they penalised? Are students given instruction on how to work with a stimulus? Are they shown a stimulus and then, with guidance from an expert (eg. the teacher) shown what can be done with it?

Confidence in writing, particularly original material that has not been written, tried, tested, marked, rewritten, edited and tests again, comes from experience and instruction and is that what is lacking?

Is the English syllabus now too crowded to really allow the development of the proper skills? It appears to me that my son has 4 or 5 different areas of study packed into his study year, head and then two exams. That is SO many.

So, where do I get my ideas from - my imagination. Where do students get their ideas from? Are they allowed to use their imagination? Or are they expected to write within such a limited scope that really stymies true imagination?

Something to think about.