When Do You Get Your Ideas?

It’s a classic question at author readings – where do you get your ideas?

A better question, I think is when do you get your ideas?  Where are you and what are you doing when your characters’ voices whisper in your ear, when a pedestrian passage takes poetic flight, when the plot twist reveals itself?

Sometimes these things happen to me when I’m in the shower.  Relaxed under a warm spray, I’m a creative genius.  I ought to find a waterproof whiteboard and mount it on the tiles, so I can jot down my thoughts in real time. Instead, I repeat the morning’s inspiration to myself until I’m dry and dressed and have pen in hand. Sometimes I can salvage at least part of it, but all too often, the idea dissipates like steam on the bathroom mirror.

Another regular writing meditation happens when I’m preparing a salad.

Not when I’m cooking generally, but as I wash lettuce, grate carrots, slice cukes and tomatoes. We love salad at our house—it’s on the menu pretty much every night—so my writer brain is poised when I pull the bowl off the top of the fridge and take a sharp knife in hand.

But the place I most often write in my head is at the beach.

That Diane and I regularly meander along the tide line may not come as a surprise to those of you who follow me on Facebook (soon to move over to BlueSky, a topic for another day) where I post photos most every week with the hashtags #Maine #SundayBeachWalks.

Winter and summer, spring and fall, a Maine beach is the perfect environment for me to hatch ideas, smooth plot wrinkles, and dream up fresh conflicts for my characters to navigate.

This winter I’m working on a couple of short stories and ruminating on a new novel, so there’s plenty to think about while we roam the sand on Sunday afternoons no matter the weather, watching sandpipers and scoters, listening to the rhythm of the surf.

My mind is there, yet not there, making room for the magic to happen.

When do you get your ideas?

Brenda Buchanan’s crime fiction reflects her experience as a journalist and lawyer. Her three-book Joe Gale mystery series—Quick Pivot, Cover Story and Truth Beat—feature a Maine newspaper reporter covering the crime and courts beat. Her short story, Means, Motive, and Opportunity, published in Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories, made the list of Other Distinguished Stories in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.  You can find Brenda on the web at https://brendabuchananwrites.com