“Where Do You Get Your Ideas?” Silly Question, or Not?
“Where do your stories come from?” A couple of people had a problem with this question in a discussion on Facebook today. One woman thought it was the worst discussion question ever. She said that our ideas come from our heads, and that it was the kind of question asked by an interviewer who hasn’t read the book. Another person agreed, saying that he expected the question from someone who knew nothing about fiction; that it had no single answer.
Whenever a guest on this blog talks about how he or
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Story ideas pop into my head all the time. I get them from talking with friends about daily events, reading the newspaper, reading a book, or from dreams. Sometimes a beginning sentence pops into my head, seemingly from nowhere. This is what makes us writers. We're tuned into some source that transforms seemingly ordinary language into recognition of a theme or a story we then develop. I like to take such a beginning and then let the characters tell me who they are and what they're doing. This is what makes me a slow writer. It takes patience to get to know your characters.
Thanks for starting this discussion!