Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Oh man, do authors hate this question.
I think a lot of people feel it trivializes part of the process and that if they could answer this question, writing wouldn’t be as hard.
But I think it’s important to investigate and talk about. We, as writers, know that ideas can appear anywhere and at any time. And that the idea isn’t the hard part, the actual process of writing is. But when you’re starting a project, sometimes thinking about how you got your idea can kickstart that brainstorming process.
This weekend, I had the spark. I was watching TV and a commercial came on. A father was standing next to his child as two police officers approached. I think it was for a TV show, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to the TV, just managed to get a glimpse.
But that image sparked a fire in my brain for what I want to work on next. I know the theme I want to play with. I know I want to write a thriller. I just needed the hook.
I thought I had it because of that image. Of course, as I really started to talk it out with Erin and my friend Jay Faerber, I realized it was too big and too illogical. But the germ is there and I know somewhere in the back of my brain, I’m working on it subconsciously.
The idea came from such an innocuous moment in life. I just managed to glimpse at the TV at the right time. A similar thing happened for the novel I just finished a draft of. The idea started too big and illogical. I finally whittled it down to something smaller. Enough to outline.
I assume that will happen here. The theme I want to write about is too close to my heart not to.
But thinking about how I get my ideas kept me from just throwing the whole thing away.
STUFF I LIKE
I’m very much enjoying Manhunt on Apple TV plus. It’s well written and acted. There are a lot of details in those moments that I think must have been fictionalized for TV, but after each episode I do a little research and it seems mostly true.
I have two episodes to go so I’ll finish it this week. I haven’t read the book. Too often non-fiction reads like a text book to me, but I may check it out.
That said, I read Annie Jacobson’s Nuclear War: A Scenario and not only was it terrifying, but it was not written like a text book. I read the entire 330 pages in one night, just to try and get away to the end and try and keep my brain from playing tricks.