Hunting Down that Idea Fairy

Where do you get your ideas? That's a question I'm often asked, especially when I talk to young people. It's a question most all writers are asked at one time or another. Here's an answer I stumbled across last week. I'm not familiar with Sarah Zette's writing, but I have to admire her sense of humor here where she's obviously answering the question about where she finds her ideas.


 My joking answer to this question is that I leave a bowl of milk out on the back porch every night for the Idea Fairy. In the morning, the milk is gone and there's a brand-new shiny idea by the bowl. ~Sarah Zette

I might have to try that bowl of milk on the back porch, but you know, I'm thinking around here, I'd just attract raccoons. Maybe a chocolate bar would work better. If I was an idea fairy, I'd fly in for the chocolate and fight off those raccoons. 

But all kidding aside, where do you get your ideas is a fair question. It's a question I sometimes ask myself when I'm starting down a new story road and looking for an idea. Where will the next idea come from? And will it be an idea that can fly? And to be totally truthful, it's a question I sometimes ask myself when I've come to the end of a story road and reread what I've written. I think where in the world did that come from? 

The imagination is an amazing thing. You mix it with all those memories and impressions that have buried themselves in your brain and out pop ideas. You might have a Eureka moment and say, "I've got it!!" 

So you have the initial idea and then you invite in characters to show up to make the idea become a story. If I can bring those characters to life in my imagination, then maybe, just maybe, they will show me what happens next when I get stuck on the story road. Because that beginning idea has to grow and expand and put out branches to bear the fruit of the story that the reader will harvest.

So the question about where do ideas come from is not an easy one to answer. Oh, I can say things like ideas come from all the things you've experienced and from all the experiences you've read in stories and newspapers. They come from things you've witnessed your friends and families experiencing. And sometimes, they come from out of the blue. You can't trace them to anything. 

Ideas can be like mosquitoes buzzing in your ears or butterflies floating by on a breeze. Sometimes they come like thunderclaps shaking your house or they might be a mere whisper in the wind. So many wonderful ways to have ideas awaken inside you. 

One of the best ways for me to feed the idea mill is by reading. That’s what I’m getting ready to do to help my new idea grow legs to be off and running. It’s while I’m researching that my ideas can deepen and grow. So I definitely can agree with the following quote. 

 A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life. ~Norman Cousins

So many of my stories owe much to the books I’ve found at libraries.

Have you ever wondered about where writers get ideas? Or if you are a writer, how would you answer that question?

The Mystery of Ideas

A New Mystery Photo

Are you ready for a new mystery photo? Here it is to the left. Leave a guess to have an entry in my book giveaway. If you've guessed on the other posts, guessing here will give you another entry. You don't have to guess right. Just guess. I've really enjoyed all your comments and guesses. 

Sunday's Mystery Photo

And for those of you who haven't guessed on Sunday's mystery photo, here it is again. Take one last look and guess before I reveal the rest of the photo below. I will tell you that I've tricked most of you on that picture, many more of you than I expected to. I'll post one more mystery photo Sunday and then on Wednesday, the 19th, I'll draw for winners (2) of my book, Summer of Joy (or winners can choose one of my other titles) and a grab bag book by a different Christian author. I'll offer the winners a choice of several titles. Maybe one by Dani Pettrey or Julie Klassen. 

The Mystery of Ideas

Do you ever wonder where writers come up with ideas? That is one of my most asked questions when I'm giving a book talk. Where do I get my ideas? It's a hard question to answer since sometimes I don't know exactly where the ideas come from. When I'm beginning a new story, I start with just the germ of an idea. Usually a "what if" question. 

The Heart of Hollyhill's What If Question

The Heart of Hollyhill series started with a question something like this "What if I had a young girl whose father was a preacher and whose mother had deserted the family years earlier?" Of course that was just the beginning. But from that question, all the other questions about what happened next came - through three books. 

Some parts of the idea can be tracked down to their origins. The part about David, my preacher character, not being able to get a church after his wife left him came from my own pastor's experience. He lost his pastorate at a church when his wife left him and for several years was unable to find a church that would let him preach even though his wife had been unfaithful to him and insisted on the divorce. 

Then I pulled a lot of the setting for the books from what I remembered my little town being like in the 1960s. If you take part in the The Book Club Network, www.bookfun.org, you can check out a special giveaway about Summer of Joy there beginning March 25. I just finished doing a piece that will be posted by Nora on TBCN about how I based the setting for my Hollyhill books on my own small town and my own country church. 

But there were also things that either grew out of the story and just suddenly came to mind in a way that's a mystery to me. Wes from Jupiter for one. I didn't plan Wes when I was trying to come up with the plot of the book, but I'm certainly glad his spaceship hit that air bump and he landed in Hollyhill. That probably sounds really crazy if you haven't read Scent of Lilacs, but Wes tells Jocie Jupiter stories to keep from revealing his past. Other story events are equally as hard to explain, but it's just what happened when my character came to life in my imagination. 


The Mystery Revealed

You are all going to be surprised, but there was only one correct answer and she was sure she was going to be wrong. So Donna, you can laugh, but because you were right and not wrong. Popcorn, cotton, and cotton candy were what most of you guessed. But here's the rest of the picture so you can see. Baby chicks waiting to be sold at Tractor Supply. A very springtime photo. Can't you almost hear them cheeping? 

Thanks for reading and for guessing. Don't forget to guess on the new photo and come back Sunday for one last mystery photo. I haven't figured out what that one is going to be. It's a mystery even to me. Remember if you guess and want to be in the drawing for the books, you have to leave a way for me to contact you. Thanks.

Do you ever wonder where writers get their ideas?

Cows and City Girls

"All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."  Grant Wood.

No, I'm not that much of a country girl. Never learned how to milk cows. I did try once, but being the youngest girl, I guess nobody thought it important enough to teach me the proper method of tugging on the cow's udder to get milk to come out. I remember thinking there must be a trick to it I didn't know. I was never too excited about the task anyway. Feeding the chickens was more my speed. I did a lot of carrying in wood too, and I do remember coming up with some story ideas while I was doing that.
 
But cows are one of the attractions down here on the farm when my city grandkids come to visit. No cows in their neighborhood. So the only time they see a cow close up is when they come to the farm to visit. This granddaughter is trying to get the cow to eat an apple from her hand. The cow looks interested, but not quite interested enough. Just as well. She would have freaked if it slobbered on her. The older granddaughter was a little freaked out just looking at the cows and very nervous that a horse fly was going to come her way. Bugs are not her thing. And when the cows cut loose as cows do, then there were plenty of eewws. 

But on the way back from seeing the cows, the older girl wanted me to treat her like a "farm girl" and have her do the kind of chores her father had to do when he was her age. A little hard to re-create since we don't burn wood anymore and we didn't have any rocks to haul off fields or hay to put in the barn. She did pick a few boysenberries and that gave her a little feel of country living.

It would be interesting to know what my grandkids will remember about their visits to our farm when they get older. I remember so many wonderful times visiting my aunt who was like a grandmother to me when I was younger. I remember the wavy medicine cabinet mirror that could stretch my face into funny shapes like a fun house mirror. I remember the smell of chewing gum in the drawer of her buffet. I remember her cats and the playhouse in the backyard. Mostly I remember feeling so very loved and accepted there. That's what I hope my grandkids will remember someday. That and feeding apples to the cows.

Do you have sweet memories of times with your grandparents? I know some of you do because you sent me stories about those memories in one of my giveaway contests. Remember, I have a little giveaway going now. I'll draw for a winner Sunday from those who guess on my mystery pictures from the Sunday post here. Any guess will get an entry. Right guesses will get a double entry and if you get all three mystery photos right, you'll get a triple entry. Some of you have guessed already. Fun guesses, but I'm not saying if you're right or wrong until Sunday.

If you're in the area, I'll be at Corinth Christian Bookstore in Frankfort this Saturday, August 17 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. signing my new book, Small Town Girl. Other area authors will also be there signing books. So come on out and support your local Christian book store and tell us authors hello.

 
  

Mushroom Ideas

"Where do you get your ideas?" This is surely the question most writers hear the most. At least this writer does. How do you think up stuff? How did you think up this particular stuff? Those are all good questions and ones that are not always easy to answer.

I've written a lot of books. Some of them have been published, and some of you have been nice enough to read my stories. And that's because you thought I came up with some interesting characters doing interesting things. Good ideas.

What is the beginning of a story? Is it an idea? Is that idea a situation or a person or maybe even a place? I've  launched into stories from all those beginnings. I'm at a beginning again. But not really a blank beginning. I know who I'm going to write about. I know the time period I'm going to write about. I know at least one of the places I'm going to set my people down in. But I still need more ideas. I need ideas to pop up like mushrooms.

And maybe that's as good an answer as any to that question "Where do you get your ideas?"  They pop up on that rich decaying matter in your brain. Decaying sounds bad, doesn't it? But that's what mushrooms like. Along with moisture. In some ways everything we store away in our heads - if not decaying - is percolating and getting older each day. And all that "stuff" buries itself away there in our brains and then suddenly while you weren't really paying attention, a mushroom of an idea has appeared so suddenly that you are surprised. And a little amazed. Like these mushrooms in the picture above that popped up in my backyard last week. An idea can  grow overnight and keep growing or putting off spores that will grow another idea. And on and on.

Mushrooms are very remarkable plants. They have no roots, no stems and no leaves. They grow so fast that you almost feel as if you can see them growing. And that's what you want your story ideas to do. Grow and grow and sprout in unique and interesting ways. Mushrooms are really lovely when you look at them closely. Amazing bits of God's creation. And with a purpose. A way for nature to use up everything. Writers have to find a way to use up things too. Ideas let that happen.

And so to begin again. To appreciate the ideas popping up in my head. To know which mushroom is good to keep and which needs to be tossed.

Thanks for reading. A writer's journal can be mushroom thoughts with little anchor and that is the good thing about a journal. You can let your thoughts pop up in any direction. I hope your week will be filled with the sunshine of love and laughter.