Where do you find your ideas?

Where do you get your ideas from?

What writer hasn't been asked this question? So what's your answer? A simple one is "Everywhere." The more complicated one is "Everywhere."

For a writer, ideas may come to them from a snippet of conversation overheard, from a headline in the news, from a dream, from reading the back of a cereal box. There is no book, no reference work or website (okay, there may be - but I haven't looked) where we go to get our ideas. Ideas come from our daily lives. I have a friend who is an ex-cop, ex-city council member, and now writes computer security manuals - she'll probably end up in one of my stories somewhere. Not her exactly - I would never do that to anyone - but parts of her. Several years ago, I took a fall and shattered my ankle. Another time, I fell while rollerblading and hurt my shoulder (yes, I'm a klutz). Both of these events have figured in stories I've worked on.

Writer's are thieves. We steal personalities, styles, houses, looks, everything and anything and throw them in a bag, mix them up, and come out with characters and settings that are uniquely ours. The trick is to keep them around so we'll have them when we need them. For me, I keep notes on both the computer and in a huge three-ring binder. When I need a story idea, I've got dozens there just waiting for me.

Everything is fodder for a story - and I can't wait to find the next one.

Today's Thought: "We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." - John F. Kennedy

Today's Teaser: Where do you get your ideas? And once you have them, how do you keep them so you can use them at a future date?