Where I Get All My Writing Ideas From
Where do you get your concepts from?
I personally can’t say. I know when they’ve probably the most odds of displaying up, however I don’t precisely know the place they arrive from.
However as destiny would have it, my good friend would ask me this query on a very eventless morning, and that might be the tinder for this put up. So Wan, if you happen to’re studying this, that’s how I get my concepts.
Perhaps this put up will reply that query correct. Or perhaps I’m simply penning this as a result of I want one thing for this week. Both means, let’s take a fast tour via my Concept Central and see if we are able to supply for its… uh… supply.
“The irritating question they ask us—us being writers—is: “Where do you get your ideas?”
And the reply is: Confluence. Issues come collectively. The best elements and instantly: Abracadabra!”
Neil Gaiman
1. My mind nags me into submission
Typically my concepts come within the type of a endless reminder. Like how your cellphone alarm yanks you from sleep once you’re deep in dreamland.
One minute you’re dwelling in a fortress and combating dragons, and the following, there’s an incessant beep tearing the partitions down and pulling you again to the chilly, godless mornings. Irrespective of the way you attempt to combat it, you may’t keep in Dreamland.
That’s how my mind works. Scrambling an egg? “Hey Stuart, you should totally write about your failures.”
In the course of a exercise? “Just dropping in to remind you of your failures!”
Busy sacrificing a goat to the altar of Wordsmithia? “You should start drafting that post on failures!”
I received’t want a pocket book both. The thought haunts me for weeks, even months, till I relent and at last get on with writing the damned factor.
That is what Stephen King calls a ‘good idea’, as a result of in keeping with him, the nice ones stick round.
Sadly for me, these ‘good’ concepts seldom prove that means. It may very well be my execution that’s missing. Or my advertising. However it’s one technique to get concepts.
2. I faucet into previous expertise
The very best concepts are those that mix exterior stimuli with who you’re as an individual, leading to a Frankenstory solely you would sew collectively. Simply as Neil Gaiman so eloquently put it: concepts come from confluence.
The catch is that you must truly stay your life in an effort to facilitate stated confluence.
This is the reason my life for the previous decade has been sketchy at greatest. If there’s ever a alternative between stability and chaos, I’d all the time chosen the latter. As a result of screwing up all the time makes for the perfect writing fodder.
Certain, leaping on a airplane to Myanmar with out signing a contract appears like a foolish factor to do, nevertheless it did give me tons of tales to write down about.
3. I take the time to assume and nothing else
I truly allocate time to take a seat down and generate concepts. Typically I stare out the window with out truly doing something, nevertheless it’s these idle durations the place the Lego blocks in my thoughts be part of to type a bigger block of nothing.
You have been most likely anticipating a Tie Fighter or a Batmobile, weren’t you? Nope. All the Lego blocks do is type larger blocks. However hey, I may throw stated blocks at random characters in my thoughts and have them bleed out. That makes for good tales too.
This brainstorming apply comes from James Altucher, who recommends that you simply write down 10 concepts daily. It may very well be plots to your novel or methods to earn cash. His reasoning for the quantity ’10’ is that your mind begins sweating after concept quantity 5, and each line you crank out after that’s the CrossFit equal to your thoughts.
I don’t know if I’ve gotten any higher at producing concepts, however I’m all the time stunned on the issues I provide you with when I drive myself to achieve the dreaded 10.
4. I see the identical factor from totally different views
There’s a purpose why so many writers get pleasure from writing below the affect. As a result of Logic is unwelcome once you’re amongst different acquaintances like Creativity or Enjoyable. Additionally, Logic is shut buddies along with your inner editor, and no one wants that negativity of their life.
That’s the explanation why creatives are a fan of altering their consciousness. I myself have seen an amazing distinction in the way in which I assume when experimenting with *cough* sure substances *cough*.
However you already know what’s much more stunning? My thoughts falls into comparable wavelengths when I’m meditating, particularly when I cross the 20-minute mark.
In fact, as is all the time the case when your perspective is altered, you don’t essentially get to deliver again your concepts to this world. You’ll want Logic for that. What a crappy tradeoff, huh?
However these concepts do depart an imprint on you, so all’s not misplaced. All it takes is one thing just like the scent of your material softener or a childhood music to set off the ideas you’d accessed in these alternate realities.
5. I use the ol’ trusty pocket book
I don’t simply have one pocket book. I have a number of. However the one which I use most must be my Obsidian app as a result of it’s probably the most accessible means for me to document concepts in a jiffy.
I could have just a few nice concepts scrawled on a bit of paper someplace, however I can’t recall the place. That’s the draw back of analogue mediums. I’ve tried protecting a devoted concept ebook, however that goes largely unused, principally in favour of no matter’s closest at hand when I’m impressed.
Annoyingly sufficient, my greatest concepts all the time arrive throughout probably the most inconvenient of occasions, like when I’m sacrificing a goat. Who retains a pocket book round then? And the way are you supposed to write down or faucet your cellphone display when your fingers are smeared with blood?
Siri works miracles in these conditions although, offered my cellphone is inside audible vary.
6. I maintain my eyes peeled
I observe your weblog. I’m subscribed to your publication. I’m on alert for fascinating YouTube movies. Huge names, small-timers, day by day posters, weekend warriors—I maintain monitor of individuals from various fields and platforms as a result of I’ll by no means know which of those exterior stimuli will function the launchpad to my subsequent Frankenstory.
And I don’t cease there. I learn these channels’ feedback to see what the overall discuss is amongst followers. One random query on YouTube may very properly be the spark to your subsequent cornerstone article. So devour with out prejudice.
7. I depart a void for my thoughts to fill
Typically, there’s simply no saying the place concepts come from. And that’s the enjoyable bit. Apart from continuously honing your craft, you additionally should not strive each infrequently.
I do that by sketching with phrases. I write scenes I’ll by no means use, simply because. I journal in third-person. I strive my fingers at rap. I write one web page of a screenplay.
Typically, my greatest work comes from not working in any respect. For example, have a look at the High Posts part on the correct (or backside if you happen to’re on cellular). When does Simply Some Writerly Issues The Author In You Will Perceive ever sound like a good suggestion? But it’s my best-performing put up ever. And I flew via that put up with out even caring about ‘providing value’.
The universe works in mysterious methods, and so does your thoughts. And if you happen to enable them each to type the almighty confluence, who is aware of what may occur?
And that, my expensive reader, is the thought I’m going to go away you with. Could you pay it ahead and provide you with one thing that retains the wave going.
Until then, maybe you may reply this query. Where do you get your concepts from?
Subscribe to my publication so that you simply’ll have an additional avenue of concepts. You’ll additionally get a free information on the way to develop your WordPress viewers, without cost! Did I point out it’s free?