As every author who has ever met readers knows, the most common question readers ask is, “Where do you get your ideas?” There is no quick answer, other than the facetious cliché suggested in my title, but there’s also no need for a very long one. Bearing in mind that not all authors are the same but that we’re also not terribly different when it comes to getting ideas, here are the short and medium answers.
The short answers
1. From my mind
Obviously. Even if ideas come from outside, they have to go through my mind and be turned from “thing” to “thing that could become a story”.
2. When and where I’m not looking
Ideas are a bit like sleep: if you try too hard they don’t happen. However, just as you won’t fall asleep if you do stupid things like drink coffee or scare yourself witless with a horror movie, you won’t get ideas if you do certain stupid things like. (I’ll explain more in the medium answer section.)
So, ideas often appear when you’re not looking but you have created opportunities for them and you are ready for them.
3. Never when I’m sitting in front of my computer working out what to write next
Never. When I need to know what to write next, I have to switch off the screen and get out of that mental rut. Walk. Away. Fast.
This is partly because if I stay stuck for more than ten seconds I am likely to check my phone for notifications. Fatal. And partly because walking is GREAT for ideas. As long as I walk on my own and can do so without concentrating on people/traffic etc.
My desk treadmill is also great for this, as I’ll tell you about another time.
4. When my mind has space and emotions are not overwhelming
I give talks on brain bandwidth and I know very well how each mental activity requires and uses bandwidth. And our bandwidth is not stretchy - it is what it is and when yours is filled with something big there’s likely not to be enough space left for idea generation, which is also big.
Most writers also find that when something deeply distressing happens to them, whether that’s a big life event or an episode of depression, they cannot write. This works differently depending on you and also on what you’re writing. For example, you might find that you get no ideas during such times or you might find that you only generate dark ideas during these times. (Which might or might not be helpful.)
In the last four years, I have had some huge emotional life events and I feel that only now am I in a mental space that is allowing the ideas to flow.
Sometimes - often - you simply cannot control this. But you can also make the mental space more likely. Again, see the “medium answer” section below.
The medium answer
This is actually starts off short: I get my ideas by making all (or most - no one’s perfect…) of the above happen.
Here’s how, taking each one in turn:
Preparing my mind
I have to set my mind to this mode: “I’m a writer and when ideas come I will store them carefully and do appropriate things with them.” This might be writing them down but for me it isn’t. I never write ideas down. Call me an idiot, because I don’t have a good memory, but I nevertheless believe what my mother always told me: “If it’s important you’ll remember it.”
The two main things my mind has to do are first, notice the thing, and second, apply the “what if” question. (I’ll talk more bout that another time.)
I’ve had ten years in which my mind has almost never been set to this idea-ready mode because I’ve been on a treadmill (sometimes literally) of writing non-fiction all about adolescent mental health and the ideas are just there. I didn’t need to make them happen. Just need to organise my thoughts and research and churn it out.
I would also add that I think reading fiction can be a useful way to generate the right mindset. Ideally, for me, not fiction that is too close to what I’m writing but fiction that I love and that feeds my creativity. Reading poetry could work, too.
How to make sure my mind is ready and available but not searching frantically
I mentioned that there are stupid things that get in the way of ideas, just as caffeine and horror movies get in the way of sleep.
Social media/phone over-use - this is the big one. It’s so easy to pick up my phone and start scrolling. I have never got an idea while doing that. And it occupies so much time and, even more importantly, brain bandwidth.
Other people / responsibilities / routine / too much work - you might not have so much control over this but if you fill your waking hours with your responsibilities you will find it very hard to generate ideas. So you owe it to yourself to have some time when you do not concentrate on that stuff, important as it is.
You need free space, free time, creative time.
But these can be small bits of time: the car journey to a supermarket, walking the dog, doing the ironing. Ironing, gardening, housework are excellent for idea generation.
Stop staring at the screen
Recognising that ideas rarely come when you stop to stare at the screen is useful knowledge. Here are some tips for putting it into practice:
Go for a walk before you start work, so that you have a good sense of what to write before you sit down - ideas generate well while walking. But make sure that you only think about your writing during that walk; don’t be distracted by other thoughts
While at your desk, have emails, social media and internet switched off. You could use an App such as Freedom or the Pomodoro technique.
When you do stop and feel you’re stuck, leave your desk for a walk immediately if possible. Go and do gardening, housework, walking - anything that requires little concentration and that you can on your own
Learn about stimulus generalisation - I wrote about it here.
If this doesn’t work, take a break to do something totally different. By “break” I don’t just mean half an hour; I mean without a boundary. Just stop thinking about it and do something else for however long it takes. (But also bearing in mind how to keep your mind idea-ready.)
Soon, I will write about how this worked in a magical way for me the other day.
How to carve out the necessary space around your emotions
This will be different for everyone. You might have or have recently had some dreadful or immense things happening to you. You might just have to give yourself however much time you need. But at some point you will start to glimpse light. Or you will feel able to take back a little control and light a tentative match. When this happens, there are things you can do to help it along:
Want to. Say to yourself that this is what you want and that you’d like to find a way to make it happen. For you.
Immerse yourself in creative works: read books, look at visual art, play music. Those artists did it for you and one day you’ll be able to do it for yourself and maybe for others.
Tell yourself that you are important and your writing is important to you. Value it or why would you do it?
Start small. Write a paragraph, or just a line or two. Play with the words. they don’t have to lead anywhere: they just have to make you feel.
Keep doing it, bit by bit. Little bits of time here and there until eventually you’ve joined the dots and you have your writing life back again.
Then the ideas will come. Just like sleep.
Did that resonate? Did it help? Do you have a completely different idea or a tip for your fellow writers? Whether you’re already published or not, your experience as a writer is important and interesting! Do share, please.
You might be interested in this relevant recent piece, Use It or Lose It.