Thursday, May 23, 2013

How do ideas choose their author?

People ALWAYS ask, "How do you get your ideas?" If you're an author, you probably get this question A LOT.  Right? Right?  But that is a very invalid question in my opinion.  I didn't sit down and think "Hmmm, I'm gonna be a writer. What should I write about?" No, no, no!

I sat down one day and my brain said "Oh my goodness here is this brilliant idea. Take it, write it, one day get it published.  Also here are some characters and a place for it to happen and also here is some really cool dialogue you can throw in there. Good luck!"  And I thought "What just happened? My brain things I'm a writer? Are you serious? Do I look like a writer?" And my brain replied with "Yeah, you do look like a writer. Now shut up and write down these ideas or you will make me forget and then we can't write their stories!" And all I could think was "Whose stories?" And my brain is sighing now.  "You are such an idiot! Them, these characters speaking to you! Who else would I be talking about?"  And so at that point, completely lost and freaked out but didn't continue arguing. I sat down, shut up, and wrote!

So it wasn't a "Ohh I want to write! Now I need ideas."  It was a "Ohhh here are some ideas. Crap, now I have to write!"  And the adventure began!

So back to my original point, how did the stories choose their authors? Where were you, what were you doing, and what story idea inspired you to write?

For me?  I was thinking about a very hilarious memory and realized it would make for a really cute story.  (Think Me + My younger sister + My Super cute crush walking by = Hilarious moment for me, embarrassing moment for Crush, and semi-shocked/horrified/can't help but laugh moment for my sister) so I decided I would write it.  And guess what? It was horrible! I had one scene but no plot, no characters, no story.

It kinda snowballed from there.  I decided that the scene was really cute and I would really like to write it for a book one day.  Next thing I know, I am going to a writing meeting every Tuesday night at the library.  After that, I started another book, a book that in January I finally submitted to publishers.  And between then and now, I had so many stories floating around I couldn't keep up.


So again I leave you with a question, how did the stories you're writing choose you as their author?

6 comments:

  1. I was out in the woods nature journaling and I just started writing.

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    1. That's awesome! I love being out in the woods, it's always inspiring!

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  2. Some of my ideas come to me in dreams. If I don't write them down when I wake up, in the middle of the night, they are lost.

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    1. I love getting ideas from dreams!! And yes, I know, right?!? I HATE getting a genius idea only to wake up and forget it!

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  3. I definitely wait for ideas to choose me. It seems to happen the most when I'm actively reading a lot of novels. If I try to force ideas, it's a disaster.

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    1. That is true. When I read, I get ideas. And forcing ideas? Never a good idea. That never works for me.

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