Where Do Ideas Come From?

I've been to a few conventions and meet and greets with authors, mostly fan meet ups rather than writers workshops, and invariably, a fan will ask in the question and answer session, "Where do your ideas come from?".

Every single time, a word miraculously disappears from the question when it's answered. The question the author usually tries to answer is not "Where do your ideas come from?" but "where do ideas come from?". I'm never sure whether it's bad accoustics in the meet and greet hall, or just a sensitive and personal question that the author isn't quite comfortable answering.

I've never asked the question myself...usually a fan beats me to it...but even if I were first out of the gate, I don't know that I would ask if I didn't know the author personally. After all, the stories in my head are very close and personal to me, and to separate me from them would be, as Miguel de Cervantes put it in Don Quixote "like ripping fingernail from flesh" (the man really did know how to turn a phrase...that one still gives me the shudder factor 27 years after the first time I read it...).

If I were to ask the question of an author, my meaning would be different though I would probably use the same words. I would want to know if other writers, those other people who also have stories in their heads fighting to get out, find their stories in the same way I do. When I first pondered this at the ripe old age of 12, I wondered if there were other people like me...if I were that much more different and awkward and geeky than everyone else because I built characters and worlds inside me.

Now that I'm more comfortable in my skin, I would ask the question to learn how other writers practice their craft. You learn from everyone you meet as they say. And what works for one will not always work for another. For example, my coauthor has complete, fully formed scenes of snappy dialogue, action and descriptive setting hit her in the middle of the night, usually while she's snoozing. Me? No such luck on that front.

So where do my ideas come from? Well, when I was little, they came invariably from books, movies, and tv. At that time, it hadn't dawned on me that I could create my own world, so I added my characters into the shows and books I loved, usually as the 'spunky little brother' of my favorite character, be it Radar O'Reilly, D'Artagnan, or Han Solo. I grew. I read. I read some more. And suddenly realized, thanks to some really good friends, that I didn't have to play in someone else's sandbox. That realization hit like lightning and I didn't look back.

Most of my ideas are sparked by a snippet and then explode with 'what if?' (the two most important words in my vocabulary...little things, but they absolutely rock!). Many of those snippets come from music. My iPod is filled with all sorts of stuff...no rhyme, no reason...everything from classical to movie scores, hard rock, metal, swing, steampunk, classic rock, flamenco, alternative, prog, hip hop, kids songs, humor, you name it, it's probably in there.

I also walk the hamster trail at break, usually putting the pod on shuffle. When my brain is busy working at trying to keep me moving in the right direction and not bash into walls, and the music is flowing, even a sound or a phrase in a song will spark something. I'll remember what song started the flash and pop it into a play list for a scene. Eventually that play list will tell a story...at least to me. As I said, what works for one will not always work for another.

But, if you'd like to try it, see what you can make of this combo (not necessarily in the right order) - it ended up turning into a short story:
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Christmas Eve in Sarajevo - Trans Siberian Orchestra
Name - Goo Goo Dolls
Me Like Hockey - The Arrogant Worms
Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
O Come All Ye Faithful - Trans Siberian Orchestra
Toccata in Fugue - Vanessa Mae's Cover
Don't Pay the Ferryman - Chris DeBurgh

Or put your own iPod in shuffle...no iPod? Radio works just as well for me (in fact, the set above started on the radio one dark Christmas Eve before sunrise on the way to work when I heard Christmas Eve in Sarajevo for the very first time and didn't even own a cd player, let alone an iPod ... ), especially if it's one of those stations that plays anything and everything from Frank Sinatra to Metallica.

But the most important part for me is to not be afraid to let those sparks and snippets play and grow...of course sometimes they grow into an 800 pound gorilla demanding to be set out on paper... (I love me an 800 pound gorilla... There is nothing but the story. Your head gets in the zone. Your fingers fly on the keyboard or on pen and paper, and when you finally look up, that gorilla grins at you and says, "yeah, that's the ticket" and you sit watching the sunset together and sharing a banana.) Those are rare and wonderful moments to be savored like a Super Double Double Root Beer Malt from Farrells Ice Cream Parlor...

So,where do my ideas come from? A little this a little that and a whole lotta music. And with any luck, those ideas will turn into something others will enjoy! Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment of Wild and Woolly Wordsmithing "Write What You Know."

Wild and Woolly Wordsmithing

According to "Phrase Finder" Wild and Woolly is defined as "Lawless and Uncultured" and was first used in print with its current meaning in 1875 in the Sedalia Daily Democrat. Being as I wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye at that time, I cannot confirm or deny the origins of the term, but I do like the style.

I may not be lawless or uncultured, but I am a firm believer in the Dalai Lama's rule that one must 'know the rules so that one can break them properly'. And, being as my first project on a professional scale takes place in the age of steam, the time period of the phrase also appealed to me... So you hold in your hands (well, as much as you can hold the internet in your hands anyway) my very first blog.

In these pages, I hope to thrill you and chill you with a long time wordsmith's journey on the road to becoming an author. Why wordsmith? Is it because I pound words into submission on the anvil of my will with a hammer more mighty than Mjolnir? Or because, as the immortal Chuck Wendig once said, that "Writers are forged in the kiln of their own madness"? Well, actually, no. It just sounds cool to me.

So...why do I write? I'll answer with a story. Ernest Hemingway was once asked to write a very short story...some say less than 25 words, some say less than ten. Not sure which is true, but the result was six words "For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn." Talk about a heartbreaker.

At some point, don't quite remember when, either in class or in a meeting, we were asked to do the same. Six words, but as a memoir ... spill your life out in six little words. The first thing that flowed from pen to paper was "Stories inside, fighting to get out."

And they always have been. From the beginning. From when mom would lie in bed next to me as a little kid and make up the sequel to Charlotte's Web on the fly. From when I would watch Starsky and Hutch and SWAT and tape them with my little Panasonic horribly 70's cassette recorder with the pop up handle (mine was blinding white...what color was yours?) and then play it back under my pillow and dream up my own episodes. From when my best friend and I invented our own space pirate stories at the rollicking age of 12 (yes, Star Wars had just come out...how did you know?) to now.

So that's why I write. In some ways I think I was built to write (at least if you look at my Strengths in Strengths Finder 2.0, it sort of leapt out and slapped me in the face that this was something I had to do whether I ever get published or not). Any road, that's a bit about me. Stay tuned for the next chapter ... Wild and Woolly World Building...or where do ideas come from?