On Writing: The Ideas

“So. Where do you get your ideas?”

I’m asked this all the time, as if I might have some magic formula. It’s funny, because at any given moment I might be tossing around ten different ideas for my next book. The problem for most authors isn’t finding inspiration, it’s figuring out which inspiration to grab hold of and take to the next level. Which means there’s a question behind that where-do-you-get-your-ideas question. When people ask where an author gets an idea for a novel, what they really mean is this:

“How do you know you have an idea that’s strong enough to take from that first glimmer of inspiration and see it through to a finished manuscript?”

Now that is the real question. And if you had the chance to ask every author out in the world, you might hear a different answer from each one. But here are the things that cue me in.

I know I have an idea strong enough to take from that first glimmer of inspiration and see it through to a finished manuscript when:

1. I can’t sleep because the characters won’t stop talking to me and scenes from the book are continuously looping through my mind.
2. I pitch the idea to my agent, and she’s silent and contemplative for only a few moments before telling me to work it.
3. I look forward to vacuuming, folding laundry, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, etc, because mundane chores make for the best brainstorming sessions.
4. My husband looks at me during a meal and says, “Stop writing,” when really all I’m doing is staring out the sliding glass door and into the backyard. (He knows me too well, because in those moments, I’m usually far away from my family, watching my characters unfold some new secret twist to the book forming in my head.)
5. I get that fluttery feeling of excitement when I know I have some quiet time alone with my computer.
6. The ideas flow, from one to another, without frustration setting in.
7. I forget to eat, avoid answering the phone, put off cleaning the house, and overall drop out of life because I’m so taken by the story that I have to keep writing.
8. I wish I had a super computer in my brain that would type as fast as I think because it would allow me to finish a first draft in 33.7 minutes.
9. I start talking to my characters . . . which looks an awful lot like me talking to myself, and probably makes others wonder about my sanity.
10. I lose time. Life keeps going on around me, but I’m oblivious because I’m off in story land making my way through another string of events that feel real, but aren’t. Unless maybe, in some parallel unverse, they are . . .

Bottom line, I know I have an idea worth writing if the story and characters simply take over my life. It’s not a lightning bolt effect, more like a slow seeping into my brain, a take-over that I’m so taken by, I don’t quite notice. When that happens, it’s not a question of if, or even when, I’ll write. The process has already begun. And like so many things in my life, with this, I must surrender my control.

(For the record, the inspiration for THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES came to me as I watched an interview Oprah had with a young man named Shawn Hornbeck, who had recently been returned to his family after a four-year abduction. Soon I’ll write the details about the true inspiration behind ONE MOMENT, which hits stores in June!)