The most common question I get asked when I’m talking to a school group or library gathering is this:
Where do you get your ideas?
When I get asked this question, I always worry my answer will be disappointing. Because here’s thing—ideas are everywhere! I have way too many ideas and not enough time to pursue them. Ideas come to me in the car, in the shower, from billboards, conversations I’ve overheard, radio shows—literally everywhere.
They usually start out as a question. What would happen if…Why hasn’t anyone ever…How do people actually…. And as my mind wanders for a bit, sometime a book idea pops up to the surface. Most of the time, that’s where it ends. (Too many ideas. Too little time.) But sometimes I come home and jot down the idea in my idea folder. Because I think it’s pretty good. And I want to hold onto it a little longer.
And sometimes I keep going. Maybe fill up a notebook with more questions or thoughts about this idea. I have more than one of these notebooks in my file cabinet. Notebooks with ideas beginning to be fleshed out. But probably that won’t turn into actual books.
Because out of those, only a very small amount hold my attention long enough to keep going. Filling up more notebooks. Doing some research. Getting to know a character. Beginning to write a story.
The hardest part isn’t thinking up ideas. The hardest part is paying attention to myself to know which ideas I feel enthusiastic enough to pursue. For months. A year or two. Or more. Which ideas I care enough about to do all the research I need to do, rewrite the story again and again. Which ideas I have that are sustaining.
Because writing a novel is marathon. I need an idea that will keep me going for the long-haul.