Where Do Ideas Come From?

 

The other day, I had one of those lovely, long dreams where I was teaching. Or, rather, I was speaking to a group of young people. They were students in my dream, older ones. Some of them might have been in college, for all I knew. But they asked me, or rather their teacher did, if I might speak to them about writing.

The first question lobbed my way was how I came up with my ideas.

I told them that I didn’t go looking for ideas; the ideas just came to me.

You can’t force that kind of stuff.

One of my routines is to reach for some calm. I don’t know if you do something like this, but it involves a tiny bit of ceremony. Mine isn’t flamboyant or involves sweating up a storm walking in the morning. No, mine is a cup of coffee, though I only do that one in the morning. It mostly hinges on reaching for stillness, for emptiness. I seek stillness, calm, peace. I try to become one who listens. I wait for an idea. I pretend I am ready.

Sometimes, it works right then. Other times, being in that small state of readiness is enough.

Mostly, what I write these days on all the different platforms where I write is of the moment. Whatever occurs to me. Now, if I were working on a book, that would be a different matter. If you had a writing assignment, then the focus of your writing would involve whatever you’d been asked to write about.

My main theme is empowering people to reach for their dreams. I want to be someone who motivates others. I want to spread happiness, kindness, and sunshine wherever it is needed.

One of the things I want to bring awareness to is a person’s psychic senses. I call it woo-woo, but it’s really just you using your other senses to a different level.

Sometimes, I even picture the people who might be reading what I write, but mostly, as in the dream, it involves a group of people who are interested.

You’ve got to pretend this stuff. Most of us don’t get paid for the writing we do. All that builds slowly as you develop your craft. I guess, mostly, I want to encourage others to read and write. It would be nice to know others who do that. I missed that growing up. I lived in too many places, and well, people just didn’t like to do that. We did for school assignments, but I never really met anybody who just liked to read and write for the sheer joy of it. Wait, no, that isn’t right. My mother was a reader. Maybe that’s where it comes from. That would make sense.

The way I write, I wait for it to come. I have to put dread and worry out of my way. I have faith that something is going to occur to me that is going to be worth writing about.

Stephen King was once asked where his ideas came from. I wondered too. In those days, I was a wanna be writer, and I just didn’t have a clue. He said he walks out into the desert and walks. As he walks, he also looks around, and something will appear to be sticking up out of the sand. He said he would dig it up. I’ve thought about that for years. I believe he said the desert because that is the clear place in his mind that he ventures into. It makes sense. Something sticks up to catch your attention. It’s sort of what happens with me.

If you’d like to learn more about what Stephen King thinks about writing, buy a copy of his book On Writing.

Another thing that happens to me often is while I am reading what others write, both in books and more so, on the internet. They will be talking about something, and my brain starts pinging. It’s like popcorn popping. I can’t control it. I have to move to a blank piece of paper and start writing. I am not stealing their idea. I’m reacting to it.

I suppose, if you think about it, we are all playing an instrument in an orchestra. Together we can make a big, beautiful noise.

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🌺 Pauline Evanosky

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