How does your favorite author get ideas?
I think that’s the most often asked question by readers.
I literally have more ideas than time to write! Where do I get them?
Ideas are like loose change. When you’re looking for them, you trip right over them. Every buy a particular car, and as you drive around town, you’re suddenly seeing them everywhere? It doesn’t mean that everyone bought one the same day you did – you’re just open to seeing them now.
Authors train themselves to look for ideas.
I often will see something that I think is interesting. Within minutes, I’m turning it around in my head, like picking up a rock. Since a lot of my first seven books all concern survivalism, I spend time looking at Cheaper Than Dirt catalogs. Tents. Ammo cans. Backpacks. Knives. Multitools. Fire starters.
I can honestly say I like the Magnesium stick a lot better than the flint striker – but I can say the flint striker probably lasts a lot longer.
Pick that flint striker up. Hold it. Think about how you’d attach it to a belt, or clip it onto a backpack. In a cargo pocket.
Now your imagination comes in, as you picture a man hunched over a tinder bundle, trying to start a fire with the flint striker. It’s cold, wet. The fire is not starting. Ever tried to really start a fire with one? THat’s some tension.
So, let’s make it REALLY tense. The fire won’t start. It’s getting darker, colder. You need that fire NOW! Why? Maybe you fell into a river. The water had tinges of ice in it. You’re soaked through. And trying to start a fire. Because you’re going to have a really rough night you probably won’t survive if you DON’T get that fire going!
I had an idea for a book back in the 90’s, where a man wakes up, and everyone is missing all around him. I’d forgotten about it, but saw 28 Days Later years in the future, and a co-worker said to me, “of course you like it! It was your story they stole!”
The reason you don’t have ideas is because you haven’t trained yourself yet! That’s the only reason. I could teach an entire seminar on writing ideas.
What grabs you? What idea can you just not let go of?
A single idea is enough.
