Where do writers get their ideas?
A simple enough question, right? After all, ideas like everything else must come from somewhere. Other than questions about movies, the question about ideas plagues every writer. It never goes away. There are many would-be writers out there curious about the process an author goes through, a process the fan hopes to emulate.
Ironically enough, it is a question only the asker can answer.
Once upon a time, Neil Gaiman would answer with a flip comment:
- “Where do you get your ideas, Neil?” the fan asks.
- “From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,” Neil says with a straight face.
- The fan frowns. “Huh?”
- “From a dusty old book full of ideas in my basement,” Neil adds.
- The fan is not amused.
- “I make them up,” Neil finally relents. “Out of my head.”
The final answer Neil gives is of course the one the fan doesn’t want to hear. There is no magic in it, no wonder. It reduces the act of writing to hard work and sweat. The answer is also an act the fan cannot easily replicate if they are an aspiring writer.
I mean, who but Neil Gaiman can be in Neil Gaiman’s head?
Other authors have classic responses:
- “Where do you get your ideas, Mr. Ellison?”
- “Poughkeepsie,” Harlan growls and takes a different question.
Harlan, Harlan, Harlan. We love you, Harlan!
Terry Brooks, who recently visited the Dubai Literary Festival and took a smattering of various questions, has his own response:
- “Where do you get your ideas, Terry?”
- “Well,” Terry replies with an impish grin. “You see, I have this little box.”
- The fan listens intently, ready to catalogue the answer.
- “I open it and an idea just flies out!” Terry says.
- The fan lowers their pencil, now smirking.
- “The trick is catching it!” Terry finishes, grinning.
Well, the truth is quite different for Terry and most writers out there.
Can you handle the truth?
Neil has it right. Terry has it right. Even Harlan probably has it right. Ideas come from within, in our own heads, but can also be triggered by things we see in the real world.
The real world, eh? How does that work?
I will tell you.
As I already alluded to, Terry took a trip to Dubai for the Dubai Literary Festival. Dozens of great writers in various genres from Margaret Atwood to Wilbur Smith gathered in one place to promote their work and literacy in the United Arab Emirates. Knowing it was a long trip from Seattle to Dubai, Terry felt quite strongly it to be a worthwhile trip.
But when Terry travels he does some pretty sneaky things, things I'm sure other writers do as well. After an event is completed he will spend additional time in the area, traveling around and absorbing all he sees. The world is diverse and has a great deal to offer. He moves from ruin to ruin, from city to city, from culture to culture, gathering information, cataloguing all he sees, hears and smells.
When he returns home, he sits once again at his writing desk.
And the traveling he has returned from is filtered through his writing into his novels.
Terry uses what he sees in this world, twisting it, and throws it into a story that needs it. Settings are really important to him and many of the settings in his books come from his travels. Morrowindl, the Squirm, airships, the upcoming visit to the hellish library Libiris in A Princess of Landover, these things came from his travels. Many of his ideas come from within, in his own head like Neil Gaiman, but sometimes ideas can sprout from the world about us, evolve, and become potent storytelling.
Terry and his wife took hundreds of pictures while in Dubai. Some of what Terry saw will eventually end up in one of his forthcoming novels, no doubt about it. To see some of those photos, visit the Pictures part of his website!
One day soon I'll share my thoughts on ideas. But for now, where do your ideas come from?
Where do you get inspiration?
I get my ideas from people I know and from RPGs. My current idea sprouted while playing Might and Magic VI and Heroes of Might and Magic III. Thought it would be cool to create and undead empire and have it run roughshod over the civilized world while giving a girl a chance to rise above a barbaric upbringing.
My friends in High school use to ask me the same thing. I'd say Oh I just get them out of the air. They just come to me. Didn't know quite how to explain it then and still not sure how to now. I'm not all there--never was.:)