Where do you get your ideas from?

Where a writer gets their ideas from is the question that’s always asked at literary gatherings.  It’s interesting, isn’t it?  Most people – including me – can, if asked, write a description of a place or person or recount an event but making something up from a standing start – well, that’s a bit more daunting.

The main tool in the creative box is the question, Why? with the sub questions of How? and Who? For instance, my sister, a primary school teacher wanted three short stories (very short – about 500 words) to use in class as examples of creative writing.  She had the first sentence of the story, which stated there was a statue in a park.  And that was it.

Okay…  So Who is the statue of and Why was it there?  As you can see, it gives a lot of scope.  It could be a statue of a famous footballer, a local hero, a knight on horseback, Peter Pan, or even a dog or a cat.  Once you’ve figured out Who the statue’s of, that gives you somewhere to go next.  For instance, if it’s a dog, what did the dog do?  It is a magic dog, that starred in a local folktale or did the dog rescue someone from drowning or give the alarm of fire by barking?  If it’s a footballer, what did he do to merit a statue?  Win the world cup?  Start a football team?  Lead a party of soldiers into the attack by kicking a football in front of him?  (This happened in the First World War, you know!) And what if the statue comes to life…?

I’m thinking along these lines because I’ve been throwing ideas around for a new book this week.  It’s very, very early stages and what always bugs me is how artificial it all seems.  I mean, X bumps off Y and Z notices something and then…  But then a little bit of magic happens.  Get a proper sequence of events and suddenly X, Y, Z and all their alphabetical pals  start to live in an actual place and have actual characters.  Mind you, it’s a fairly energetic process. I’ve cleaned the fish tank, cleaned the windows, strummed for hours on the guitar, mopped the floor etcetera, etcetera.  Agatha Christie used to wash up.  And if it worked for her… You might not get a Miss Marple but at least you’ll have clean plates!