where do writers get their ideas from?
Can you learn from them? What do writers mean when they call their ideas “the spark”?
“Where do you get your ideas from?” Ask any writer what question they get asked more than any other and this would be it. Stephen King made the joke, “If I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked that question I could buy a nice steak dinner.” Most writers would agree.
in this blog, we will look at where do writers get their ideas from?
WHERE DO WRITERS GET THEIR IDEAS FROM?
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It has to be the most asked thing of any writer throughout history. The funny thing is most writers have a difficult time answering because they don’t really know how to explain it. They ask themselves the same thing (with no results).
The most common answer is “Ideas can come from anywhere, anytime. There is no real place where an idea comes from.” It’s not like there’s a book titled “book ideas” where all writers go to look up an idea for a story.
IT HAPPENS WHEN THEY LEAST EXPECT IT
A writer will tell you their ideas can come to them at any time. When they least expect it. They see something and somehow it triggers “an idea.” Something everyone else pays no attention to.
All writers know when you try to force yourself to come up with an idea that’s when nothing comes to mind. If you stare at your laptop screen waiting for an idea nothing will come. In fact, staring at a laptop’s white screen is not a good idea because it makes everything in your mind blank.
WHAT IS THE SPARK
A writer can get their ideas out of nowhere. They could get 3 ideas in a week or nothing in a month. They do not wake up in the morning thinking, “today I’m going to think of a wonderful novel idea that will sell millions.” They could be out walking and see something, an object, a person and suddenly have an idea. Something a writer calls “the spark.”
What is the spark? that is probably the hardest thing for a writer to answer. “it’s a feeling” “the start of a new novel”. They can sense the story within them.
THEY CAN FEEL THE STORY IN THEM
Somehow a writer knows they have a story “I feel it.” they would say. They don’t have a title or characters, but they know they have “something.” They can make it into a story. Sometimes they look at their idea and know they cannot make a full novel out of it. So they pass on the idea or write a short story.
Every writer knows when they have an idea that can be made into a full 500-page novel and other times when it can only be a short story. It’s all about the spark. That inner feeling.
IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS
Some writers have tried writing books describing “the spark.” Others have tried studying it, making sense of it. But it’s as big a mystery today as it’s been for hundreds of years.
Some ideas are based on true stories, where the writer collects information and turns it into a full story. Sometimes the information is fully accurate or slight changes are made to spice up the story. At times real people’s names are used or they’re changed to protect their identity.
LIFE CAN BE STRANGER THAN FICTION
“Jaws” was inspired by actual events, the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks were used in the novel. Mixed in with Captain Ahab of Herman Melville‘s “Moby Dick”. If the shark attacks of 1916 didn’t happen would we have the novel “Jaws”?
The odd part is some real incidents can be so over the top witters have to leave a lot of information out for the novel to be believable. Or people reading the book will laugh believing it could not have really happened. Proving life can be stranger than fiction.
THEY HAVE TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE STORY
Some well know novels are based/influenced on the author’s life. Either the author will flat out tell you it’s based on their life or they’ll “hide it” by changing characters’ names and locations. Anyone reading it will have no idea the story is real. (However, friends and family will see themselves in it. For the better or worse.)
William Blatty was inspired to write the novel “The Exorcist” after hearing the story of a boy in Baltimore who was said to be taken over by the devil. He heard the story and crafted the story of the Exorcist from it. Making a few changes (changing the boy to a girl, and the city location.)
THE IDEA SUDDENLY CAME OUT OF NOWHERE
J.K. Rowlings said the idea of Harry Potter came to her one-day while on a train. she was looking out the window and had this thought of a boy wizard. She knew right away she had a story idea, feeling the spark. Knew nothing of the story overall in detail but knew something was there. She started writing down everything and soon had a massive successful novel. It all came from a spark while on a train.
Stephen King has said in past interviews he can get an idea anytime. He never knows when an idea will come to him. He never forces himself to come up with something, it just happens. One time he and his daughter exited a highway and entered a small town. It was empty, he looked around wondering where everyone was. He then thought “they’re all dead, and the sheriff killed them.” All of a sudden he felt the spark and knew he had a story.
HIS IDEAS ALL START OFF AS SHORT STORIES
He didn’t know when exiting the highway a best-selling novel idea would be coming to him, but it did. a few years later “desperation” was released and sold millions. He calls the spark feeling “his voice”. where ideas come to his mind in the form of a voice.
Stephen King has said all his ideas start off as short stories which some are made bigger. While writing a short story if more ideas come to him he adds them in. Making the story longer until it’s a full novel. If no new ideas come to him, he stops, moves on to another new story.
NEVER LOSING SIGHT OF THE SPARK
He’s lost in his world when writing. He stares at his computer screen never looking away as the story flows through his fingers onto the screen. Bringing the story to life. He sees it playing out in his mind like a movie and writes down what he sees. Making it as he goes along. Not knowing how it going to end.
He will write for 3 to 4 hours letting the story flow like adrenaline running through his body. Not wanting to stop for too long because he loses the energy for the story. He wants to finish the story as quickly as he can keeping the spark flowing. As long as he keeps his eye on the spark the story flows never losing sight.
HE FELT THE SPARK AND KNEW RIGHT AWAY
For his idea of the novel, “Christine” Stephen King said he once looked at the speedometer on a car and imagined it rolling back and the car getting younger as it did. All of a sudden he felt the spark and knew he had a novel idea.
He once had a dream of an obsessed fan who kept their favorite writer trapped in a house where they have to write a novel. When he woke up he knew he had a spark of an idea. It was going to be a short story until he kept adding to it until it became a full novel.
HE CALLS IT HIS VOICE
The spark for the novel “Cujo” came from his visiting a farm to have his car worked on. A St. Barnard who was friendly to everyone started barking at him. All of a sudden he had an idea for a novel about being trapped on a farm and a rabid massive dog circling a broken-down car.
While he was driving to the farm he had idea a story idea would come to him, a successful novel later made into a movie. But out of nowhere, a spark came to him. He has no control over the spark or as he calls it “the voice”. They appear in his mind. He may not know the ending or the characters right at the start, but he has a “feeling”. Something he can work into a novel.
SOME WRITERS CARRY A NOTEBOOK FOR IDEAS
Stephen King says he does not write down his ideas when they come to him. He believes if the story idea is good enough you’ll remember it no matter how much time goes by. If you need to write it down it wasn’t worth remembering anyway.
Some writers will have a small notebook with them to quickly write down a few ideas. A singer does the same thing. They then go back to it and write the song from their notes.
SOME COME UP WITH THE TITLE RIGHT AWAY
Some writers say their story comes to them when they think of a title. Somehow the title puts everything in its place. The “spark” turns into a story when they find the title.
Charles Dickens said he would come up with the characters’ names and everything about them would come to them. The story suddenly made sense in his mind after he thought of the names of the character, not all writers do this but it was his style.
THEY MAY NOT HAVE THE FULL DETAILS RIGHT AWAY
Some writers after coming up with the spark will quickly start writing down some points on what the story could be about. They may not have the full details, but they write down everything they already have. From those notes, a story can come to life.
Some writers will only write for a few hours a day and stop in mid-sentence. When they come back to it the next day they pick up where they left off. As long as they have the feeling the “the spark” in them they will can continue to keep writing.
CAN ANY WRITER DEVELOP THE SPARK?
Other writers do not start off writing they will daydream their novel in their mind as though watching a movie, and after they can write it all down.
Some writers need silence, William Blatty needed to “get away” from the city to write “The Exorcist”. Whereas, some can write in a loud coffee shop like J.K.Roliings did with Harry Potter.
It all comes down to the “mysteries spark.” The question is, can anyone develop it? Where does it come from? How does one person look at a car and see a car and another see a full novel based on the car? Where the writer can see a story in their mind. Somehow they sense a spark and know a novel can come of it.
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