Ideas

"Where do you get your ideas?"

Every fiction writer has heard this question many times.  Ideas spring from everywhere, and affect people differently.

For example:  Take two writers...how about myself and maybe...Nicholas Sparks?  Play the song "Saturday In The Park" to us both.  Mr. Sparks would probably dash off a quick story about two people falling in love at an outing in a park, and spending the rest of the book trying to relive the magic of the day.  Me?  I'll keep my idea to myself for now, because I've just started writing a short story about it...but, I will say that it very much involves Justice Security, and goes in a totally different direction than you would expect.

Of course, I base all of my stories on classic songs - bits and pieces of the songs will suggest ideas to me, and the story grows from there.  And the story suggested by a song slowly builds and expands, until, next thing you know, it's a book!  Or a short story!  Or a novelette!

To find stories that you feel comfortable enough with to write, let your mind absorb everything around you, whether it's a song, or a car, or a tree, or a couple of dogs walking down a country road...then turn your imagination loose.  I promise you, a story will emerge, and all that will remain is for you to tell that story.

I have a plaque on my desk given to me by my cousin Melissa.  I look at it every day, because it reminds me of the basics of writing:  "The WORLD is waiting to hear your story."  No truer words were ever spoken, and they apply to YOU.

Keep reading!

Michael  (T. M.)