The Lightbulb Moment
One of the questions I am asked most often is “where do you get your ideas from?”
Sometimes I wonder myself… This isn’t a bad thing though. I have a tiny fear that if I ask too many questions my Muse will rebel and leave in a great hurry.
But when forced to answer such questions my best bet is honesty: I know when I get these ideas. But seldom do I know how.
Movies. Music. Books. Yeah. Not rocket science I know but it works. It is useful to read widely and have a well rounded general knowledge.
When does the lightbulb flick on? Mostly when I’m falling asleep or the very second I open my grit filled eyes after a night of barely no sleep. It’s not fun when an idea strikes at 1.28am, when you’re finally in that falling feeling stage when you just might fall asleep this time, and you just know that if you don’t write down this brilliant idea it will disappear like wisps of fog in the morning sunshine. So you dig around on the night-stand for your i-Pod and find it’s dead, scrabble around for a pen, find nothing, drag yourself out of the bed turning the idea over and over in your head, gripped by a desperate fear that by the time you find the darned pen the idea would be lost to the ether. You stub your toe on a stray doorjamb (who put that there?), head downstairs and by that time you’re wide awake and might as well write it straight into a Word Doc.
Of course it’s easier when the iPod is charged and you jot the idea down and it develops into 500 words before you know it, all the while hoping DH wouldn’t notice the light.
I admit to having shower moments where ideas smack me upside the head while beneath the falling waterdrops, where technically most thoughts should not be allowed. What’s more pleasurable than an uninterrupted shower?
See the pattern. It’s the times when I’m not writing or researching, times when I should be relaxing. When I’m cooking? Taking a walk? Then too.
Ideas follow me, stalk me, waiting for the moment when begin to chill, striking when I relax. No fair!
And as tempted as I sometimes am to be left in peace I dare not make that request, for what is a writer without that little bottomless bag of ideas?
Share with me … Where do you get your ideas from?
October 17th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
So true!! Ideas hit me in just the same way…. especially the shower or when I’m driving. I think you’re right. It’s when the brain starts to relax that ideas hit me.
Great post
October 17th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Hey Mel, thanks for commenting. I shouldn’t complain, but it really isn’t fun when I have these muse-attacks when I’m falling asleep… Teaches me to always have pen & paper, or Charged iPod on hand at all times. Hope the writings going well
xx Tee
October 17th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
My latest idea was developed in the early hours of the morning between different toddlers waking me up. I eventually got up at 5am to make notes
I think it’s only when you do start relaxing that your brain puts things together 
October 18th, 2011 at 12:29 am
I don’t know how you do it- babies and writing. My nerves would frazzle themselves.. Hats off to you lady!
October 17th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Oh and the iPod is awesome! I am loving it for jotting down notes and stuff. Is there a particular programme you find better than others?
October 18th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Hey JC, its possibly that it’s a case of ‘take a chill pill’. We are always so wired aren’t we?
I have the Moleskin app, and another brilliant app called ‘A Novel Idea’. Amazing thing- if a new character pops into your head you can just jot it down, and later on you, when you are fully awake you can link it to your novel and to scene information etc. It even has a download option so you can work on it offline as well… Love it…:)
October 18th, 2011 at 6:13 am
I’ll have to check those out – thanks hon!
November 6th, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Hey there Tee,
Great post. I get my ideas from objects. I know that sounds weird but I came up with the name radiance from a shiny dornknob. I also get ideas from other books of course and all the things you meantioned.
Keep writing forever,
Legacy
November 7th, 2011 at 1:11 am
Thank you Legacy
My instinct tells me too that as writers everything we see and do, experience and learn, should be inspirational.
Write On! xx Tee