Growing the Idea

Growing the Idea
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One of the most common questions asked of writers is, "Where do you get your ideas?"

When I hear that, my first impulse is to flippantly respond, "If you don't have any ideas, why do you want to write?!" Eventually, reason regains control, I take a deep breath, and try to smile.

Those who ask this question must understand that the "ideas" they see onscreen in a movie theater, or read in the pages of a novel or magazine are not simply free-floating little clumps of idea-stuff magically pulled from the ether and tacked upon the page of a book or screenplay. By the time you view a finished work, it has been through many iterations, and evolved into something greater than its original core thought. An idea, then, is an organic construct of the human mind, which when properly nurtured, will grow into a form greater than its beginnings, and even take on new and unexpected features.

That said, let me attempt to briefly lead you through the life-cycle of an idea.

Ideas are not separate entities from their creators. Even if you believe in the concept of a muse, or that you are the vehicle for ideas that are somehow channeled through you, you need to recognize that the ideas you produce (or channel!) are unique to you. Nobody else will see life in quite the way that you do. Your ideas, for the purposes of this discussion, are generated from the sum of your experiences, emotions, interests, and personality.

Part of learning how to find ideas, is knowing how to recognize one when it manifests. To do this, you must learn to hardwire your daydream circuit into your critical circuit. In children, these circuits have not yet separated -- what they imagine is as important and immediate as what they see in front of them in the "real" world. Adults have the tendency to separate the practical from the fanciful, so that they can fulfill mundane but responsible tasks such as paying the bills and quashing the bright dreams of their youth. As a writer, you must learn to turn that critical switch on and off at will, so that you can access and interpret your daydreams without self-censorship. Because for any artist, the fanciful is the practical. Generation of an idea involves an active imagination (the fanciful) coupled with the ability to discern whether a particular imagining will pan out into a worthwhile notion (the practical).

When I come up with ideas, one driving force is that they concern the things in which I am most interested. You know what you like, right? Always begin there, because you will have a built-in motivation to see it through, an existing understanding of the subject, and an excitement about the material that only a devotee could have. If you like water-skiing, fruit bats, and female knife-throwers, simply trying to justify a connection between such seemingly unrelated subjects will spark your imagination, and give you countless ideas -- which will often lead to a story you didn't expect that may have nothing to do with your original notion. Research or deep understanding of your subject is important, because when you delve deeply into a topic, you will always find information that will become fuel for story ideas.

Often an idea is simply the utilization of an artist's greatest asset, the ability to ask, "What if...?"

I would argue that the ability to ask this simple little question is the basis of all human evolution, consciousness, culture, science, art, and language. Humans can conceive of things that do not yet, or that could never, exist. This power of imagination can lead us to anything; what we can conceive, we can create.

To use "What if...?" often leads to the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated elements between which you have now created an imaginary link. And if you've begun with elements in which you have an existing fascination, you'll be sure to come up with fusions that excite you. Let me just throw out a few examples:

Now take any one of my hastily-generated thoughts and begin to think about it, and really examine its premise. What consequences or stories does it suggest to you? My first suggestions regard enhanced human abilities (water-breathing and strength), and are basically science-fiction premises. While they suggest contexts, they may not immediately suggest potential stories. The others, however, offer a selection of characters in unusual situations, and are thus a better model for how to frame your ideas in terms of story. They may spark your imagination into revealing whole storytelling vistas, because they suggest a storyline and complications, and even suggest resolutions.