Week 15: The Alchemy of Ideas

This week, I've been considering the origins of ideas. Where do story ideas come from? Do they emerge organically while buttering toast or doing some other rote action? Or do they require effort? A mining of earth, perhaps.

Every writer is different.

I know, I know. If I were some guru that knew how to do marketing very well and could easily wield hashtags and capcut in the same way that I approach metaphors and poetic forms, perhaps I'd be in a shifted position. Not theorizing or philosophizing over writing, but smiling through a pound of makeup and AI filters that make me look polished with no blemishes.

But I need to tell the truth in these blogs because otherwise, what's the point? Every writer is different. For me, ideas arrive with a whoosh, almost as if an image is placed in my mind. Then, I wait. I wait until the idea starts to grow legs and then when I can't take it anymore, when there is no longer space for the idea in my mind, I put it down on the page.

Poetry is its own alchemy. I could see beads of water on a grass blade and a poem arrives. A story will be vastly dissimilar. I need to know the character, see images, hear lines of dialogue. Also, and this is key to my process, it needs to be the right time for that idea. There's no way to predict that timing. It happens when it is supposed to happen.

I realize my dogma will be unpopular nowadays in our--I want it right now why can't I have it right now every artist should be churning out work monthly in order to satisfy my need for them then go away when I've had my fill--kind of world. But them's the breaks. I cannot be anything other than what I am: a writer who respects the process, is grateful for the inspiration, and honors it when it arrives.

What's your process? How do your ideas emerge?