BarryHutchison

As any writer who does events in schools will tell you, one of the most common questions we get asked is “Where do your ideas come from?”. There are as many answers to that question as there are writers in the world, but I thought I’d share the story of where my most recent idea came from. I can’t tell you the idea itself yet, because I plan writing this one some day. What I can tell you is that just the very thought of it made me laugh out loud, which is a good sign, I reckon.

Anyway, how it came about…

I was walking the dog. What, didn’t I mention? We have a dog now. Long story. I was walking her along a woodland path in the middle of nowhere. In terms of finding ideas, this is always a good place to start. Sitting at a desk forcing ideas to come can be a difficult, fruitless exercise, so if you’re looking for inspiration I suggest you get outside, or visit somewhere you don’t normally go. Museums and art galleries can be great places to find ideas. Often they’re hiding behind the exhibits, or camouflaged against the paintings, but they’re there if you look hard enough.

But back to my idea. There I was, strolling along the path, the dog running on ahead somewhere. I wasn’t actively looking for an idea. I wasn’t really do anything except walking. But then I saw it – a large shape swooping above me. I ducked instinctively. I made a noise a bit like “Woooawargh!” which I’m grateful no-one else was around to hear. I looked up and realised that what had startled me was just a canopy of leaves moving in the breeze.

I was still ducked down low when I felt the idea creep in. It came slowly at first, as if tentatively feeling its way into my head. If you’ve read any of my INVISIBLE FIENDS books you might remember the tingling Kyle feels at the base of his skull and across his scalp when he uses his abilities. I based that feeling on how I feel when a new idea comes to me. It’s a physical feeling, an electric buzzing through my brain that I couldn’t ignore even if I wanted to.

That’s what happened yesterday. Once the tingling started it quickly grew, bringing the idea in with it. “Wow!” I thought. “Wouldn’t it be amazing if that had been a <TOP SECRET WORD>?” I thought. And it would have been amazin. Although I’d probably now be dead.

I kept walking, and with every step the idea got bigger. What if this happened? What if that happened? Before I knew it I had the general concept worked out, but I didn’t have any idea of a story because I didn’t yet have any characters, and characters are what make stories happen.

A few hundred yards later, I came across this:

Dare you enter the Forest of Implausible Fractions?

I have absolutely no idea what the numbers on that tree represent. I don’t really care. That was enough to steer me in the direction of the next part of my idea. My characters would be school kids. More than that, they would be school kids who really weren’t very good at fractions. I mean, who ever heard of thirteen quarters?

I kept walking and this new idea jumbled around with the original one. My brain felt like it was vibrating now. I had a spring in my step and butterflies were throwing a party in my stomach. I can’t speak for other writers, but when a new idea grabs me I get a real adrenaline rush – one I can only liken to those first few moments on a rollercoaster, as the cars clank up and up and up towards the top of the first hill.

My characters developer further. They weren’t just poor at fractions, they were failing at all their school work. They became a group of badly behaved teens who were about to be expelled from their inner city school. A setting like the one I was in would be completely alien to them, and I could already hear them complaining and arguing as they trudged through the darkening woods. The characters we coming alive in my head, although I didn’t even know their names.

An hour later I got home from the walk. It took another hour to scribble down all the different parts of my story idea, and as I wrote down what I’d come up with new ideas started to force their way in, too. I now have several pages of notes which include a rough plot outline, five character biographies, some ideas for specific scenes and even some lines of dialogue.

Had I sat at home that morning and told myself to come up with an idea then those notebook pages would likely still be empty. That’s because it’s easier to find ideas than to create them from thin air. I found my latest idea lurking in the woods. Where will you find yours?

A big thanks to the fantastic Lari Don who inspired this post by talking about where her own ideas come from. You can read Lari’s post here, and if you haven’t checked out her books yet I highly recommend that you get your finger out.