How to Fuel Your Idea Machine

My idea machine has plenty of fuel - generally more than I want so I'm usually in need of a giant firerhose to douse the flames
Linnea

I can definitely relate. Lately I've been beating my head against my manuscript revision, so I've started reading more as a way to counter the frustration. The result? My fantasy characters want to hire Sherlock Holmes. Go figure.

A shot of schnapps on ice.

Listening to other people's conversations helps a lot. If only they knew....

TheIT said:

I can definitely relate. Lately I've been beating my head against my manuscript revision, so I've started reading more as a way to counter the frustration. The result? My fantasy characters want to hire Sherlock Holmes. Go figure.

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In Canada, the UK and the European Union, they can hire Sherlock. In the USA, he's still under copyright.

This should not be new to anyone. If you want to become a writer, published or not, you must constantly read. How can one write if they haven't and don't continue to read, in and out of their subject and genre? How would you know what's great, good, indifferent, or bad? In addition, when you read you pick up all kinds of hints, some of which will influence how and what you write.

I do not agree with the simplistic "brain is computer" model. Humans are not machines.

Creativity is NOT the rearrangement of ideas, IMO. For me, it is not like a computer churning out what it takes in. It is more like stones falling in a pond. What you read, and what you experience are stones, and your mind is a pond. If the pond is still, unmoving, perfectly calm, then, when a stone drops into the pond, you would clearly see its ripples unraveling outwards. However, if there are already a lot of disturbances in the pond, then a stone will have no effect on it - you can't see the ripples.

The most common advice for writers is - READ A LOT, WRITE A LOT. However, I think a third, equally important advice is - REFLECT A LOT. Because if you don't reflect on what you read and write, as well as what happens to you, then your mind will be just like a pond full of disturbances.

My idea machine is always running but I do get good ideas from all the items listed for things like: characters, traits, plot twists, events, secondary storylines, themes, etc.

Plus, I could see where this would be useful for a non-fiction writer, like a freelance writer, who needs new and innovative ideas in order to stay alive in the freelance market.

ishtar'sgate said:

My idea machine has plenty of fuel - generally more than I want so I'm usually in need of a giant firerhose to douse the flames
Linnea

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Same problem here. I've got ideas out the wazoo, and a pretty good idea of how to realize each and every one of them. What I lack is that most precious commodity: time. There are some days I want to scream at my inner idea machine, "OK OK shut UP already! Knock it off while I get caught up, ya know???"

stormie said:

A shot of schnapps on ice.

Listening to other people's conversations helps a lot. If only they knew....

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True Fact. If the people in our lives -- passersby, friends, and even loved ones -- realized for even one second how often we mine their conversations for "material," they'd all band together and come after us with torches and pitchforks!

Thanks for the rec! I love the resources I find on this board.

I need to come to a complete stop in a quiet space within a natural setting - which allows thoughts to coalesce and take on a describable form.

In other words - I gotta go fishing periodically or I can't write a lick.

Listening to music fules mine.

I prefer to write action, so I listen to heavier music when I'm planning a scene. Then, when I'm sorting out an emotional scene or a love scene, I throw a sappier song on my PSP. By the time I finally write the chapter, it pours right outta me.

OK, so it's not as deep as what most people do, but it works for me. LOL

I have so many ideas I don't need much fuel to keep them going. Still, writing a story needs more than just ideas, and anything that helps improve my writing is fine by me. A long walk usually does the trick.

My best ideas come when I am sleeping, especially if I read several chapters of a similiar genre book before going to bed. I'll dream up some pretty wild stuff that I can shape into a workable plot or subplot. It sounds wierd but it works... so I guess it isn't that wierd.

Listening to people is the best way for me to generate ideas. Also, something I'm only learning to do, is carry a notebook at all times and jot down anything you think is useful- a phrase, a name, a connection. You never know when it might be useful. And if I carry a notebook and I'm conscious of its presence, my mind is always on the search for ideas. I gather names, mostly, whether from street signs or combinations of things I've seen.

I wish I had problems fueling my ideas, lol!

Recently all I've been doing is getting lots of ideas, writing then down, and organizing them; good, yes, but not when it's getting in the way of writing, haha!

I'll start writing and then BOOM!, and idea hits and I'll have to pause and write down my thoguhts.

As for listening to people, I can't agree more! It's a great way to get ideas, or at least increase your knowledge of how people "work".

A friend fo mine who has published a whole bunch of books (on finance, IRA, 401ks, etc) longs to be a fiction writer, and she's always telling me how she gets all these great ideas from listening and watching people.

Racheal

My idea machine is crazy. It fuels itself, I swear to dogs. Or rather, my near-incoherency when I speak triggers a switch in my brain and it goes 'splodey.

Like last week, when I had a debate with a boy about how a waffle without squares in the middle is, figuratively speaking, an elipse. It was pretty funny watching him get more and more flustered as ideas for my latest project poured in. He called me f-d up and I haven't seen him since. Well, life goes on, doesn't it?

Reading and listening to music fuel my idea machine. When I listen to music, I exercise, and the blood flows to my head and I get more oxygen. Sometimes it really is a matter of getting more air, isn't it?

Listening to people talk is okay, too, except I find that occasionally, you take a line out of context, without the setting, personality, and timing and it just doesn't fit and the idea disappears in a puff of twisted logic.

I seem to get ideas as I need them. Right now, I've got another novel that's cooking in my brain and a trilogy of short stories about a certain sifu that I know percolating. Hm, hm, I'm not sure about them though. Percolating on them is one of the hardest parts, isn't it? Sure, gathering them up and making them coherent is tough, but to get them to span from beginning to end with all the bubbly details in between? Mean, nasty stuff there.

Anyway, I think the sugary banana cake I just had is beginning to kick in. Better get off the internet. Fun chatting with you all.