How Do You Get Your Ideas?

Having attended a fair share of readings and lectures by published authors, I often find it funny just how often the same questions end up being repeated. Of course, there is the classic "Describe your writing process?", but running a close second comes the thing on the mind of most fiction enthusiasts who themselves find the craft too intimidating to take a crack at: "How do you get your ideas?" This is a seemingly simple question, and in most cases a straightforward answer is expected. Wouldn't it be nice to learn the simple formula that great authors use to conjure up the tales that keep as all enthralled? Couldn't I then go out and replicate the very same process myself, finding fame and raking in great fortunes? A few weeks ago I broke down a version of this question, regarding how writers should go about understanding storytelling and piecing together a compelling narrative. This week however, I wish to make transparent the most basic, fundamental aspect of that more complicated process: how the original idea even comes to writers in the first place. Of course, many young storytellers with any real degree of experience may immediately know where this is going, but I am hoping to provide a bit of a foundation for the true beginners. And to all those beginners, I repeat what has surely been said at readings and lectures a thousand times: it just happens by accident. Now, perhaps this is too lazy of an answer, and perhaps a really experienced author would in fact say something along the lines of, "Oh, well each day I write words of significance down in a journal and look them over to pull out ideas." This is, in fact, an exact practice that Ray Bradbury lays out in his craft novel, "Zen in the Art of Writing". So there are ways of mental and creative stimulation that may work in allowing for ideas to form more clearly. However, this does not actually get to the root of the question. How do I get that "inspiration" that writers seem to just naturally have? What if I don't know what to scribble down as "words of significance", and just feel crippled by a creative block at nearly every level? At the most raw level, I would say, there is an answer to this dilemma. The have ideas come to you, to allow inspiration and the creative muse to thrive, you need to make sure you are doing two things. The first is pretty self-explanatory: you need to read, a lot. Every day you should be aiming to be making progress on a novel, because without exposure to good creative work, how can you hope to be creative yourself? The second thing is a bit floatier, a bit more annoying and unsatisfactory, I know, but equally important. You really need to get off your phone, clear your mind for at least two hours each day, and start paying attention to the details of your surroundings, both the people around you and the physical world. This is the basis of all inspiration, of passion, and of creative energy. It is also enormously difficult, and has never been more so than in today's day and age. But, in my experience, it simply must be done.