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book will move you to be creative, or maybe some political happening will make your blood boil. That's great, but inspiration doesn't arrive fully formed and get handed to you on a plate. (What if it did? Could you make a story out of that?) Writers have to work to find ideas that they can build a coherent article or story from, but the source of every piece of inspiration is that germ of an idea. Just start out by noticing your ideas and putting them down on paper.

It's amazing how much you can jot down like this and come back to later only to discover you'd completely forgotten that train of thought. Once you're in the habit you'll stop lacking inspiration, you'll be wondering what to do with it all. Neil Gaiman is a well known writer in the fantasy field. He wrote the script for the recent Beowulf movie and his novel, Stardust, was made into another recent film. He's also well known for his comic work on Sandman in particular, and his novels which include best sellers such as American Gods. He recently wrote this in his journal:

"I have lots of ideas already. I don't have enough time to write my stuff. [...] There is a hunted expression you can see on the faces of writers. All you ever have to do, if you want to see it, is to walk over to a writer of fiction and say, "You know, I have an idea for a story. I'll tell it to you and you can write it and we'll split the money fifty-fifty." You will watch their smiles glaze over and watch them back away. Because no matter how good the idea, the execution is everything. And the real work is done at the keyboard or huddled over the notebook, putting one word down after another."

If you look around magazines and websites you will see numerous interviews with authors in which they are asked where they get their ideas or what inspires them. They're gracious in their replies for the most part but they don't vary massively:

"Frankly, I have trouble just understanding the question - how can you not get ideas?" Lawrence Watt-Evans

"Goosebumps fans are always asking me that question. And it's not an easy one to answer. Think about where you get your own ideas. They come from everywhere. People you meet. Stories. Movies. Dreams. Memories. Thin air!" R.L. Stine

"...recognizing an idea is actually part of developing it. The next step is shaping the idea to make it marketable." Michael A. Banks

"The reason this question makes a lot of us writers, me for one, wilt, is because there isn't really any answer to it, and trying to say anything at all responsive about it is just so enormous: it's a question like, 'So, how do you write? Tell me everything.'" Robin McKinley

You'll note that they all talk about how having the idea is only the start, it's honing it that is difficult. They all seem to be bombarded with ideas and working hard to put them down.

Do you really want to know where others find inspiration, or are you on a quest to find your own? It's all around you. Look harder and I guarantee you'll find something to work with, even if it's just a plan to write a better answer to the question than I've managed.

Learn more about this author, Max Lehmann.
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