I have no new ideas.
None.
No plan. No flashes of inspiration. No idea where to find an idea.
This is not a new dilemma for me.
The longer I’ve been writing, the more successful I’ve gotten, the harder it becomes to find those ideas that get me excited. Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it get easier with experience?
For me, it hasn’t. But that hasn’t stopped me from writing. (After all, this is the sweetest job on earth – not only do I get to create something from nothing, a lot of the time that I’m working, I’m in my jammies in my bed.) So, what’s a girl to do? How do you pull a good idea out of the air?
I don’t really know. But Tara invited me to blog so I thought I’d give y’all some possible places to start.
Look for Nuggets, not Multitudes
Everyone knows you can’t just sit down to write a picture book about a chicken and think that’s all the brainstorming you need to do to run with it. Just “chicken” is too generic, too common, too…uninspired. But what if that’s all you have? Don’t you need a complete plot, a big idea…a whole roaster, so to speak?
Let the chicken be your nugget, no pun intended, and build from there. (And who am I kidding? I totally intended the pun. See below. I don’t stop with the puns.)
I started with a chicken nugget once. I hadn’t written a chicken book. Chickens are adorable. Instant winner.
But I quickly realized that I needed more. For someone to give a cluck about my chicken book, I needed to add some garnish. So I started thinking about chickens and what they do. Eventually, I brainstormed about chicks – but there were so many chick books already. Baby chicks, fluffy chicks, chicks and salsa…the list went on and on. All these chicks in all these books, all running wild…
And then it hit me. CHICKS RUN WILD.
I took my nugget and grew it to a title. And from there, I…well, ran wild with it. Now, let’s be honest, I took this title and then did what writers all over the world do every day: I wrote about what I knew. CHICKS RUN WILD grew into the story of little chicks at bedtime who don’t want to go to sleep quite yet—it could be an autobiography of bedtime with my own children. So, easily, I could advise you to take inspiration from your life—but you get that everywhere, don’t you? Besides, my point is I only got to writing about what I knew after starting with a small nugget of inspiration. I nurtured that nugget and kept it warm and safe until it grew into a fully formed…idea.
What’s in a Name?
OK, let’s shift gears. No more chicken puns. Let’s talk names instead.
Is there anything more immediately suggestive than a character’s name? Think Willy Wonka, or Shrek, or Fancy Nancy—just the names create an image in the reader’s mind. Characters can grow to be iconic – if developed correctly. But you certainly can’t know ahead of time which of your characters will become iconic.
That doesn’t mean you can’t start with character.
The truth is, I think the best place to start is character. When you have an idea for a great character, you need to let him run free (run wild, perhaps?) even before you figure out exactly what that character will do in the story. A strong character will find his story.
10 Comments on PiBoIdMo Day 9: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Has No Idea, last added: 11/9/2011
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Wonderful post. I’m counting on some of these nuggets growing over time…with thought! Thanks for the reassurance it can happen.
Wonderful post and great puns! Your books sound delightful. That sounds like a familiar process to me which is very reassuring, thanks.
♥ This post really made me think. This is usually how things happen for me. I have never sat back and evaluated how I come up with my ideas, but this is pretty close compared to all the other gazillion ways it can happen. I usually begin with amazing characters, or words-generic as they come. Brainstorming is so dull that sometimes we don’t realize its brilliance until we trip right over it. Other times we are in love with the brilliance of brainstorming–and impatient for ideas–that we take forever to notice the best ideas when they come around. I hope I’m making some sense here. LOL.
GREAT POST! Hampire sounds wonderful. It is on my TBR list now!
Thanks for this post! I’m not going to worry so much that some of my ideas don’t seem to be fleshed out enough.
Thanks for your post. Focusing on character development first is a wonderful way to create a strong voice. After all, the best stories are the ones with characters the kids can relate to and fall in love with.
Sudipta, this was a reassuring post. I appreciate your honesty in revealing the length of time it took you to come up with a completed manuscript. I have a few PBs running wild in my mind…now I need time away from my hectic schedule to corral those ideas and bring them under submission! Patience is the key…thanks for your reminder of that fact…
I think learning to be patient and allowing ideas to simmer and grow with time is one of the most important lesson I’ve learned over the last few years. It’s so much more satisfying when an idea can fulfill its potential instead of being rushed.
Wonderful post, Sudipta!
I have been reading about how many authors find ideas for Picture books in all sorts of places and I’ll add this to the list. Great post, Sudipta. Your books sound fabulous and I’ll definitely look them up in the library to read.
Thanks for this post.
Excellent advice. In PiBoIdMo, I think that sometimes we can get desperate to churn out those 30 ideas, and we try to force our brains into overdrive. Thanks for reminding us to be patient. That’s something I really need to learn.
I’m feeling very encouraged by your post because my brainstorming method has been to take two very different items and somehow combine them, not unlike Chicks Gone Wild, and Hampire. With a little patience, like you said, maybe I’ll get somewhere with it. Thanks for the post. I’m looking forward to checking out your PB’s. Have a good day.