Guest Author - Michelle Anne Cope

Ideas
They can evade all the senses. You can’t always taste, smell, feel, see or hear an idea, but I promise you, they are there. Ideas are those sparkling little brain gems that help us start a story, article, poem or play. They can come in the shape of a single word, or maybe an entire paragraph that pens itself in our imaginations. The biggest challenge to finding ideas is accepting that while original ideas may be sparse, no one will ever write like you do. You can make any idea new. I learned through tears, potato chips, French onion dip and pop music. This is my story.

There was a time when I had all kinds of ideas. That was before I gave myself permission to be a writer. After I announced that I was going to be a writer, it all changed. I quit being myself and suddenly became this creative person who thought that she had to think brand new stuff. I would often sit frustrated to tears because maybe I’d seen a spider crawling on a flower that had a lady bug on the tip. That little gem would start to sparkle. I’d imagine the spider and lady bug talking, maybe about their children, shopping, or anything. I’d get excited; I’d picture the story in my head. Then, some mind gremlin would steal the gem and replace it with a thought. “No! You can’t do that idea, there’s already a great story about a spider. E. B. White wrote it!” Idea denied – mind gremlin happy – Chel not writing.

It became an obsession. I’d find a book or title in print for every idea I’d get. I’d spend hours at a bookstore or on Amazon.com looking at books to see if anyone had written anything close to my idea. I was ready to write with ink and paper, pencils, and a computer with a cool screensaver, but no words were coming from my fingers. Who was I kidding; I couldn’t be a writer. I didn’t have any original ideas because all the good ones were used. My mind gremlin agreed. So there! I had everyone’s permission to scurry to the kitchen for a diet soda and that new bag of potato chips with hope that there was also French onion dip in the refrigerator.

Permission to Have Ideas – Granted
I quit trying to write and turned to pop music. As long as I didn’t crunch real loud or get a glob of chip dip on a CD, pop music provided me the comfort a has-never-been writer deserved. I listened to the radio and every CD in my collection; I read all the liner notes, and then . . . I suddenly realized I was hearing some of the same stories told over and over. Yes, they were the same plots but with different lyrics and different instrumental arrangements. They were melodic stories of chances and changes in life, love and loss. Each artist and band had made the stories their own. The ideas weren't new, the writing was!

I kept the music on and put the dip back in the refrigerator – surely someone would eat that last spoonful. Then, I started to write. I looked out my window and saw a tree, and even though Betty Smith had already written A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I wrote a story about a tree. I also wrote that story about the spider and the lady bug. I quit looking for books and titles that had words in them that would match any idea I had, and I just wrote the way that felt natural to me. I used my own voice and style; I gave myself permission to use “used” ideas and make them my own.

Where Do You Get Ideas?
Everywhere! Stop reading and look around; what is the first tangible object your eyes rested on? Think for a minute. More than likely you have a new thought or old memory connected to that object. Let’s say it was a pencil. You could write a tale about a pencil that wrote all by itself. Can you imagine the trouble and mayhem that pencil could cause? What about a nonfiction article about pencils and lead. With so many worries about lead in toys and everyday products, what harm does a pencil hold?

Maybe you don’t need to look for objects; you have an idea, that little gem just starting to sparkle in your brain, but it’s not to full shine. Write it down before it slips away. Start a document file, grab scraps of paper, a spiral notebook or fancy journal and capture that story or article morsel for keeps.

You can find ideas in newspapers ads and articles, in other people’s conversations, on the back of a cereal box or from your children’s adventures. Look, listen – all you need is that one word, thing or action that will evoke a thought or memory and can give you a start. If your desire is to write nonfiction, don’t be afraid if someone else has written on that topic, you can find a new approach. I bet if you have a question on that topic that wasn’t answered in the article you were reading, lots of other people have that same question. Write about it.

Once you have an idea, you can use your creativity and writing skills to give that idea a new life. No one writes like you do.

Read, Write, and Write More!
Chel