Ideas Need External Stimuli

We think of writers as these people creating worlds from their minds while isolating themselves from the world around them.  Sometimes it is true, but it is an overgeneralization.  Writing is a private endeavor with a public persona.  But there's more to it than that.  Ideas do not come from nowhere.  Nothing exists in a vaccuum.

Ideas need external stimuli.  Something needs to get our minds out of their normal routine.  Even if a writer has a warped mind, the thoughts that mind has are normal to it.  We need something outside of ourselves that we can warp.

In the party I was at yesterday, somebody was talking about a movie.  He described the premise as, "Three friends in school make a bet as to who would be the biggest success in life."  My instant reaction was, people always bet on who will be most successful.  What if there was a story where three friends made a bet to see who would be the biggest failure in life?

I then grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and started writing these ideas.  What would happen?  What would make for the biggest loser in life?  One of them might die, but I am sure there are fates worse than death.  The list I made reads: "Death, Junkie, Jail, Dealer, Retail."  There is a great deal of work to be done before this idea becomes anything more, but when it is ready to grow, I will be able to grow it.

Later on that night, we were talking about apartments and kitchens with my friend.  She was saying how her old apartment had lousy cupboards, but lots of counter space.  I then grabbed that paper and pen again and I wrote: "Counter Space. Not in a kitchen; like negative space/reverse space/bizarro space."  This is an even weaker idea.  I just had these images in my had every time I heard the phrase 'counter space' and knew that something was begging to come out.  So I now have it saved for when the time is right.

I think these ideas are amazing and I am so excited for the time when these ideas become whole, finished stories.  But I am very aware that they didn't come from nowhere.  They came from me going out and being around people, doing something with my life instead of isolating myself from the world.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with ideas you like, get out of your head and into the physical world.  Apply that warped mind to reality and make a brilliant surreality.