No Magic Wand? No Problem.

 by Ami Weaver

Where do ideas come from? Right about now, I wish I had a magic wand to get myself jump started. But since none seems to be forthcoming, I’m going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

I have an idea folder, so to speak. A collection of lines, or ideas, snatches and snippets of stuff that hits me at odd times, but doesn’t have anything else with it. It can be triggered by almost anything and is in fact almost always random. I look at these as peace offerings from my muse. She never actually shows up to help me out, but when she surfaces, she hands me a little gem which I guess is supposed to make up for all the hair I tore out when I was stuck.

So I put them in a folder and visit occasionally. Then it’s kind of like a shopping trip in a jewelry store--all these pretty, sparkly, shiny things have so much potential if they are placed in the right setting. So you pick the pretty and you pick the setting and you hope it comes together.

If they don’t, unlike in a jewelry store, I can hit delete and start over. (Of course, my ‘delete’ is actually like a junkyard of stuff I might need to reuse someday. Because you never know!)And that’s where I am right now. What I started with isn’t working. So it’s back to the folder and see what sparks a new way to approach this particular book. Eventually I’ll get the right combination to jump start the story. In the meantime, I’ll work on another, because as authors, we can’t have all our eggs in one basket (on many different levels). So it’s time for Plan B.

How about you? Do you have an idea folder? If so, do you use it?