The question many
authors, myself included, get tired of hearing from people is “Where
do you get your ideas?” Neil Gaiman said in a talk that
Harlan Ellison used to answer the question by saying he “gets them
from a little idea shop . . . .” In this same
interview Neil said that he knew a writer who said he gets his ideas
“from the idea of the month club.”
My answer to that question:
Life. That’s what all art is based on in one sense or another, life
as the artist sees it. The ideas come from the artist’s own
experiences, including the books that have influenced him or her.
Each of us, writers and non-writers, has a story behind us. Our
entire lives are stories. But not everyone is inclined to write their
life stories down whether for their own personal records or for an
audience. But even us writers are prone to forgetting when great
ideas and impressions come to us, and so we carry a journal with us
everywhere we go.
Some of the most
popular and creative story tellers such as director/screen writer
Guillermo del Toro carry journals with them. There’s a good article
up at Comic Book Resources (CBR.com) about his Pan’s Labyrinth in commemoration of its 10 year
anniversary. But there are a couple points where the article
discusses how del Toro
kept a journal of drawn sketches as well as written notes of ideas he
would develop for his film.
I keep two journal
booklets. I keep a larger one at home that’s about six-by-four
inches and a smaller one in my backpack for when I’m away from the
house. Most of the contents in these are handwritten notes though
I’ll do a quick sketch of an image if an idea is easier to draw out
and I’m in the middle of writing an entry and don’t want to run
to get my sketch book or if I’m not home. The sketch book is for
drawing concepts, many of which I use for my book cover illustrations
as you’ve seen in past posts. I always title my
entries, especially if they contain story ideas, so it’s easier to
find them when I’m ready to start writing a new story. But even if
the entry isn’t one that’s intended for a story but is maybe of
an experience I went through during
the day, I will give it a descriptive title any way so when I
am looking for a story idea I
can find it more
easily.
 |
| A concept sketch for the "Circa Sixty Years Dead" book cover from my sketch book. |
Some authors will
start writing their stories in their journals a chapter or section at
a time. That works for when ideas for a single story come as time
goes by. For myself, however, ideas for a single story don’t come
that quickly. However, if I leave off working on a story for the day
and then later an idea for it comes to me, then I’ll write it down
in my journal to refer to it next time.
Do you keep a
journal for your story ideas? What manner do you utilize that
journal? How do you organize your entries?
Do you find your
favourite authors’ journals as interesting as their published
stories?
Until next time . .
.
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