Ideas Are Lurking Inside Your Head. Want Them?

On August 29th, 2009, I had a bona fide epiphany.

The seed was planted one day earlier, on the 28th. I was talking with my friend Leah about a story she had written. It was short and simple, but it was built around a very unique and clever concept.

“How did you come up with that idea?” I asked her.

She said, “Well I was talking to a friend and he said something, and I thought, ‘hmm, that could be a story!’” We continued to chat and I didn’t think too much about those words at the time.

A day went by.

On the 29th, I was doing the dishes, and my brain was doing what it usually does when it’s on idle. It was replaying recent conversations. As I replayed that small snippet of my conversation with Leah, an idea struck me: Maybe all I have to do is say those words… so as I was scrubbing away at a particularly tough stain, I gave it a whirl. “Hmm, that could be a story!” I said.

Nothing happened.

Well, it can’t be that easy, can it? I was still convinced that I was on to something, though—I’m all about self-conditioning behavior by establishing and practicing routines—so I decided to get into the habit of reciting those words on a frequent basis. I said them in my head every chance I could.

Sure enough, later on that day, as my brain was once again recounting a conversation I’d had (this one was a little stale, being over a week old, but still tasty), I said those words to myself at just the right moment… and a story flooded into my head. It was like flipping on a light switch. One moment there was nothing. The next moment, I could see the whole thing. It worked! I was psyched.

Later on that day, as I was reading the news, I had another “hmm, that could be a story” moment… and then another an hour later. By the end of the day, I had a total of four story ideas, and each one of them struck me as genuinely interesting. To put this into context, that’s more story ideas than I had developed in the past year, much to my frustration.

It’s only been two weeks since then, but I’ve already had over twenty story ideas. At least one a day, as frequently as four times a day. Every one of them captivates me somehow. Most of them resonate with me in a very personal way.

While I don’t have the time to develop all of these ideas, that’s the least of my concerns. I’m one giant step ahead of where I was a few weeks ago. In terms of creative ideas, my mind went from being a barren wasteland to a healthy, slightly overgrown garden. Not too shabby.

But why did four and a half words make such a big difference for me? Here’s what I think happened: Those ideas were already there. But interesting ideas don’t lounge about waiting for you to notice them. They’re fleeting little things that hide in the nooks and crannies of your mind when you set out to look for them.

Want them? Then you have to catch them in the act. Find your weapon (mine are four and a half words, yours may be different), have it on hand at all times, and be ready to use it every chance you get.

Oh, and write them down. Ideas are slippery little things.

Note: This article was written for Writing Experiment #3. Join us.