Food for thought. Ha-ha! Get it? Add food to any story you are working on – be it the main character, a walk-on part, the conflict, or part of the setting. I can see, I mean taste it now…a maple oat nut scone walks into a coffee shop…
Thanks, Robin! Thanks, Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 22: Robin Newman Has Food for Thought
Great post! I’ve always thought about this illustration and that illustration for my picture book manuscripts, but I’ve never considered if they’d are WORTH illustrating!
Thanks, Kate, Mary, and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 20: Kate Dopirak & Mary Peterson Ask…What is Worth Illustrating?
Dig down deep and daydream about your younger years. Recall incidents, feelings, and experiences and get ready to catch those story ideas as they spring to mind!
Thanks, Karen and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 19: Karen Rostoker-Gruber Digs Down Deep
Dreams are amazing (and weird and sometimes terrifying). But they can also be a source of ideas for stories. The important thing to do is to write down your dreams as soon as you wake up, or, POOF, the ideas will be gone. Not that my dream last night of spell-checking the name of my granddaughter’s teacher would make a good story…but still. You get the idea! Write it down.
Thanks, Melissa! Thanks, Tara!
Me? You? We are the main ingredients for coming up with ideas for new writing projects. Yes, that’s correct. We writers are the main ingredient. What does that mean? As writers, we need to listen to what interests us or causes us to ask questions like What if? or Why did that happen?.
Me? I’m going to be the main ingredient. Chocolate.
Thanks, Lori and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 13: Lori Mortensen Finds the Main Ingredient
Doing nothing (work related) allows the creative part of our brains to stew. Let ideas cook on the back burner. I do this, but I realize I also need to value the time to takes for those germs of stories and projects to come to a full boil and be ready to move up to the front of the stove. Patience sounds like a desirable character trait! 🙂
Do nothing!
Thanks, Alicia! Thanks, Tara!
Sue is perfectly correct. Ideas can come from any person, place, thing, situation, encounter… This creative process is certainly difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night to write down an idea or grasps any bit of paper to jot down the perfect character before the idea is lost. Great post!
Thanks, Sue! Thanks, Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 11: Sue Fliess Listens to Her Handyman…?
Oh, I am totally on board with this! Keep every single idea! Some will be good, some not so good, some good now, others won’t be ready until years from now.
The big thing is to keep them all. Now. If I would take that next step and LOOK at my files of ideas…
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 10: Heidi E. Y. Stemple Keeps Every Single One
Thanks, Heidi! Thanks, Tara!
Miranda and Baptiste Paul share not only inspiration tips, but stories from their lives. Patience and looking back are key points to mining the perfect ideas for picture books. Thanks, Miranda and Baptiste! Great interview of each other!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 9: Miranda & Baptiste Paul Use Real Life as Inspiration (with a few caveats)
What can I do in 5 minutes?
Undecorate the RV. Seriously!
Make lunch for my honey.
Make the bed (it DOES take that long…just try making a bed in an RV).
Wipe down condensation from the windows. In the RV, this is a thing.
Vaccuum the RV. Yep.
Brush my teeth. It does take a bit.
Write a thank you note.
Put on make-up.
Call my mom (though we often chat longer than 5).
Reserve books at the library.
Snuggle a kitty or a kid.
How about you? What can you do in 5 minutes?
Love, Laughter, and Life 