Some of you have been reading my writing advice for months and all the while have been thinking, 'James, you're a picture book writer and illustrator, of course you can write! I don't even know how to begin!'. If you're in that boat, or if you've been making stories in your medium for a while but are feeling stuck, look no further!
The key to getting started is being captivated by an idea.
But how are ideas born? Isn't inspiration something that just "happens" to a person? Yes and no. Inspiration is something that 'happens', but you'd be surprised how often. Inspiration can come in several different forms, the least common of all being the stereotypical "Eureka!" moment. As a matter of fact, I have practically nothing to saying about Eureka moments because they are so unpredictable that if a person only waits around for a Eureka moment, they're only going to be frustrated and anxious by the time the idea comes along.
So here are three other ways inspiration strikes and how to harness it.
"It would've been better if..."
Just last night I was watching a movie and inspiration came to me in its most typical form: a wouldacoulda. The term, which I made up just in this moment, is when someone is watching a movie, reading a book, looking at a painting, or enjoying a video essay on YouTube, when suddenly, frustration hits. You find yourself saying, "It would've been better if she didn't leave him." or "It could've been my favorite book if it hadn't wrapped up so hastily at the end". Sometimes, there's a pivot in your brain, where thoughts come like, "I would not have made him an alcoholic, it's too played out." or "I could have told a more interesting story if I wrote this character with my experiences."
A wouldacoulda may sound a bit proud, but under that pride is often passion. Take a hold of that passion. Write your version of Harry Potter. Make your version of Pete the Cat. Write your script for the next Star Wars sequel. By the time your wouldacoulda project is run through your unique perspective and style, you'll barely recognize it from the media that inspired it.
"Did you say..."
This one happens more often than we think. Someone yells down the hallway, "Do we need tomatoes or grapes?" your innately creative brain, unable to hear the real question, translates to: "Do people grow up in space?"
This kind of idea, which we'll call a Mishear, takes me down a white water rapids of additional questions. "What if there was a world where children were sent to space, but they never grew old? Their brains got smarter but their bodies stayed the same. It's like the elves in The Santa Clause movie or the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, but they're on some sort of space mission! Is that anything?" I'll tell you right now, as silly as it seems, a Mishear can be like a branching path in the wilderness - it will take you to places your grown-up, logical brain would never go otherwise. Sometimes a Mishear doesn't come in handy until years down the line, but it still demands your respect and attention. Your subconscious said something weird to you - a thought you would have never thought otherwise, but a thought of your own nonetheless!
"These are a few of my favorite things..."
In Hollywood, people always pitch movies as "It's like ____ meets _____.." It works as a shorthand. "Do you like Hell's Kitchen? What about Stewart Little? Let me introduce you to Ratatouille!" You can do the same when searching for an idea. Did you love the idea of a ditched clone trooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens? What about the collision of whimsy and cynicism in Christopher Robin? I guarantee you therein lies a story. Everything you watch or read has a nugget of goodness within it. Take those nuggets and extract them from their stories and forge them together in your own story. Nuggets are like the opposite of wouldacouldas: a wouldacoulda makes a change to a story you love, and a nugget extracts one good bit out of a less-than-enjoyable story. Similar to wouldacouldas, nuggets are also rooted in passion: "I didn't like Dolly Parton's new album, except for this one line that I ADORED...". Hold onto your nuggets and mold them into beautiful, golden ideas that get you excited to create something wholly new.
Write it all down
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, insists that no matter what, Write It Down. Maybe your misheard idea makes no sense right now, but it might after you watch a certain documentary or read the hot new fantasy series. No matter how silly your wouldacouldas sound or how incomplete your nuggets may be, write them down anyway. Each idea is a flower that could one day be put together into a wonderfully arranged bouquet. Brandon Sanderson, one of the forerunners in fiction writing today, said an entire series was inspired by this question, "What if Frodo Baggins ultimately failed in Lord of the Rings?". In one of his lectures, he explains that this idea didn't do anything for him for a while, but he "stored away as simply an 'idea". It needed to marinade for a while, Sanderson needed to live for a few more years and experience more things before all of the pieces fell into place for him.
If you haven't gathered already, my philosophy of inspiration is not that you need to bang your head against a wall hoping for an idea to come. Life will bring ideas to you in all sorts of different ways if you're paying attention, some good, some bad. There's no need to torture yourself over it. Read a book. Take a walk. Meet with a friend who just got back from a trip. Ask your elders questions about their younger years. Live with your eyes and ears wide open, and wait for chest to burn with passion. Once the passion grabs you, the story will almost demand you bring it to life.
Thanks again for reading today! If you want to know what to do with your idea once it's born, take a look at this blog I wrote. I'll be here writing about art next week, so be sure to subscribe down below so you don't miss it. Until then, safe travels.
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