One of the more common questions people ask is: “Where do you get your ideas?”
For me, most stories come from the everyday things I see in my daily travels. Often a few unrelated events will come together in my mind at the same time, a character appears, and the story starts to tell itself. The stories often just spring to life, all on their own.
For example, there’s a strange house in our neighborhood, one that doesn’t quite fit in:
Every now and then, when I’m walking our dogs, I see a pale boy pacing around the back yard of this house, talking to himself:
A few months ago, they put bubble wrap in all of their windows:
A few weeks ago, they put a giant wooden owl on the front step, blocking access to the front door:
Finally, two nights ago, I was walking the dogs in the dark during a torrential downpour. As I passed this house, I realized the yard and sidewalk were swarming with giant earthworms, the biggest I had ever seen:
There were thousands of them, and what made this really strange was one simple fact: I walked the dogs for two miles that night and there was not a single earthworm to be seen anywhere else in the neighborhood. Not one.
When you put those five things together, you start to set the stage for a pretty strange story, don’t you think? You do if you’re wired like me, at least.
So, where do my ideas come from?
I have absolutely no idea.