#writetip Blogger and writer Kirsten (Blog: Write a Book with me) got me thinking about where ideas come from. She wrote the following in a comment on my blog about themes:
In my current revision, I began by exploring secrets we keep and what it might be like to really see what is inside the minds of those we love, and ended up writing about how everyone has a talent, whether hidden or explored, that is unique to them and no one else.
Two things jumped out at me.
First: Everywhere you look someone is asking: Where do ideas come from?
For me, it happens when I sit down and start writing. I don’t mean thinking about writing, plotting, or researching – although ideas pop up during any of these activities – I mean actually typing in words. I think this is what happened to Kirsten. Time in the seat and all that.
Second: The more I write, the more ideas I have. A minor character in my first three novels made his way into my heart. Ten thousand words into my fourth novel, I discovered he was going to be the main love interest. The fourth novel takes place in a different setting and with different characters than my first three, but there he was waiting to appear. He needed his own book. 🙂
Creative Story Editors 
😀 Thanks for the mention!
As for ‘actually typing in words.’
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one who works that way. Many of the writing books I studied gave me lots of advice on how to structure a story, flesh out characters, and balance description and dialogue. But none of them told me how to find a story in me that refused to let me go until I got to the end of it.
For that I had to sit down, just write, and have faith that I had stories worth telling. So many times in the first draft phase of a story, I am surprised at what pours from my fingers when I let my guard down.
All that other good stuff comes later for me, once I’ve got a story draft that flowed from my heart onto my hard drive.
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From my heart onto my hard drive – very poetic. Makes the hard drive seem pretty important!
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