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Through the years, my career has allowed me to work with numerous authors and illustrators. I\u2019ve conducted publicity tours for them, interviewed them, written articles about them. I\u2019ve talked one-on-one with them and have listened as they talked with audiences and individual fans.<\/p>\n
Invariably someone asks: \u201cWhere do you get your ideas?\u201d<\/p>\n
The question should have been: \u201cHow do you keep your ideas from colliding, jumping on top of each other or creating a brain circus?\u201d<\/p>\n
The non-writer\u2014those terrified when their English teacher assigned a 250-word essay\u2014probably imagine that writers agonize daily over whatever they write about next.<\/p>\n
My writing experience has been that ideas constantly bubble up from somewhere and everywhere, overwhelming the brain and requiring some sort of triage.<\/p>\n
Most often, ideas bombard me when I\u2019m in the depths of my current project or as a deadline looms. The Idea Fairies shout to me: \u201cLook over here! Look at this idea. Wouldn\u2019t it be great to write about? You\u2019d do a terrific job with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost nothing in my writing life is more fun than discovering a new idea. I can envision the potential, the accolades, the reviews, the awards. My mind starts composing. But new ideas are just that\u2014ideas. Beyond ideas, stringing together actual words that form an intriguing story presents the challenge. Tantalizing prose writes itself in my head. Writing on paper, not so much. And while the Idea Fairies promise relief, fun and fame, they refuse to write the current project. Furthermore, doing exactly what they say may even derail me.<\/p>\n
The biography I\u2019m writing is taking much longer than it \u201cshould,\u201d and people are already asking about the next one. Three biographies and a book of essays await me. Wait, make that four biographies. Recently, as I spoke about a friend who has been helpful with my current book project, it hit me. She should be my next biography! Much of her career was devoted to the same time period and similar experiences as those of the subject in my current project, but from a different perspective. And a book about another journalist also in the civil rights and Vietnam War eras would make further use of all I\u2019ve researched so far on the period.<\/p>\n
Those Idea Fairies know well me and my interests. After they deposit a new suggestion in my mind, I mull over how this idea could interest others.Is there a story? Is it good? Is it intriguing enough to hold a reader\u2019s attention? If so, triage it.<\/p>\n
Thanks Idea Fairies. My \u201cBooks to Write Next\u201d list, which you forced me to create years ago, now sports your latest idea.<\/p>\n
When theylure me elsewhere, I feel fortunate. After I recover from their latest visitation, I continue writing my current good idea. Knowing I have more projects ahead invigorates me and spurs me on.<\/p>\n
Truth is, all writing ideas eventually disintegrate into hard work. But, it\u2019s good work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Through the years, my career has allowed me to work with numerous authors and illustrators. I\u2019ve conducted publicity tours for them, interviewed them, written articles about them. I\u2019ve talked one-on-one with them and have listened as they talked with audiences and individual fans. Invariably someone asks: \u201cWhere do you get your ideas?\u201d The question… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[22,8,23,27,28,26,24,25,12],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","category-uncategorized","tag-creativity","tag-writing","tag-biographies","tag-books","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-history","tag-publishing","tag-vietnam-war","tag-writers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jbowrites.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}