Idea, Idea, Where Did You Come From?

As a reader, I’ve always wondered where some of my favorite authors get their ideas from. As a writer, ideas come to me at lightning speed. I’m currently sitting on like 50 ideas for future novels I could write, and new ideas keep coming at me constantly. Just this weekend I got three new ideas.


Saturday night, my husband and I went out on a date. When I was a child, my parents were always on the poorer side so we didn’t really go out much, so I had never been to the circus until now. I enjoyed the show, especially the acrobats. However, the animal acts rubbed me the wrong way. An idea was born. What makes a person want to join the circus? There’s always the stereotype that people with secrets hide it behind masks (or clown makeup). So that was the first of my ideas.

On the way home from the circus, I saw a fire truck doing down the street. That’s something ordinary that we all have seen many times in our lives. However, I started thinking. What if there was a cool female firefighter who races into a burning building in an attempt to save a little child’s life. A scene ran through my head, and around that scene, a plot formed. So that was idea number two.

Sunday, I decided to do some shopping when I walked into a makeup store and asked for help. You see, I have recently dyed my hair the complete opposite of my natural shade and needed to find a lipstick color that would work well with it. When I told the makeup people that I used to be a natural blonde and now I’m a dark mahogany red and that my naturally pinkish lips don’t go well with my new hair color, they were shocked to see that someone would actually darken their hair, and so drastically. That got me thinking; what if changing a hair color so drastically wasn’t optional. What if you had to escape and never be found? How many physical changes can one person do without resorting to plastic surgery? Also, if you were to be on the run, can you avoid your favorite spots? If someone who knew you very well, and very intimately was searching for you, would they know where to find you? Would you be able to lose contact with your entire family and friends for fear that you could be seen leaving someone’s house? So needless to say, a third idea was born; can someone truly disappear?

Maybe you will see those ideas being transformed into novels soon, or somewhere within the next fifty years as it might take me that long to write all the books I want to write.

Where do you get your ideas from? And do they linger in your head for a while, or just come to you at lightning speed?