Where Do Your Ideas Come From? This Isn’t The Important Question

The Star from the Crowley deck Painted by Lady Frieda Harris

Welcome to Creativity Saturdays, where it’s my mission to spark your creativity into manifestation. Tips like this and more can also be found in my bestselling book, Overcome Writer’s Block: 10 Sparks to Ignite Your Creativity.

Where do your ideas come from?

As a writer you probably get asked that a lot. I know I do.

I shrug and say, “Everywhere.”

For creative people I’d say the important thing is really what do you do with your ideas once you get them.

I don’t know about you, but I feel that I’m getting at least 2-3 good ideas idea. Easy. And frankly, I’m a little overwhelmed by them. I feel a little like I’m being handed a gift, then another, then another, until I’m staggering a little under this wonderful stacks of presents.

So I’ve been devising some tools to handle this wonderful cornicopia of what is basically the bread and butter of my life — good ideas — and then implementing them.

Here’s what I do…

First off, I figure out what domain this idea lives in. I do that by asking: “Who is this idea for? Who is its audience?”

Often it’s the people I’m currently helping: Other writers. Thanks goodness! If its for one of my clients, all the better. If it’s for a friend, sweet! And sometimes, it’s for me. A story problem for my novel pops and I get a little AHA.

Then I evaluate if I can do anything with this idea in 1 minute. And I usually can. I can write it down and send it to the intended person, or share it on the social networks, or prep a blog post.

Sometimes I know right off the bat that this idea isn’t for my clients my friends or me. But it’s a really good idea! Then what? This is usually where I get stymied.

A friend of mine, Julien Adler, helped me see that not every idea I receive is even for me to do anything with. What I great releif!

And with those ideas it is my mission and my passion to give them away as fast as I can. Thank god for social media! I post them on Facebook and Twitter and give them out into the world for any and all to use.

So right now, what is one idea you’ve been holding on to, that is perhaps crowding your mental space, or not, and you could just let it go, so others can manifest it?

Then you can have more space to focus on taking action on the ideas that really matter to you.

Tips like this and more can also be found in my bestselling book, Overcome Writer’s Block: 10 Sparks to Ignite Your Creativity.