The Waterfall of Ideas
Readers are fascinated by the apparently mysterious process of coming up with story ideas. “Where do you get your ideas?” is one of the most common questions readers ask of writers. In fact, Harlan Ellison was asked it so many times he decided to come up with a specific answer: Schenectady. Schenectady is a small town north of Albany in upstate New York. Ellison would tell his audience there was an idea service company that would send him a weekly six-pack of ideas for twenty-five bucks. Most people knew it was a joke, but every so often someone asked for the address (the pre-internet days). Maybe you’d like an idea package to arrive on your doorstep twice per month? Such a wish comes from believing ideas are scarce, but they’re actually abundant and can be found everywhere, if you train yourself to attune to them. Many writers train themselves by carrying around a small notebook in which to jot down fragments of ideas—images, thoughts, snippets of overheard dialogue— as they come. If you’ve never tried this, it’s wonderful training for attracting ideas. Ideas can be elusive when you really, really need a good one. Inner stress and pressure seem to repel whatever it is that attracts ideas. As if the harder we go looking for story ideas, the more they elude us. Story ideas seem to gather like storms that occur only when a variety of conditions collide. The best ones catch us unawares, and we usually call this inspiration. The poet, Ruth Stone talked about being out in the fields and then feeling a poem come rushing over the landscape, seeming to chase her, and she had to run fast to find paper and catch the poem before it passed through her completely and was lost. Elizabeth Gilbert refers to this story, and others, in some of her talks and in her book, Big Magic. She shares her own story about having an idea for a book that she wasn’t able work with right away, and later she found out her friend Ann Patchett had written a novel with a premise that was uncannily similar. It was as if the idea passed through her and moved on to someone else. Artists of all stripes talk about being visited by ideas at inconvenient times. Some ask the ideas to move on or come back later. It’s as if there are idea-clouds swirling around the planet like wind currents. Many years ago I started to think of ideas as a waterfall, one that was always nearby. And always pouring. All I needed to do was step a little to the left and let it cascade over me. This idea-for-ideas did two things for my imagination: it reassured me that ideas were there for the taking when I felt ready to stand under that flow, and it made me more conscious and responsible for my own intentions around honouring ideas. I was no longer at the mercy of some imagined, tyrannical idea-source that withheld when I was in need and inundated when I wasn’t ready. With a modicum of preparation, I could choose to approach the waterfall with a sense of gratitude and awe. This idea waterfall is just an image, an idea, but it helps me remember that ideas are abundant rather than scarce. Working with ideas that do come to us is also unpredictable, and not always easy. Occasionally, we’re graced with ideas that come fully formed, but more often we have to work and rework them to make a story. I remember reading that Orson Scott Card would often combine two or three ideas to get one that really worked as a story. Sometimes he’d carry around one or two ideas for a long time, patiently waiting for the missing idea to catalyze the others. As writers we do have to practice being receptive to the mysterious inner and outer energies that send ideas around the planet, like water or wind currents. Or maybe we take a few steps to the left and imagine standing under a waterfall of ideas. Whatever the image or metaphor, give yourself the freedom to perceive ideas as abundant and ever-flowing. Brainstorm playfully, curiously, and keep that small notebook handy. Cultivate a sense of wonder and gratitude for the sources of ideas that find you and fill you until a story is ready to take shape. Write with flow.
