Patricia MacLachlan regularly uses things her grandchildren have said as story starters. You learn about individual voices by eavesdropping. When I sit in a train or a plane, and listen in in on conversations of strangers-gossip is also a story starter. When I read a newspaper or book or story or poem by someone else, I find stories there as well. When I am walking outside, I am always aware that I am breathing in stories. I call those days I am not writing, “gathering days”. Time for yourself, and time to just quietly keep your eyes sharp. (And what kind of monster is under your bed anyway?)īut another important part is-take time. But if you are not alert to them, you will probably be stomping on them every time you put your feet over the side of the bed.

How do I know this? Well, after 366 books (#s 365 and 366 are being published March 6 of this year) I think I can say reliably that those ideas are everywhere. It could be HOW DO DINOSAURS DAY GOODNIGHT, DINOSAUR BOB AND HIS ADVENTURES WITH THE FAMILY LAZARDO, or DINOSAURS LOVE UNDERPANTS.

So it’s not the idea by itself, but what you do with it that matters.Ī dinosaur in a human setting. See-the single idea of a child walking in the evening and lights-sun-activtated, or firefly or fairy lights-I already have the beginnings of three different stories from one idea.Īnd if the same story was written by, say-Patricia Polacco, Dan Santat, or me-you would get three very different stories indeed. Or perhaps the child is lost and the lights call her home. She grows into a famous scientist studying fireflies. The child in the picture suddenly begins to see that lights are not just random, but patterned. What if a child going over a stone walkway to her grandmother’s house, fantasizes a story about fairies guiding her to their queen. Here we are crossing from my house, over a set of stone steps, walking down to my daughter’s house. If you’re a writer, just take a walk outside and ideas will come to you at once. …īut honestly, ideas are thick on the ground. I could go on a metaphoric streak about ideas, talking about stalking the shy idea, cultivating the wild idea, setting traps… etc.

Bird Watch by Jane Yolen