You can see in the picture…there are ideas captured on 1000-Island-Dressing-stained-napkins that I got while eating rueben sandwiches. I have something in my office called an Idea Rock.Īnd EVERY idea that flits my way gets captured, no matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing.
Every idea you can get your grubby little mitts on. What a TERRIBLE IDEA for a picture book! But when that idea showed up in my brain, I was on it like a fat kid on Cinnabon (and being less-than-svelte myself, you’d be surprised how quickly we can move when frosting-drenched cinnimon is around).
Until they get some great advice from a wise old owl…who then meets a grisly death at their hands. But that didn’t stop me from capturing the idea that later became CREEPY CARROTS.Ī lion, a wolf, and a shark all feel terrible about their meat-eating ways. When I first got the idea for a story about a bunny being stalked by evil root vegetables, don’t you think my first thought was “Dumb idea”? It totally was. And then, horror of horrors, you forgot about it.Īnd the idea dies. Your job was to capture that little sucker, but instead, you judged it and dismissed it as inconsequential. It wants to be put to work, to be brought into being. That little dragonfly of a idea buzzed into your head for a reason…it wants to be used. It’s just a blip on your imagination, and in the micro-second that it takes you to think “That’s stupid.”, you dismiss it and continue chomping. “I wonder what would happen if this spoon….ATTACKED ME?!!!” You’re happily eating away on your raisin-crunch oatmeal, not thinking about picture books at all, and suddenly you find yourself thinking, How many times have you done it? An idea buzzes your way at the most unexpected time.
I think ideas are everywhere! They fill the air around us like hyperactive dragonflies, just waiting to be snatched out of the air, captured, and put to work. I recognize that many people think about ideas as elusive endangered species that love to play hide-and-go-seek with us writers. And the answer is kinda lame: I have absolutely no idea. This is the question that kids and aspiring writers ask me the most.
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