Where do your ideas come from? How do you get good ideas? No one has asked me these questions specifically. However, I've heard many well-established authors are asked some variant of those questions.

I have learned I am not like a lot of people as I seldom draw inspiration from real life. I do not partake in the art of people watching and I don't casually eavesdrop on the conversations of strangers hoping to pick up a juicy tidbit. I'm afraid my inspiration comes from something I cannot share, my imagination.

All ideas come from the imagination, you might say, and yes, even if I thought my sister would make a perfect main character for a story, I would indeed craft a false story about her. What I am saying is I will typically be minding my own and business and suddenly I have an idea teasing my brain. As I consider the idea, it grows and grows until either know what the story is about or I don't. At that point, I will usually jot as much as I know about the idea down.

I don't use real people as inspiration for my characters. This isn't because I think it is frowned upon or I'm worried about the people finding out. I simply, don't. I get an idea for how the character's personality is and what they are trying to accomplish and then I will find a name that suits them. 

I was listening to R. L. Stein's master class and it he talked about sometimes he gets an idea for a story title and then formulates the story from there. This has happened to me as well.

Some places I have drawn inspiration from: Pinterest writing prompts, fanfiction of favorite shows and games, stories my son tells me, and sometimes simply wishing a life event had worked out differently.

I have three different faerie books in the works currently. One, The Light Keeper, a MG story about a 12yo boy trying to stop faeries from invading the human world. Another, Mary The Fairy Without Wings, is a children's tale about a little fairy who never grew wings, but wishes to fly as all the other fairies do. And the last, Elixia, a YA novel about a sister and brother who accidentally cross into the faerie world and find themselves on opposing sides of a great war, each fearing their sibling is dead. But why faeries? And why do I use that spelling? Simply put, I love faeries. I do not like fairies, which to me are the gentle sitting on a flower tiny people with wings so often pictures. Faeries, to me at least, are human-sized, with great magic. I collect different figurines and pictures and I daydream about the figures and what their life would be like and that inspires my writing.

I hate to think of everyone out there, quietly shelving their ideas because they're not currently "marketable." The only reason I have switched to The Light Keeper was because I am revamping Elixia and TLK was much easier to focus on and the ideas for it just keep coming.

I hope you write about what inspires you, too.

Keep on writing, and I'll do the same!

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