Where do you get your ideas from?

It’s a horrible question isn’t it? I cringe when it’s asked in Q&As at book events, and when I get asked it myself become vague and obfuscatory – the truth is, I don’t really know where my ideas come from, and I certainly don’t know how to generate them. I find coming up with ideas extremely difficult. TV executives and theatre/radio producers who I know or have worked with sometimes ask me if I’ve got any ideas I’d like to pitch, and when they do, I panic or groan inwardly. It feels like a huge opportunity that I’m inevitably going to squander while waiting in vain for an idea to pop into my head. Because that’s the true answer to the question I suppose. They just come to me, very rarely, and never when I need them.

This admission reveals me to be a massive hypocrite, as my creative writing teaching usually involves asking people to ‘come up with some ideas’, as if this were easy. Some people genuinely don’t struggle with this – I’ve met writers who can come up with credible dramatic ideas in minutes (as a sidenote, they’re often they’re the ones who then struggle to develop them, but that’s for another day!). For others, it’s as hard as it is for me. Recently, at a total loss for new ideas, I decided to force myself to do something I’d never actually done before and use some of my own ideas-generating exercises.

I’m not sure why this felt so icky, or why I’d not done it before. There was a sense perhaps that this was an indulgent thing to do, or maybe I was being avoidant, scared that I’d learn the exercises don’t actually work and I’d reveal myself (to myself) as a charlatan. But I was at the end of my tether, so I finally sat down and took a dose of my own creative medicine.

Here’s one I tried. It’s a simple list writing exercise. Spend ten minutes on each list, and don’t overthink it.

List 1: Passions and preoccupations

Make a list of things that you:

• Love
• Hate
• Are currently angry about
• Are inspired by/obsessed with/curious about
• Notice happening locally to you
• Think we should discuss more as a society.

List 2: What’s missing?

Make a list — tailored to the form you’re working in (whether it’s a novel, TV show, play, film, podcast, etc.) — of subjects, styles, themes or stories you consider to be missing from the current cultural landscape. Be specific, and make it something you’d like to see.

For example: ‘I think we need more plays about women in their 80s!’ ‘I want to see a romantic comedy set in Great Yarmouth!’.

List 3: Life stealing

Make a list of events in your life that have changed you. They don’t need to be huge, traumatic events (although they can be). They might be smaller but still impactful. That rainy week in Devon that helped you understand yourself better,m or that terrible date that contributed to your decision to move to Hull.

So! The results. Did it work for me? Reader, I can confirm (while breathing a sigh of relief) that it did! None of the ideas generated have yet gone into production or won me a Bafta, but I was it was an important (and somewhat humbling) reminder to a): practice what I preach, and b): that there’s an alternative option to waiting for inspiration to strike!