I have notebook pages full of ideas of things to write- some are completely sketched out in my head, it's just a matter of being disciplined enough to write them down. Others are just vague concepts that need fleshing out before they are ready to see the light of day. Some are mostly ready, but the needs of the story are perhaps a little beyond where I'm at as a writer, and so they stay inside, ripening.

According to Orson Scott Card, "Good stories don't come from trying to write a story the moment I think of a good idea." He goes on to say that it takes years between lightbulb-going-on and finished version. Which is kind of true, in my experience, but not quite the whole story (of course, Card is a successful Hugo-winning writer and I am Homie Bear, so . . . ) I think if you were to take those words too seriously, it might paralyze you, make you think you needn't bother to write anything for the next couple of years.

Writing is not that different from drawing- artists sketch to get the juices flowing, and then ideas come and pretty soon they're ready to do a finished piece. I see it on deviantArt all the time. Blogging is a great way to sketch, for a writer. Which is not to say that you should "scribble" all over your blog and expect readers to stay interested. I like to put polished pieces of writing here, though they are stories about bears fighting zombies which don't have much of a market. But that's okay, for me it's all about the fun.

Now and then an idea or image pops into my brain, and it doesn't take much effort to nurse it into a finished piece. One of my favorite poems that I've written came from an image of brains growing in a field- and then I followed that through to develop a whole twisted ecosystem based on that one image, and not too long after that first inspiration, I had the finished piece. I can say the same thing about short stories I've written.

On the other hand, there have been ideas that have taken years from first glimmer to actual story. The other night at work I got an interesting idea in my head, but I know it will take a lot of thinking and research to make something workable out of it. And last year I was finally able to write a children's story after the initial idea had been floating around in my head for years. I had a character name, but nothing for him to do. Then a second idea came to me and within a week the thing was finished. I'll be reading it next week at the Gathering if you want to hear it- it's about an abominable snowman. I don't want to say too much about it, but I promise it will be a good time- I've collaborated with a couple of other artists to make something pretty cool.

I wish I could snap my fingers and conjure a great idea out of nothing. But if it were that easy, it wouldn't be worth doing, would it?