Monday, November 13, 2006

Where do ideas come from?

One of the things that people sometimes ask me when I talk about my book is "where did you get the idea?" I once watched an interview with J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) about this very topic. She joked about being tired of hearing it saying that she wants to reply, "the idea shop," or something silly like that. I too don't know what to say most of the time, but often reply that The Sureshot is simply a reflection of the reading that I enjoy.

Then this last weekend I was mowing the lawn when I thought up another great idea for a book, and I realized that I regularly get good ideas while doing yard work. This reminded me of how people often claim to get good ideas in the shower. This is fitting since both bathing, and mowing the lawn are things that can be done with little active thinking. To me the fact that I seem to get good ideas while I mow the lawn is ironic since I don't enjoy mowing it.

I suppose though it doesn't make much difference what exactly I am doing while I do some thinking, only that I am doing it. So the moral is 1) that ideas don't come from an "idea shop" but rather from the shower, or more correctly from doing something which allows for thinking, and 2) it is good to mow the lawn.

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