Ideas

I never really give much thought to where my ideas come from. I'm just grateful that ideas occasionally pop into my head so I can write.

Yesterday, maybe for the first time, or maybe it's always this way and the old brain just can't remember, I was reading my Page-A-Day calendar page and - brilliant illumination, blinding almost, I had to reach for the sunglasses - BAM (Emeril at his best)!!!! Yes, an idea out of nowhere. I wasn't even looking for the pesky thing and there it was slapping me - repeatedly, I might add - in the face. On a Page-A-Day calendar page no less.

So, I made a note to myself to save the page. I tore it off this morning and laid it on my desk. You'd think that would be enough? Right? Well, of course it wasn't enough, life is not that simple. Fate is a capricious entity at times. I'm minding my own business, making my oatmeal and coffee (no, I don't mix them together . . . but there's an idea) and I was like . . . what if . . . yes, the idea monster was doing twirls in my brain in some nice stiletto heels. The back of the calendar page is now filled with notes since the pesky little idea that began to form yesterday just won't leave me the heck alone. I have things to do - life, work, walk the dogs in the pouring rain that may or may not turn to snow, and blah, blah, blah.

Well, now that I've rambled on and totally gotten off the original point of this post. Where in the heck do your ideas for writing come from? One of my best came from a pitcher of margaritas. Most of them, however, just form in the depths of my imagination and somehow emerge into a coherent - or, in some instances, not so coherent - story. I just never thought about the actual catalyst for the idea until this morning when I was reading the calendar page once more.

Why is it I never considered the catalyst for my ideas before now? Do all writers just have moments of epiphany? Or, is there always a catalyst and we just don't recognize the catalyst? Are there more ideas waiting in my Page-A-Day (Forgotten English) calendar? Will I flip to March 1 and - brilliant illumination, blinding almost, I had to reach for the sunglasses - BAM (Emeril at his best) again???? I have no clue. I just thought I'd send this question out to the masses (yeah, right!) who read this blog.

S