Generally, I get most of my ideas when I’m taking walks, and I sort through a lot of — usually my emotional anxiety and stuff. I sort through all that and then I start thinking about books and I start thinking about ideas and stuff. And occasionally I’ll get a good idea, and when I get back home, I put it on a piece of paper so that I don’t forget it because you do forget good ideas all the time.
You think this is the greatest idea ever. How could I possibly forget this? And then a day later it’s gone. So I write them down and I put them in a drawer. And so when I’m having these periods of not feeling very creative, but I’m ready to start a new project, I just open up that drawer and I start shoving stuff together. Maybe three ideas get smooshed together.
For example, in my book Bee-Wigged I had two slips of paper. One slip of paper said giant bee trying to make friends. Another slip of paper said wig or wiglet. I knew I wanted to [unint.] — I wanted to do a book about wigs or small wigs. I put those two together and ta-da. So, that’s kind of how I get started. Once I’ve got the idea, it’s all about getting the story perfect first.
