IDEAS! - Guest Post by Angela Brown

We're continuing our series written by regular YA Muses readers, responding to and expanding on previous Muse themes.  Today, we are thrilled to introduce to you Angela Brown, a blogger and writer who never fails to cheer us with her comments and often gives us something more to think about as well.  This is a lady who has a wealth of ideas...

The writers here at YA Muses are great.  Every day we get a different viewpoint on the “theme” of the week.  Bringing out thoughts on the same topic from unique perspectives is a wonderful idea.  And that’s what I’d like to briefly touch on today.

Ideas…more specifically: where I get my ideas.

No, I don't have an "Idea Man"...though that would be awfully helpful :-)  He could sit down, do all my brainstorming for me, type up ideas, fly an airplane and drag the new ideas along behind him in a banner.  Then again, I wouldn't be able to call them MY ideas if I let someone else do all my thinking for me.

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It might be tempting to put out a bounty on ideas.  I mean, hey, when I'm running on vapors, the sign I just passed says "Next imagination station 300 miles" and I'm feeling desperate, putting a call out may work:

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Thankfully, I haven't needed to put out a bounty or call upon an idea man.  Many of my ideas formed during the mundane-ness of my paying gig, sometimes with the aid of music.  Being surrounded by gray Hayworth in a cubilce for several hours of the day could turn my idle mind into the devil's playground.  But that idleness morphs into my Imagination Haven.  I think about my current WiP, ways to improve it, scenes to add, darlings that might have to get the ax.  Then, like a mermaid, I get distracted by some new shiny that spins on its head and wags its tail with vigor-

“New shiny!”

Oops, sorry, um, yeah, as I was saying - something inspired by a "What if?" or an "I wonder if..." or "Why?".  That's where Post It notes come in handy.  Yes.  I said Post It notes lol!!!!!  The little things are a life saver for me because I'm not very good at carrying around a journal - which, by the way, keeping a journal nearby is a very smart thing to do.  Take it from someone whose purse looks like this on the inside:

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There really is an order to the chaos lol!!!!!

Take my idea for my A to Z blog opera.  It first started as "Why are good girls attracted to bad boys?", inspired by Adele's song "Set Fire to the Rain" (she doesn't literally mention bad boys and good girls but it made me think about it).  That prompted a blog post asking the same question.  Got some great answers, one of them being how opposites are bound to attract.  What's more opposite than an agent of heaven and an agent of hell?  Then mix things up by having them become attracted to each other and over a bit of time, fall in love only to discover each other's lies and truths.

After pantsing my way through the A to Z blogging challenge - and receiving some of the most inspirational and encouraging comments from old and new blog followers - I decided to take this "blog opera theme" and turn it into a novel/novella currently titled NEVERLOVE.

Idea > Encouragement and Inspiration > Novel in the works!

Not every idea happens this way - oh how I wish it could :-)  Like Donna mentioned, it can happen during routine things.  Katherine discussed how ideas can form like magic, coming at you from everywhere all the time.  Talia emphasized further how ideas are everywhere.  And let's face it, it's kind of hard for some of us to pin down that precise moment when a specific idea hit us because of the "everywhere-ness" of how ideas can come about.  Not so hard for Bret who shared when he had his "Eureka!" moment for an idea, because that can happen sometimes.  Guest blogger Mike Jung (Big Woot for such a wonderful post that had me laughing and enjoying the topic as well) even shared a mixing bowl recipe that I'm sure will work for many :-)
So if nothing else, I want to end things with this:

I - Imagination
D - Diligence
E - Everywhere-ness
A - Anytime, All the time
S - Something special