A book-buying customer once asked me, “How do you get your book ideas?” Like it was as natural as breathing, my answer rolled right off my tongue. “They just find me,” I said.

While I’m not a veteran author of hundreds of books, like many on this blog, I have published one children’s book, the second is well into the illustration process as I write this article, and my third story has a tentative late summer publish date. Even so, I’ve written more that won’t see a publishers desk and the ideas keep coming.

So, what do I mean when I say the story ideas find me? Well, for my first book, Auntie’s House, (Halo Publishing Int’l, 2009) the idea started as a poem I penned during my quiet time one morning. I’d been babysitting my then three-year-old great niece for awhile and how we spent our days together played around in my mind. I wrote a simple poem and eventually it became a story that addressed separation anxiety from the child’s perspective in a very fun loving, positive way.

My second book about to release, Invisible Jenny May, (Halo Publishing Int’l, 2015) started over a breakfast conversation with my husband’s southern aunt back in 2009. She shared how she used to run away to Granny’s house to get away from her large family and spend one-on-one time with Granny. Together they’d bake delicious southern tea cakes. Afterwards, Granny would stuff her apron pockets full of tea cakes for her to share with her five siblings and parents. She did such a wonderful job describing herself and why she would go to Granny’s that I simply had to create a story around her experience.

My third story, A Visit from the Healer, ready to release this summer through a Bethany House anthology titled, Jesus Talked to Me Today, is based upon a true story I witnessed through my then, toddler daughter. The editor sent a “story call out” based upon the title of the proposed anthology and I recalled a fitting, true story from my daughter’s childhood.

Blogging ideas are also based upon true stories and experiences. Sometimes I find myself truly searching my heart for something inspirational, but it comes down to two things: (1) resting in the Lord; worshiping and listening to His direction for writing and my life, (2) observing life as I live it; when something inspires me, I have to write the idea down immediately in order to write about it later. Sometimes it’s just a blog and sometimes it grows into a storybook idea.

How about you? How do you generate your story, blog, article ideas?

Blessings,

Dawn