One of the most common questions writers are asked is, “where you you get your ideas?” My favorite snarky reply is, “from the idea store,” but I realize that’s not actually helpful. (Side note: I wrote a post with this same title fifteen years ago. My brain is still just as random.) Writers tend to be naturally curious, and I find listening to the people around me (NOT eavesdropping. LiStEnIng), watching how they interact, and letting my imagination fill in the gaps leads me to endless story ideas.

My upcoming release, The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway (TQUEE), is one of the few book ideas I got as a result of intentional brainstorming. I had just finished reading a book about twins and was drawn to writing a story about twins, but, I argued with myself, I don’t have a twin. No problem, I’d make one of the twins disappear. Once my brain headed down that track, more ideas quickly followed.

But the real magic is in the details.

I’ve never based the main plot of a book on anything from my life — I slip real details into the side stories. The little scenes that may not stick with reader. The small opinions and observations and random conversations — those are often based on my personal experiences. A character hates nuts in baked goods? *waves hand* Hello! (My husband hate that too. A super random thing we agree on.) Has a dad that points at them and says ‘behave’ before they go out with friends? Me again. (That’s from The Slope Rules.)

Some of the details are even smaller. We lived in our previous house while I was writing TQUEE, and the route we often walked our dog Owen took us past a sign that said OLD FISHERMAN CROSSING. Except the F-I and A-N were worn out so it said OLD SHERM CROSSING. The house was set back far enough from the road that you couldn’t see much detail past the tall decorative grasses and weather-worn slatted fence. I passed that sign and that yard multiple times per week for almost six years. At some point I started thinking of the homeowner (who I never saw or met) as Old Sherm. I would imagine what the person’s life was like, specifically: did they still fish? Were their walls covered with mounted catches and photos of them on the water, or had that part of their life passed on?

Then, when writing the first draft, the idea of a man with an overgrown lawn who rarely leaves the house seemed like the perfect neighbor for my main characters. He’s introduced in the first chapter, and while he dies (this is not a spoiler), his death is the catalyst for a new person to move in next door to the Ellaways, an event that pushes a large part of the book’s plot.

All from an old sign on my evening walk, something a lot of people may never notice while walking by.

These types of inspiration really are all around us. you just have to watch for them and ask the ever important question, “What if?”