Stephanie Meyer (who wrote the Twilight series) says the story came to her in a vivid dream: “In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire.” (SM Biography)
J.K. Rowling says that “the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into my head” during a train ride from Manchester to London.
Today, feeling a little tired already, I decided to lie down and wait for the next big book idea to come to me. I made myself as receptive as possible, taking deep relaxing breaths and shooing away any thoughts of doubt or feelings of guilt for lying down so soon in the morning after getting up.
And there the visions came to me: a mailbox of colorful mittens saying, “Hullo guv-ner,” just like the chimney sweeps in the Mary Poppins movie. Since I was passively letting these visions flow through me I didn’t respond to them, and they didn’t say much beyond, ‘hullo, hullo” or do much except for flapping around in the mailbox.
Then I saw a girl with white-blond hair skating on an icy river, flying off with suddenly sprouting wings. She didn’t look around at me but just headed towards the distance.
In my final vision, I saw a large boatful of Medieval monks in black robes with hoods, traveling into a tunnel singing Gregorian chants.
So, to summarize, I got:
- a new character (maybe) for Pee Wee’s Playhouse, if it is ever revived
- a new Barbie movie or movie heroine, a skating fairy or a bewitched princess
- a scene from a movie I think I’ve already watched
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2 comments:
There are no new ideas, really. Just reinvented ones. Twilight maybe the latest sensation, but you can hardly say that vampires are an original idea. What's most new is the modern setting for Twilight.
In the case of Harry Potter, of course, there is the entire genre of British fantasy including the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's work.
Without denigrating the quality of either (I loved the Potter series) I think the authors benefited as much from good timing and marketing as much as they did from their abilities.
In terms of your own visions - you know the old saw; creativity is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. It's all about tapping that spring on a regular basis.
I like the last two visions (may their be more!), and the photogragh. You may wish to write a novel about a writer who wonders much about writing.
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