Where Do Ideas Come From?

This includes books, scripts, magazines, and newspapers. Small items in newspapers can spawn entire plays, and the tabloids, with their outrageous tales, can be helpful, especially for farces.

Watching

Plays, movies, and television can also be sources, but the skill is to take away just an idea, rather than actually borrow (or worse) too much. Mostly, when I've watched a really good (or really bad) show, it inspires me as a writer to intensify my efforts.

Adapting From Other Works

This is such a great source of ideas that I write of it often, as in the articles, Original Works vs. Adaptations and Adapting Other Works for the Stage.

Building Blocks

These are just a few tricks, tools, and takeaways. To write of the human condition requires understanding of that condition. Observation, recording, analysis, and blending of human conditions, conversations, situations, crises, successes, and participants are the tools and methods of our craft. Use these building blocks often, with enthusiasm, and ever reaching for freshness. An old saying goes, "You cain't edit what ain't writ yet." That which we record is our clay; if left in our heads, it's still just a dream. An artist needs physical material to work with, so must obtain it from as many sources as needed.

Remain aware of your world ... listen and observe. You may be surprised by how much is there to use when creating your special worlds, characters, and stories.

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