The secret to my seemingly never-ending fount of ideas? Stealing. Oh, I’m no plagiarist, but I do steal. I see a call to action on someone’s website and think, “That’s a great way of doing it. How can I apply the concept to my site or a client’s?”
Other times, it’s a line from a book I’m reading—and lines are aplenty. I’m constantly reading something, either because of an assignment in Leadership Development or because I really and truly do love reading for the sake of reading. It’s rare to find me without a book. (Cue song from Beauty and the Beast.)
Sometimes, I use those lines as jumping off points. It’s a way of giving context or sharing a beloved thought. Other times, the lines settle into my subconscious. The author’s rhythms become mine, or I adopt them for a time. I like to try on new styles, see how they fit. I may put them back on the rack, but I’ve at least tried something new. I know for a fact that that style is not mine. I’m okay with that.
Other places I steal from? The great outdoors, well, the great outdoors found in suburbia. The birds I hear, the rabbits I see, the teddy bear abandoned on the sidewalk? I tuck them away. I might not need them at this moment, but I know they’ll be of use later. Everything is because if the writing life is about anything, it’s about making connections, creating new ideas out of other ones, and stealing from everyone and everything.
Image: Loz Pycock (Creative Commons)
[…] of lazy words.” The phrase so captured my attention that I told her I was going to “borrow” it. She affirmed the quasi-loan, though, so there’s […]