Episode 9: Where do you get your ideas? With Mo Willems — Kids Ask Authors

To the extent that we can give a brief answer to the question of where novel ideas come from, it's curiosity. That's what people are usually feeling before having them.

Good ideas appear out of nowhere, from seemingly unrelated concepts coming together and creating a new thought in your head. You can't force this process, your job is to recognize when they show up and take advantage of them.

Firstly, I don't know myself where the ideas really come from, what makes them come, or whether one day they'll stop. Secondly, I doubt anyone who asks really wants a three hour lecture on the creative process. And thirdly, the ideas aren't that important. Really they aren't. Everyone's got an idea for a book, a movie, a story, a TV series.