Where the ideas come from

I'm teaching a group of young script writers and the first thing I had them do was make a poster of where ideas come from. I stopped myself from getting on the floor and adding my thoughts to their poster. But, first, getting on the ground and then getting back up again is growing more difficult and secondly I wanted them to come up with the ideas. It didn't take them long. For me, I'm relegated to my blog to talk about where my ideas come from. So here's a list!

I wrote at least one of my children's plays just because I wanted a Texas accent. Shore 'nough, I did. The play is called Ruby Lou and the White Gold Saloon. (White Gold is milk)

I do a lot of adapting. I rather like fairy tales, tall tales, folk tales, myths (mainly Greek myths), legends. I also love adapting Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.

 And since I read a lot of fantasy, I wanted to write a play with a dragon in it. Everybody Knows That is one of my plays, and White Fire is a fantasy novel I wrote. They both have dragons in them. The Case of the Missing Pet, a play, has a gecko and a parrot as the main characters. At the Zoo's main character is Pesky Penguin (Penguins are so cute)

There are nights that I have rather memorable dreams. I have a pad of paper and a pen in my night stand...which I hardly use because I don't like to wake up to write things down. Anyway, I had a song come to me in a dream. I have ideas for books I've written down. The biggest problem is the DREAMS DON'T FINISH THE STORY so I have to make up most of it. The song didn't get finished in the dream but I managed to complete the song.

I have a musical I want to write for a long poem, and 3 children's plays from nursery rhymes.

There are other ways I get ideas. Such as settings (Done in Down Under). Seeing something or someone. There's the question method: "I wonder what would happen if...", "Why would someone want to...", "Where would a large group of people hang out?" Sometimes ideas just come because I sat down and told my brain that I couldn't get out of the chair until I had at least a paragraph, and if I went all the way to a page, I'd let myself have a big bowl of ice cream. It's funny how I can bribe myself to come up with an idea! 

Most recently I wanted to write a short children's musical. Here's how the brain went--High School Musical is set at a school but I want this to be about kids in elementary...High School Musical had a spoof, High School Non-Musical...Elementary School Musical? No, I don't want it to be about kids auditioning for a musical, nor a spoof of HS Musical...It's Elementary...that sounds good...it sounds like Sherlock Holmes...like a mystery...what could be a mystery at an elementary? I don't want just a theft of a pencil or the like...a petnapping!...the classroom pet is missing...and I want four songs...something about having an alibi, something about being a detective...a chase scene, it has to have a Chase song...the finale should be the title It's Elementary. Then I had to write the whole thing. But I love the play and I love how it's coming...oh, I happen to be in the midst of directing it too. 
If you happen to be reading this before July 19 and 20, 2016, you're welcome to come see it! It's part of the Midsummer Shows at Children's Educational Theatre.

If you write, what do you do for ideas?