Where do great ideas come from? What idea generation techniques work best? This can be a difficult question to answer, since usually, an idea for a novel seems to come out of nowhere. One day you're driving in your car or washing dishes and an idea starts to glow in your mind like the sun coming up, or maybe it glares down on you all at once, as if dark clouds were suddenly blown away and there it is – hot and bright and obvious.

Since ideas seem to come unbidden, it might seem that we writers have no control over our ideas. They come on their own, after all, not when we call to them (no matter how nicely we call...) but when we least expect them. But I would argue that these seemingly random ideas are actually the product of a subconscious mind that has been "trained" to be searching for them at all times.

Maybe this sounds very mystical or pseudo-psychological (because, well, maybe it is…) but if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share four suggestions to prime your mind to subconsciously formulate story ideas. These habits will make idea generation a natural part of your thought process:

Always ask "what if?"

You may have heard never to open a query letter with a hypothetical question, but that shouldn't mean that hypotheticals are useless to writers. Most of us think this way already. If it rains for three days straight, we say, "Imagine if this were snow!" If it starts to storm, we say, "Imagine if you were catching a flight on a day like today!"

Since most of us already think this way, I'm simply suggesting you take your questions a bit further. You may ask yourself, "What if it never stopped raining ever again?" or "What if all this rain were acid and it destroyed everything it touched?" You may think of the flight taking off in a storm and ask, "What if two long separated lovers were seated next to each other in a jet taking off in dangerous weather?" or "What if lightning hit an engine just as a hijacker was storming the cockpit?" Just pushing your "what ifs" a bit further will jump start your imagination.

Never accept that there is only one solution to a problem.

If you have to pick up Mary from cheerleading and Rebecca from field hockey, and they are ten minutes apart and you have only five minutes to make the trip, you can probably figure out at least one solution. Maybe Mary catches a ride with another family. There's a solution, so the problem is solved. But as writers, shouldn’t we train ourselves to come up with a few extra solutions? Rebecca could walk to the local library and wait there. Mary could ride her bike to practice so that you only need to worry about Rebecca. Writing is all about obstacles and overcoming them, so train your mind to look for more solutions than you’ll ever need.

Ask questions like a child.

I remember when my son was small he would ask questions all the time. "How does an antenna work?" "Why do fluorescent lights make my skin look blue?" "How does the TV find the right show when you change the channel?" I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I had to answer, "Go ask Dad." Shouldn't a grown woman know how an antenna works? And if she doesn't, shouldn't she be anxious to find out the answer? Unfortunately, as we get older, we let the day-to-day questions - "How am I ever going to pay the cell phone bill?" - crowd out the questions that lead to much more creative thinking.

Read widely.

While it's important to read in the genre you write, I personally believe writers should read all kinds of fiction, as well as magazine articles, current events, travel stories, and even science journals. A few years ago, when the Chilean miners were trapped, I developed a voracious interest in Chile, and tried to read as much as I could about a country I'd rarely thought about before. Not long after that, a photo on a magazine cover spawned a frenzy of research into Machu Picchu. To date, I've never used anything I learned about Chile or Machu Picchu in any of my fiction, but it has helped train my mind to imagine different environments, and the lives of the people who live there.

Do you have unique methods for generating ideas? Do you already practice any of these habits? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my post on Falling Out of Love with your Novel Idea.