As Mrs. Fernman’s gaze swept the room, Waylon looked down and pretended to study his fingernails. He had lots of ideas for making things more awesome—his new journal was going to be full of them—but nothing yet for making things safer. Safer and More Awesome were pretty much opposites, he suddenly realized.
from: Waylon! One Awesome Thing
written by: Sara Pennypacker
pictures by: Marla Frazee
Disney/Hyperion, 2016
Ideas are everywhere. They can be forehead slappers or chin strokers. They can come in a flash and then flash they’re gone.
This week I’m celebrating ideas. “On January 27, 1880, Thomas Edison received the historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp that paved the way for the universal domestic use of electric light.” https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=46
Just draw a lightbulb over my head! Everyone understands what that means. Although controversy rages about who and when and how electricity came to be harnessed, the lightbulb is really one of humankind’s most useful inventions.
Some ideas are ahead of their time, like colored glue and some ideas come to market before they are fully thought out like Corvairs. And some are as perfect and perfectly timed as a hoola hoop.
January is Picture Book Idea Month, now dubbed StoryStorm. The goal is to write down one new idea per day that may make a good picture book. Inspiration comes from various authors, editors and agents who guest-blog on a site called “Writing for Kids While Raising Them” by author Tara Lazar.
Some of my ideas come from paying attention. Some come from listening and thinking about a problem from a different perspective. (Remember my 2017 Word of the Year?) Sometimes ideas come from quiet.
I have not generated an idea per day, but after a couple of dry days, I sometimes think of three or four. Now, January 31, I have 20 ideas, 20 more than I had on January 1. It will be great iIf just a few work out.
Even if an idea turns out to be a bad idea, I remember what Thomas Edison famously said: “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
--stay curious!