Picture book maker Mo Willems refers to his notebooks as ”idea gardens.” Here’s his answer to the question “Where do you get your ideas?”
I'm afraid you may not like the answer because ideas are not things you get. People tend to think that ideas are things like diamonds. And then you go out and you get them and you grab them and you bring them back. But that's not what ideas are. Ideas are things that grow.
And so the way to make a book or a story is to have the tiniest inkling of an idea and then to plant it and you plant it in a notebook and in that notebook you move it around and you see what it needs, what sort of nutrients will help it. And you draw and you draw it over time and slowly, some of those seeds will grow and die. And then some of those seeds will become invasive and they'll just sort of choke up your whole garden of ideas and that's not fun.
And then every now and then, one idea sort of grows up and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and starts to bear fruit and become a tree and get so big that you can cut it down and burn it for profit, which is called writing or making a book. So every day I am planting little seeds in my notebook.
Matter of fact, today I just finished a notebook filled with all kinds of little seeds and when I finish a notebook on the front page, I write all of the story ideas that are inside that notebook. And then I go back a month later or two months later or a year later and I see how they've grown.
Matt Ruby on tour
I’ll be in Steamboat Springs, Colorado this weekend (tickets). And doing a bunch of other road stuff upcoming too…
2/23-24 Steamboat Comedy (CO)
3/2 Priam Vineyard (Colchester, CT)
4/11 The Creek (Austin, TX)
4/13 The Secret Group (Houston, TX)
4/14 Cellar Door Comedy (Frederick, MD)
4/19 Comedy House NOLA (New Orleans)
4/26 Cheshire Craft Brewery (Cheshire, CT)
MAY = Euro dates coming soon
6/14-15 Denver Comedy Lounge (CO)
6/16 Boulder Comedy Show (CO)
6/21 Dead Horse Comedy (Arlington, VA)