Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Adventures and Writing Prompts in the Backyard

When people ask where my ideas come from, I always tell them from any and everywhere. As I’ve mentioned in my Confessions of an Author series, coming up with ideas is not a problem; it’s whittling down those ideas to find the gems and then following through on them that’s the hard part.

Out in the backyard the other day, just playing with the boys, there was no shortage of visual prompts that could easily turn into book ideas (and it was a different black butterfly on the butterfly bush that inspired my current WIP–see first pic!). So I thought I’d go ahead and share those visuals with all of you (and of course some cuteness with pics of said boys).

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Whenever I find mushrooms in the yard, I wonder what kind of magical creatures might live there. Though I knew The Boy had created the little rock formation, I thought about someone who didn’t know its origin coming across it and wondering how it came to be. And bubbles are always magical and fun!

Where do your ideas come from? What gets your creative juices going?

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8 Comments

  1. Mirka Breen

    Ideas come from everywhere, as you said. But they seem to come in spurts for me. I do have dry patches.
    Your two beautiful boys are idea sprinkles, I would imagine. I wonder what The Boy’s little brother will be called here… The Brother?

    • Katie L. Carroll

      Lately I’ve had a steady stream of ideas (probably b/c I’ve had limited writing time), but in the past they did tend to be spurty.

      My boys are certainly sources of inspiration. We’re actually leaning towards The Prince, which was suggested in a blog comment…did that one come from you? No official announcement yet on the nickname, though.

      • Corvus

        If you call the sprout The Prince, that might make people think of Michael Jackson’s son Prince, AKA Blanket. Just me?

        Whenever you see mushrooms in your yard it means the fairies are not far behind.

        • Katie L. Carroll

          I didn’t think of Michael Jackson! Kind of like the Sprout, though. 🙂

  2. Vijaya

    All fodder for imagination, no? Love the photos of your sweet boys.

    • Katie L. Carroll

      Kids truly are great fodder for the imagination, Vijaya. Thanks!

  3. Claudine @ CarryUsOff Books

    Aw the boys look so cute. The rock formation could be a story inspiration for that someone who happens to pop along.

    • Katie L. Carroll

      Thanks, Claudine! That’s totally what I thought about the rock formation. I’ve come across formations like that in the woods or on the beach before and it always made me wonder where it came from.

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