As a writer, I usually keep myself open to ideas. I read fantasy novels, watch bad sci fi movies, play open world video games and talk about my writing with family and friends, hoping to spark new ideas for stories. I have no idea where inspiration comes from, but I had an experience the other day which showed me what I’ve been doing wrong.

It was a mystery that would never be solved no matter how much I tried.

Recently, I went to the Seattle Art Museum and was impressed by a particular painting. It depicted a large tree with three compartments within its trunk each with a separate door. One open door showed a miniature home. The next door above held a simple, non-descript sphere. The last door stacked on top, however, was only slightly open, obscuring whatever was within. The mystery of this last compartment killed me. Why did the painter reveal what was inside two compartments but not this last one? What further deepened the mystery was that I was looking at a painting, so I couldn’t just open this compartment door to find out what was within. Worse yet, the artist had long since died so it's not like I could look him up and ask him. It was a mystery that would never be solved no matter how much I tried. What a cool idea for a story, I thought. So, I snapped a photo of the painting, hoping I could look at it later as a source of inspiration.

I could write a story about the very thing that was happening to me.

Later that day, I kept thinking about the perpetual mystery that the painting presented. I was captivated at the thought of a mystery that is impossible to solve. I felt like I had something worthwhile—a concept that I could turn into a plot. I wanted to look at the painting again for inspiration but I couldn’t find the picture I had taken on my phone. It wasn’t in my pic gallery. I couldn't remember the artist’s name either so I started googling, using words to describe the painting. Nothing came up but random pictures of tree houses. I thought about everything else I could do to get a picture of the painting. I could call up the museum and ask or I could just go and visit again. But my mind went further. What if they didn’t know what painting I was talking about? What if the painting was gone when I went back? What if it had never been there at all?

It was then that a thought came to me. I could write a story about the very thing that was happening to me. Write a story where a man is inspired by a painting at a museum that was never really there. There it was, a great idea for a story.

In my pursuit of inspiration, I crossed that coveted barrier between abstraction and plot.

Where did the idea come from? I originally wanted to see this painting again because I was captured by the thought of a perpetual mystery. I wanted to be inspired by that half closed door, as if it would open a world of revelation about a story that could follow. I had identified my locus of inspiration and it was going to be that damn painting. Only it wasn’t. The actual painting isn’t what generated the idea. It was the pursuit of finding the painting that gave me inspiration for a totally different idea.

The pursuit of inspiration took me from an abstract, ill defined idea of a vague story of perpetual mystery to a concrete premise wherein a person is seeking inspiration from a painting that never existed. In my pursuit of inspiration, I crossed that coveted barrier between abstraction and plot. The idea for the story did not come as a result of what I thought was inspiration, it came from searching for that idea.

This is the reason why most people who have an idea about a novel usually don’t end up writing.

Searching for inspiration is not trivial. As writers, we can keep our eyes and ears open, telling ourselves that there are no bad ideas. When we look out the window and it’s raining ideas, we run outside to gulp down water, but often the sun suddenly comes out and dries up the inspiration. Our presumed source of inspiration can suddenly vanish.

But the truth is, ideas are easy—forming a coherent plot from those ideas is not. This is the reason why most people who have an idea about a novel usually don’t end up writing. They have a flash of an idea, a beautiful moment of what if the world was like x, y or z, that would be such a cool book! But disjointed, abstract ideas don’t easily cross over into a plot. The novice quickly becomes overwhelmed with the daunting task of story continuity, crafting conflict, developing mystery and enriching the characterization. If you only start a story with an abstract idea, like perpetual mystery, then you’re not likely going to develop the crucial elements of a cogent plot.

A good idea has roots that can quickly establish a workable plot. Not only does a good idea have roots, but it has branches that easily carry over into the more complex elements of a story. A solid idea will carry your plot forward where abstraction may just stall your efforts, because there’s not a lot of substance. It’s important to start out a novel or a short story on the solid footing of a workable premise.

There’s something about distracting our brains from the problem at hand that unleashes our creativity.

So, we know why we need a solid idea for a plot but the mystery remains: where do we get these ideas? The answer is I don’t really know.

But I know that, much like not finding your car keys until you start looking for your wallet, the idea you want probably won’t be found in the place you’re looking for it. What is important is continually seeking for the idea. And, yes, you may not actually find what you set out looking for but you will find something along the way that may be even more compelling than what you wanted in the first place.

There’s something about distracting our brains from the problem at hand that unleashes our creativity. My best ideas don’t come when I’m staring at a blinking cursor on the computer screen. That’s usually the point where I’d like to smash my laptop and give up writing forever. No, my best ideas come when I’m showering. They come when I’m jogging. They come when I’m driving around listening to podcasts. They’ll come when I’m trying to go to sleep. You know, while I’m doing really exciting things. I don’t know why, but there’s something about routine that frees up the brain to unleash its creativity. Creative inspiration is like that damn cat who you want to come and sit in your lap but won’t until you’ve given up and started eating dinner. Then that cat is all up in your face for attention. That is how inspiration works.

We need to completely exhaust ourselves until we think that we’re just total hacks at what we’re doing.

The irony of my experience at the art museum was that the idea of a man being inspired by some sort of ghost painting that he saw at a museum is that this idea contained that mystery abstraction that I started out looking for to begin with. I stumbled on the very idea I was looking for by not being able to find the original painting that inspired me.

As writers, we just need to look and not stop looking for sources of inspiration. We need to turn over all the proverbial rocks and completely exhaust ourselves until we think that we’re just total hacks at what we’re doing. The hope is that we won’t necessarily find inspiration where we’re looking but that we’ll stumble on it by being curious, receptive and open minded about the world. We need to keep asking questions until the ideas find us.