Ideas?

I was sitting down trying to figure out what I should write when a conversation with a friend popped into my head. She had been reading an interview with a popular writer and the first question people wanted to ask her was "Where do you get your ideas from?" That question kind of flabbergasted both of us. We've never been struck with a time when we didn't have new ideas on what to write. Fleshing out and FINISHING the stories we get ideas on and writing them as eloquently as our minds envision these stories to be, that we're still working on. Coming up with the story ideas though? That part has never been difficult.

A conversation we have with someone else, random comment a friend makes, an interaction between strangers that we witness, those along with so many others provide ideas for stories. I try to jot down each idea as it comes to me so that I can work on them later, and believe me that there are so many poor neglected baby stories in my hard drive. I feel so sorry for the little ones because I do neglect them terribly while I spoil my current favorite with attention.

We both agreed on what we'd have asked the author. "How do you keep your attention and focus on one story all the way to completion when the world around you is practically dripping with ideas for new ones?" One of these days I'm going to attend a live stream for an author or email in this question. The world is holding up unwritten stories in front of my eyes like shiny jewels all the time and I keep chasing after the new sparkly! Maybe I just need to become a hermit and hole myself up in an empty room with my laptop until the story's done. Huh. There's a new idea for this NaNoWriMo.