When you get a good idea, you know it. Ideas aren't found. You don't say "Let's go find an idea!", and walk around looking in under furniture, in the pages of books, or in the back of your desk drawers. It just doesn't work that way. I'm sorry. Don't kill the messenger. It's not hide and seek. It's not easy. Ideas come when you least expect it, and when you don't particularly want them. You have to learn to deal with it. They come when you are deep in thought about something completely random. They find you. You don't find them.
That's why crazy people like me have ideas so often that our heads tend to explode from lack of space. That's why crazy people like me who get distracted and stare off into space for hours at a time have so many ideas. It's easier for them to find us.
J.K. Rowling describes first getting the inspiration for the Harry Potter books like this: "the idea... simply flew into my head." Now that fabled train ride is something of legend. This phenomenal was fueled only because one lady liked to daydream. But even an amazing idea like that takes time. It was 17 years from when the idea first flew into Joanne Rowling's head to when her last Harry book was published. Yikes! So, don't worry. Ideas take time. They fall and find, so be patient, and keep your mind open.
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I too have wondered where the ideas of these respected authors fly from. What you said is very true. All we can do is to remain patient. (And I like those ideas that explode from your spacing out.) Well written!
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