New Ideas?

Audre Lorde once said, "There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt." I believe she was right about that. Solomon said something similar in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, "It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new." (NLT)

Do you know what I love about writing? Ideas are all around me, and they're limitless. When I see the trees begin to produce flowers in the Spring, I'm reminded of my personal growth that bursts into bloom after a long, dry, wintry spell of life. In that same Spring when we receive a surprise snowstorm and are forced to slow down and hibernate in our homes for a day or two, I consider the ways I am too busy, overly committed, and hard headed to realize that I'm in need of a day of rest and reflection. These epiphanies can't help but flow into my writing and inspire me to look at what I have to say with new eyes.

As writers, we are designed to take what we see, experience, and dream, and find engaging ways to offer it to our readers. There are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt. That's one of my basic goals, to make people feel. What ideas are brewing in you? What inspires you to write? How do those things shape your writing? What does your writing make people feel?