Have you ever sat down determined to come up with a good idea—and suddenly couldn’t think of anything?
It can make creativity feel like something you either have or you don’t. As if creative people are constantly having brilliant ideas while everyone else is waiting for inspiration to show up.
I’ve come to see creativity differently.
I think the world is full of ideas. We just need to slow down long enough to notice them.
Some of my favorite ideas haven’t appeared while I was deliberately trying to be creative. They’ve started with something I noticed, a conversation, a feeling, a question, or an ordinary moment that made me wonder what else might be possible.
If you’re trying to find more creative ideas, you may not need to look farther.
You may need to look closer.
Where Do Creative Ideas Come From?
Creative inspiration can come from almost anywhere.
A child asking an unexpected question. An animal doing something funny. A family tradition you’ve repeated for years. Something beautiful you notice on a walk. A problem you wish someone would solve.
Sometimes an idea begins with nothing more than a thought that keeps returning.
That’s what happened to me with my little black poodle, Nyx.
She came into my life as my companion. I wasn’t looking at her and thinking, There’s my next creative project.
But over time, one small thought kept returning:
You should create something inspired by her.
That ordinary idea eventually led me to create Grace & Waffles, my children’s book series and the first creative world I shared publicly.
I couldn’t have seen all of that when the idea first appeared.
I only saw the beginning.
And that’s one of the things I’ve learned about ideas: they don’t always arrive looking like what they’ll eventually become.
1. Start Paying Attention to What Makes You Pause
We move past hundreds of little moments every day.
Most disappear almost immediately.
But occasionally, something makes you pause.
Pay attention to those moments.
It might be something beautiful, strange, funny, frustrating, comforting, or completely ordinary.
Instead of deciding whether it’s a “good idea,” simply notice that it caught your attention.
You can ask:
Why did I notice that?
Why did that make me feel something?
What is interesting about this?
Curiosity often arrives before the idea does.
2. Listen for the Things You Keep Thinking About
Not every idea announces itself dramatically.
Some ideas whisper.
They show up while you’re driving. Then again while you’re making dinner. A few days later, you’re thinking about them in the shower.
Don’t dismiss something simply because it seems too small.
If a thought keeps returning, write it down.
You don’t have to know what you’re going to do with it.
You’re just giving yourself somewhere to keep it.
I have found that when I stop demanding that every thought immediately become a finished project, I’m much more willing to notice interesting ones.
3. Pay Attention to Conversations
Conversations are full of creative possibilities.
Listen for questions people ask, stories they tell, things they wish existed, problems they repeatedly encounter, and subjects that suddenly make everyone at the table lean in.
You aren’t looking for something to copy.
You’re looking for what sparks curiosity.
Sometimes one sentence can send your thinking in an entirely new direction.
4. Notice Feelings, Not Just Things
Inspiration isn’t always something you can photograph.
Sometimes it’s a feeling.
Maybe you want to recreate the comfort of visiting your grandmother’s house.
Maybe you remember how nervous you felt walking into school as a child.
Maybe a particular holiday tradition makes you feel connected to your family.
Ask yourself:
What is it about this feeling that I want to explore?
A feeling can become a story, illustration, product, experience, tradition, business—or the beginning of something you haven’t imagined yet.
5. Ask More “What If?” Questions
This may be one of my favorite ways to explore an idea.
Instead of immediately asking whether something is practical, profitable, original enough, or even possible, give yourself permission to wonder first.
What if?
What if this became a story?
What if there were a place built around this feeling?
What if children could experience this?
What if I turned this family tradition into something we could pass down?
What if this tiny idea were bigger?
You don’t have to pursue every answer.
The purpose of the question is to let your imagination go somewhere it couldn’t go if you immediately started listing reasons an idea wouldn’t work.
6. Keep an Idea Collection
You don’t need an elaborate creative system.
A notebook, the Notes app on your phone, a folder of photographs, voice memos, screenshots—whatever you’re actually going to use is enough.
Save things that make you curious.
A phrase.
A color combination.
A strange little object.
Something you saw outside.
A question.
A problem.
A memory.
An idea doesn’t have to make sense when you save it.
You’re collecting possibilities, not assigning yourself projects.
Later, you may discover connections between things that seemed completely unrelated when you first noticed them.
7. Don't Ask an Idea to Prove Itself Too Soon
This is where I think we sometimes lose good ideas.
We notice something interesting and immediately start interrogating it.
Has somebody already done this?
Would anyone care?
Could I actually make it?
How would I do it?
What would it cost?
Those questions can eventually matter.
But they don’t always belong at the beginning.
Early ideas can be fragile. Give them a little room to be interesting before requiring them to be useful.
Explore first.
Evaluate later.
You Don't Need the Whole Plan
Finding the idea is only the beginning.
The next temptation is believing you need to understand exactly where it will lead before you’re allowed to start.
You don’t.
When I thought about writing my first children’s book, I had plenty of reasons not to.
I didn’t know how. I’d never published anything. I’m dyslexic. And I kept wondering, Who am I to do this?
Eventually, I stopped asking whether I knew how and asked a much smaller question:
What if I simply took the first step?
One sketch.
One page.
One conversation.
One small act of courage.
You don’t have to know what your idea will eventually become.
Sometimes you can’t know until you start building it.
Try This: The Everyday Idea Exercise
For the next week, don’t try to come up with brilliant ideas.
Instead, notice one thing each day that makes you pause.
Write down what you noticed and one question about it.
That’s all.
At the end of the week, look at your seven observations and ask:
Which one am I still curious about?
Then take that one and ask my favorite question:
How far could this idea go?
Don’t worry about finding the right answer.
Follow the question.
Because creative ideas aren’t always hiding somewhere far away, waiting to be discovered.
Sometimes they’re already sitting in the passenger seat beside you, growing in the garden, appearing in a conversation, tucked inside a family tradition, or waiting in one of the ordinary moments you almost walked past.
Keep noticing.
Go Deeper: The Story Behind This Idea
Want to see how one ordinary idea changed the way I approach creativity? In my Origin Story, I share how Nyx unexpectedly became the beginning of Grace & Waffles and how following that one idea changed the way I see what’s possible.
Watch: How One Ordinary Idea Changed the Way I See the World