You Need Lots of Ideas for Your Stories
You Need Lots of Ideas for Your Stories
Here’s how to find them
The Storywriter’s Path
Here’s how to find them
The idea is the beginning of it all.
All stories spring from an idea. And to write a story, you need a lot of ideas.
You need an overall idea for what the story is about, and then you need more ideas. Ideas for characters, for their backstories and motivations, for their problems and their conflicts. You need ideas for plot, all the many, many things that have to happen in the story, and how they connect. And then there are subplots! You also need ideas for settings, for all the places the action will take place. And ideas for theme, to make your story mean something.
So many ideas. And that’s just what’s needed for one story. To make a career as a writer, you need to write one story, and then another, and another, and another. Long stories, short stories. All kinds of stories: Novels, short stories, memoirs, essays, articles. Blog posts. Content. Every bit of it full of ideas.
So where in the heck do you get them?
We’ll get to that in a minute. (Spoiler alert: they’re everywhere.) But first let’s talk about where ideas come from.
Where ideas come from
Most writers can tell the story of someone coming up to them and saying, “Where do you get your ideas?”
And just as many writers answer that they can’t seem to stop the ideas from coming — so many of them, they can’t possibly write them all in one lifetime.
So many ideas, so little time to write.
But that lovely state only happens after you start to actively cultivate ideas. After awhile, that will start to happen naturally for you. The more you write, the more ideas will come. The more ideas that come, the more you will write.
But where do they all come from?
Everywhere and anywhere. You can be standing in the shower and suddenly have an idea for a book. You can be mowing the lawn, or doing the dishes, and suddenly get the answer to what happened in your character’s backstory that causes her to have trust issues. You can be driving down the street and suddenly the theme of your story is illuminated in one flash of insight.
Ideas come from everywhere but it is only when they land on fertile ground that they take root and flower. And in order for that to happen, you need to be prepared. So let’s look at how to make sure you get a constant flow of ideas.
How to cultivate ideas
Be observant
One of the best overall tips that I can give you in terms of getting ideas is to be observant. Be a sponge. Soak in everything. Writers are good listeners. They notice things. Always carry paper and pencil with you, or at least your phone. Make notes. Find an app that you like for recording ideas (I’m a fan of Google Keep) and use it.
The late poet Mary Oliver said there are only three things you have to do:
“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
And that pretty much sums it up right there. Pay attention and write about it. But in our information-driven world, many of us are paying attention to our screens and little else.
Don’t let that be you. Instead, be the outlier who is eavesdropping on conversations at the coffee shop, or studying what people are wearing on the first cold day of the year. Be the writer inhaling the smell of dinner cooking in the house you’re walking by, or the scent of an unknown flower from a garden. Be the person who is looking ahead and around and behind — not down at her phone.
You just may be astonished at what you see.
Be open
It is also true, though, that ideas are like money: when you need them most you might not be able to get one. And like money, when you don’t need it, you’ll have plenty of it. I’m being a bit facetious here but surely everyone has had the experience of hitting a lull in an essay or story, desperate for an idea that doesn’t come.
Here’s a hint: it’s the desperation that keeps it away. Desperation keeps everything away: money, love, and ideas. The opposite of desperation is openness. Being open and receptive to a flow of new ideas is absolutely paramount to becoming a good idea getter.
Don’t sit around and bemoan the fact that the idea you need isn’t coming. Instead shrug your shoulders, go do something else, and know the idea will come — probably when you least expect it.
Read
Writers read. Or they damn well ought to.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Stephen King
Read fiction. Read what you want to write — novels, essays, memoirs, articles, whatever. But don’t confine yourself to one genre. Read eclectically. Read books on writing. Read books on odd topics. Read novels from science fiction to romance to mysteries. Read everything.
Approach your reading with the open, curious, writer’s mind and write about what ideas you garner from your reading.
Take Notes
Just good old-fashioned note taking is a great way to gather ideas. Here’s a quote from Nora Ephron:
“I think one thing that you do is just make notes. You have to sit in a period called “not-writing” and write pages and pages of anything that crosses your mind.”
When I’m stuck on a scene, I turn to my journal and start making notes. Write down what you know, what you don’t know, what you need to know. Keep going. See what unfolds.
Lists
Good old-fashioned list making can do the trick, too. Once I took a vacation to Mexico and was overwhelmed with the sensory input at the resort. But there was little time to write, so instead I made lists of the things I saw, smelled, heard, and felt. Those lists eventually turned into a story. If in doubt, make a simple list. Sometimes it can be helpful to force yourself to keep going. Number the page from 1 to 50 and force yourself to write on every line. Those last few items are the hardest to wring out — and may be the most brilliant ideas as well.
Mind Mapping
If you’re not familiar with this method, it is a visual thinking tool that more closely replicates the way your brain works. Instead of a traditional linear outline, you have a graphical representation of your idea.
Start in the middle of the page with a word or drawing that represents your topic. Then develop related sub-topics around the main topic, drawing lines outward. You can also draw and use color, or whatever suits your fancy. Continue to develop and make connections as you go.
Sometimes I find these crazy helpful, and others they leave me cold. But what matters is if you find it helpful.
Free Writing
The rules of free writing are designed to allow you to directly access your subconscious wisdom, and they are simple. Choose a prompt (it can be anything from a word randomly selected from the thesaurus to a line from a poem to a sentence from your project), set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes, and write. And when I say write, I mean write. Write without stopping, keep your hand moving across the page even when — especially when — you don’t know what to say next.
If you want, you can read over your free write and highlight or underline any things you especially like. Then use that sentence for your next prompt. Rinse and repeat as often as you need to.
Free writing is one of the absolute best ways to access ideas from deep within.
Repetitive Action
This always jars ideas out of me. It is amazing how repetitive motion activities unleash ideas. Knitting, sewing, weeding, walking, mowing the lawn. Mopping the kitchen floor, riding a bike, driving. Anything that you can do semi-automatically and allow your brain to roam free.
Keep an Idea Book
It is a good idea to have a place to corral your ideas. An idea book can be useful, or you can start a file on your computer or your phone. I’ve had many variations on an idea book. Sometimes I use my journal, or a whole notebook dedicated just to ideas. The important thing is to write them down. Because, otherwise, they will evaporate.
Staying Out of Overwhelm With Ideas
If you are a magpie for ideas — squirrel! — it will be important for you to be able to manage them. Some hints:
— Decide ahead of time how many projects you can do at a time then commit. Many people recommend three. The definition of a project is any big thing you’re working on, writing or not, but you’ll also always have at least one writing project going.
— If you’re working on a big idea and a bright shiny new idea comes along….what do you do? The temptation is to drop everything and start fresh. Because there’s nothing more compelling than a new idea, especially when you are slogging along in the middle of an old one. But writers need to finish their work and get it out in the world. So instead, take a brief break and write down everything you know about this amazing new idea. Then set it aside in a safe place and go back to your main project.
Technique for Producing an Idea
I learned this when I was a journalism student, way back in the day. It’s from a classic by James Web Young, who was an advertising guy on Madison Avenue in its heyday on Madison Avenue. His idea was that there are five critical steps everyone follows whenever they produce a new idea.
Step 1: gather new material. This can be anything that interests you at the moment, whether related to the project or just a subject of general fascination.
Step 2: work over the materials in your mind. Explore the information you’ve gathered from a variety of different angles. Think outside the proverbial box. Do this until you’re so sick of the material you can’t stand pondering it another minute.
Step 3: put the problem completely out of your mind and go do something else. (Such as a repetitive action activity noted above.)
Step 4: your idea will come back to you with a flash of insight, but only after you have stopped trying so hard.
Step 5: shape and develop your idea. Put your idea onto the page. Play with it and work with it — as writers do. And eventually put it out in the world.
James Clear has a nice run-down on the book here.
Idea Generating Exercises
Finally, here are a couple of multi-part exercises that may jog loose a couple of ideas.
Observation Exercise
— Go outside for ten minutes and walk around. Don’t go far! Or sit and gaze out at the view. You can take your notebooks and either do the below as you are outside or do it when you get back in.
— Now number your page one — ten. Write ten things you noticed or heard or smelled.
— Now choose one thing you noticed and write for fifteen minutes about it.
Rigler Writing Exercise
This is a simple exercise that I developed when I went to teach writing at my daughter-in-law’s class of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at a tough, tough school. The kids loved it and it occurred to me that it’s just as useful for adults. Since then, I’ve taught it to adults many times and it’s a hit. It is so simple, and I love it because it proves you can create an idea out of thin air:
The key in this exercise is to write fast and don’t overthink it.
1. Name 10 objects (look around, or pick randomly)
2. Name 10 places (general or specific, i.e., beach or Malibu
3. Name 10 people (general or specific, i.e., Mary or firefighter)
4. Write down 10 problems (career, relationship, money)
Circle one item from each list and make it into a sentence. This is your prompt! Free write for 20 minutes.
Now it’s your turn — go forth and create an idea book, do a free write, or try one of the above exercises. Soon you’ll have so many ideas for your writing you won’t know what to do with them all!