Coming up with new story ideas

BjornAbust · Jun 27, 2011

How do you come up with new ideas for stories?

I've had a few come to me out of the blue over the years. I'll be taking a walk and some dissociated pieces of knowledge will come together and become the basis for a story. I wish I could tap into my subconscious and do this on command!

In recent days I've been looking up new anthologies and writing tailor-made stories to submit to them. If I like the theme and figure that, on the case of a rejection, the story will be marketable in other venues, I'll usually give it a shot. Having a theme or prompt to work with takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Still, most of the anthologies I'm interested in turn out to be token-paying, and while that's OK sometimes, I'm not really looking to make a habit of it.

So, how does everyone else decide what to write about?

Lillie · Jun 27, 2011

For me, it can be anything, something on the TV that triggers an idea, something someone says.

I like prompts, particularly title prompts. They seem to trigger ideas in my mind.

I've got a lot of recent ideas from the flash challenges. They have been good for me.

shelleyo · Jun 27, 2011

I have far too many ideas than I know what to do with. In part, I think, because I'm curious about everything, and almost everything interests me. When I read an article, see a headline or even just a flash of something on TV or on the street, I wonder about what happened before and what might happen after. It's not even conscious, more a spontaneous "what if" thing that goes on.

Seems like every book on writing spends the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the pages talking about idea generation for those who have trouble coming up with them. Have you tried any of those methods?

Shelley

J.W. Alden · Jun 27, 2011

Most of my ideas have come from ideas that were originally intended for novels but ended up better suited as a short story. I love being able to do that when I realize that my Great New Idea is stretching too thin over my word count, makes me feel like I'm making lemonade, so to speak.

sheilas_world · Jun 27, 2011

Goodness, how do I make them stop?

So let's see: a snippet of conversation collides with the play of shadow on the ground, add in a flash of a TV commercial that I saw out of the corner of my eye...and the next thing I know, there's a 4,000 word story. Or sometimes an idea for a novel.

The truth is, I don't know how it happens. It just does, and has all my life.

A.r.p. · Jun 27, 2011

I hate to be unhelpful, but for me too the ideas just come. Sort of like the right word just comes to mind when it's needed.

JC Romel · Jun 27, 2011

I'm probably no different than most. I get an idea while in the shower, or while reading, or while watching a movie. Sometimes I'll hear or read a line of dialogue that hits me like an arrow through the forehead, and it'll become a whole story in just a few days. Other times I'll decide I want to write about a certain subject, sit down, and pound on the keys until something takes.

Lillie · Jun 27, 2011

Usually for me it's words. Like you say, JC, some just hit me like that.

This one. 'Then the bones you have broken shall rejoice'

That just does it for me, big time. There's a thousand stories in there.
Words breed words.

And walking up the hill is the best thing for stuck stories. I get back knackered, but I know where the damn story is going.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 27, 2011

Sometimes a story just pops into my head, at other times there's a specific trigger. Most of the time, however, I just use the Ray Bradbury method. I mix and match words until I find a title I like, and the title itself generates the story.

shelleyo · Jun 27, 2011

Jamesaritchie said:
Sometimes a story just pops into my head, at other times there's a specific trigger. Most of the time, however, I just use the Ray Bradbury method. I mix and match words until I find a title I like, and the title itself generates the story.

I remember reading that Dean Koontz did that kind of thing, too.

He also occasionally let himself come up with an opening sentence, preferably a wild and surprising one, and built a story from there.

Try these kinds of things, Bjorn, and you're bound to come up with lots of ideas to choose from.

Shelley

Jamesaritchie · Jun 27, 2011

shelleyo said:
I remember reading that Dean Koontz did that kind of thing, too.

He also occasionally let himself come up with an opening sentence, preferably a wild and surprising one, and built a story from there.

Try these kinds of things, Bjorn, and you're bound to come up with lots of ideas to choose from.

Shelley

Yes, Koontz often words in much the same way. I like the opening sentence method, too, and use it when the title I generate comes as more of a sentence than a title.

Koontz also says he sometimes has a character speak to him out of the blue, which is why he wrote the first Odd Thomas book. He was working on another book when he heard a line in his head. "My name is Odd Thomas. I live an unusual life."

He was working on another book, but stopped to write the lines down, and wrote a full chapter in longhand, something he never does, before he stopped.

The pod casts on his website are wonderful, and offer great insight into just about every aspect of writing and publishing.

Flur · Jun 27, 2011

Ideas pop into my head from random thoughts, conversations, experiences, playing with words, etc. Ideas aren't the challenge for me, it's fleshing them out and creating a full, original story that I struggle with

Darkshore · Jun 27, 2011

Ideas are easy to come by for me it's just figuring out how to form a story out of them that can be tough. I just watched The Warriors Way the other day, and at the end of the flick he starts walking out into the seemingly endless desert. Now I've got a basic story idea right there; a man walking down a long, desolate stretch of road. Why is he walking? Where is he going? What will stand in his way?

BjornAbust · Jun 27, 2011

Thanks for the input guys!

The title/first line method seems like it may generate some ideas. I may give it a try.

JC Romel · Jun 27, 2011

Lillie said:
Usually for me it's words. Like you say, JC, some just hit me like that.

This one. 'Then the bones you have broken shall rejoice'

That just does it for me, big time. There's a thousand stories in there.
Words breed words.

And walking up the hill is the best thing for stuck stories. I get back knackered, but I know where the damn story is going.

That's a great line. I could make something of that, I bet.

I have several plot outlines for novels going (and have for several years, in some cases) that I will try to write if/when I ever start to make a name for myself in short fiction, and the genesis of one such plot outline came from the line "I could not bear to see my sons war with each other again."

Lillie · Jun 28, 2011

JC Romel said:
That's a great line. I could make something of that, I bet.

Feel free to use it.
It's from the Bible. Psalm 51.8

Loads of good stuff in the Bible.
The King James has the best words, those modern translations just don't have the power that the old one does.

L. Grumbling · Jun 28, 2011

Well, throw me in with you lot. Most recently, I was watching NatGeo, and they were doing a thing about the ice age cycle. Boom, what would society be like at the height of the next one? Let's take one man and start him out on the great ice sheet. What the hell is he doing out there? Well, the only thing that could have done it for me, is wife shopping...On a freakin' glacier? Yeah, alright, ok....

Coming up with new story ideas

BjornAbust

Lillie

practical experience, FTW

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

J.W. Alden

The King Who Bore the Sword

sheilas_world

digging in my word garden

A.r.p.

JC Romel

Lillie

practical experience, FTW

Jamesaritchie

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

Jamesaritchie

Flur

Darkshore

Stranger

BjornAbust

JC Romel

Lillie

practical experience, FTW

L. Grumbling