Where do Story Ideas Come From?

Starbrazer · Mar 25, 2008

Where do story ideas come from?

Have you ever been asked that question and really didn't know how to answer it, because the idea for your story came to you in a very abstract way? Ideas come to me in the strangest ways: when I'm driving down the road listening to music, while I'm sitting in the college class rooms listening to the teachers lecture, conversations with friends, movies, books, and so on... Really though, where do they come from? For me it is a feeling inside and that feeling is always there, whether in story form or not. Sometimes it comes out on canvas or in a short film I make, but the essence of it is always the same. I have a vivid active imagination and have the awesome ability to project myself into realms of fantasy by way of this feeling, this inspiration... The vehicle of travel for me is what other writers call 'The Muse' or what I call quite simply, my Higher Self. Either way, feeling or vehicle, I see and feel my stories, and they come alive out of seemingly nothing at all! Sometimes I wonder if there isn't some sort of pool and this pool is so large that we (artists) all dip from different sections, and some dip from the exact same waters. Thinking is the best way to Travel and my mind is definitely in tune with the Universe. Is the idea really ours to begin with or is it being given to us by a Higher Source? I will close by saying there is more to this than meets the eye...

What are your thoughts?

Axelle · Mar 25, 2008

Ideas, in my opinion, are like puzzles, except each piece can go a million different ways so two people with the same pieces will end up with two different ideas. Ideas, I think, come from all that we see everyday, and our personal experience. An idea that seems to come out of the blue was likely triggered subconsciously by something you saw.

Or sometimes you see a concept in a movie or a book, and you tweak it to make it yours. I suppose you might call that ideas recycling

I'm not speaking about plagiarization here, but inspiration. Like, you see a sf movie and that gives you an idea for a completely different story.

Ronan · Mar 25, 2008

In short, I don't think it's too complicated. There are more unique ideas than can ever be written, and I come up with many more than I would consider turning into words. I just chose the ideas that are the most important to me, ideas that have a point which mean a lot.

brokenfingers · Mar 25, 2008

I subscribe to Story Ideas magazine for all my story needs. Then I type what I get into the appropriate template in my Story Generator software and - Volila!

Instant money.

Just Jack · Mar 25, 2008

I take a lot of mine from dreams. Its a good idea to keep a pad and paper right by your bed, dreams can make for some really good story ideas.

Because of this, my stories are always very abstract and original, I would reccomend this to all of you.

Daimeera · Mar 25, 2008

When I try to take ideas from my dreams, they:

a) Have gaping plot holes
b) Sound like they were written by monkeys on crack
c) Are horribly boring and mundane

Any or all of the above may apply.

stormie · Mar 25, 2008

When I'm asked where my ideas come from, I tell them from conversations like we're having. They get a horrified look, mumble something, and back away.

I'm down to only a few friends.

I get my ideas from just about anywhere. Hard to say exactly where they come from.

Zelenka · Mar 25, 2008

Half the time I can't remember where I got the ideas from.

Sage · Mar 25, 2008

When a mommy writer and a daddy computer love each other very much, sometimes the stork will bring them a story idea that they can raise and love and mold into a great novel one day. <pats head>

Polenth · Mar 25, 2008

Just Jack said:
I take a lot of mine from dreams. Its a good idea to keep a pad and paper right by your bed, dreams can make for some really good story ideas.

Because of this, my stories are always very abstract and original, I would reccomend this to all of you.

I dream when I'm awake. It's a handy skill for ideas. I do dream when I'm asleep too, but as I spend more time awake, odds are the waking dreams have more ideas in them.

Hollan · Mar 25, 2008

Ideas are poured into my ears at night by idea demons. They only give me the screwed up ideas w/ angsty anti-social characters and insane plots. Damn idea demons!

aonarach · Mar 25, 2008

i don't know where the ideas come from, but when they appear, i attack like a rabid dog. or a starving child. or a starving child riding a rabid dog. there's a lot of frothing at the mouth and bite marks.

Axelle · Mar 25, 2008

i don't know where the ideas come from, but when they appear, i attack like a rabid dog. or a starving child. or a starving child riding a rabid dog. there's a lot of frothing at the mouth and bite marks.

Don't forget to chew the ideas before swallo... uh, writing.

Michael Parks · Mar 25, 2008

They come from a small blue lint ball I keep in my right pocket. Sometimes I switch it to my left pocket for different ideas.

I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost that thing.

sanctuary6284 · Mar 25, 2008

I wish I could find where I got my ideas from again, cause lately they aren't coming to visit.

KikiteNeko · Mar 26, 2008

Although I write in a linear fashion, the ideas come to me in a very non-linear way. While I'm driving or watching TV or reading or whatever, I get random images. Some I could use, some are just entertaining. Or say I hear about someone getting into a car accident or breaking up with their boyfriend. I'll think "I wonder what X would do if Y got into a car accident" or "X and Y would NEVER break up, because...."

It's just kinda how I think. It happens on its own automatically. When I'm working on a story, that one story accounts for 99% of all the thoughts I have, and most of it is stuff that won't make my manuscript's final cut but it's fun in the meantime.

bluntforcetrauma · Mar 26, 2008

From personal experience, then embellished to taste.

NeuroFizz · Mar 26, 2008

From life.

DeleyanLee · Mar 26, 2008

I notice something somewhere--a tidbit of information, a book I've been reading, an odd thought sparked by who knows what, a cool line from a movie/TV show--and it gets thrown back into my subconscious where it meets zillions of other somethings that came from somewhere. And those little somethings come together to form an idea and pop to the surface of my consciousness to float there until I notice them.

This process is on-going and constant and, for the most part, easily ignored unless I'm in the mood to mess with raw ideas.

If they're good ideas, I move them from that part of my brain to the actively more creative part (the back burner) and let them bumble around there until they come together with other ideas to form a full story concept.

This process can take anywhere from several weeks to several decades before a usable full story concept rises to the fore and I can start working on it.

I've learned to trust this process utterly and not interfere with it. Don't fix what's not broken.

aonarach · Mar 26, 2008

Axelle said:
Don't forget to chew the ideas before swallo... uh, writing.

idea indigestion is the worst!

Ken Schneider · Mar 26, 2008

The newspaper. Everyday life.

Find two ideas and put them together to make a plot. They don't even have to be fantastic ideas.

How about.
A drug/pharmaceutical company. Not real exciting, right?
A rural dirt poor Iowa town. Not exciting either.

If the Drug company was denied human testing of a drug they were sure was a cure for cancer, lets say, but the FDA said no, no no. And said drug company decided to secretly prove it was, and lied to this little Iowa town using cash and promises to get them to sign their life away in a test program. And, that test went grotesquely wrong.... Well, I think you have a story.

It's not so much the idea as how you twist that idea into a novel.

Good hunting

Charlie Horse · Mar 26, 2008

My first book came entirely from the dreams I was having. Then I started hanging out at the water cooler and learned that dream sequences should be avoided at all costs.

Now I just pull 'em out of my butt.

Chauchat Butterfly · Mar 26, 2008

Sage said:
When a mommy writer and a daddy computer love each other very much, sometimes the stork will bring them a story idea that they can raise and love and mold into a great novel one day. <pats head>

lol

I get my ideas from just about damn near everywhere. If it's not a dream then it's music, if it's not music then its the news, if it's not the news then it's something else ad infinitum. Usually it's something really small, some minute element that on the surface is rather meaningless (especially in dreamland) but becomes something huge after I start really thinking about it.

I can't base my stories off my dreams because then they would be retarded. But my dreams do add nice elements or things which I can base a story around but that's pretty rare.

Usually it's just an observasion that sparks something.

williemeikle · Mar 26, 2008

A nice man in the Stories 'R Us shop gave me a great deal back in the '80s... 200 stories for my soul. Unfortunately I'm now up in the 180's and need a new deal soon.

Willie

Starbrazer · Mar 26, 2008

The Sacred Language of Dreams

Chauchat Butterfly said:
I can't base my stories off my dreams because then they would be retarded. But my dreams do add nice elements or things which I can base a story around but that's pretty rare.

Anyone who thinks they can take the incoherent material of a dream and write it exactly the way they dreamed it and expect people to want to read it is nuts. Actually, one who knows what they are doing can take the incoherent dream material and turn it into a good story, but that is not without change. Whoever said dream material is useless and should be totally avoided is right in the sense that if you don't know what you're doing with said material, but if you rearrange the material and make it make sense, then dream material can be a superior source. I find that a lot of really good ideas come from there, and others not so significant. Of course if you are not an astral dreamer, traveling to other worlds, places, etc. then dream material may not be much of a source afterall. Dreaming for me is always a Lovecraft adventure so to speak. I see places in stark vivid detail, faces, voices, stories, and despite their abstraction I turn them into surreality, one where the reader will want to read on despite they are not accustomed to the subject nature, because deep down inside they are seeking that dream-like escape to another place. Dreams are another place, and a very good place for me. I think I have more ideas for artwork (ie. paintings and drawings) than I do stories, but they do come in that fashion and when they do they are all powerful. Just remember to alter your dreams and fill them in with the puddy of other experiences, thoughts, or ideas tieing it all together in a beautiful kaliedescope in the end, one that is fantasy in its finest form. That is the answer to dreams. My dreams are sacred...

Where do Story Ideas Come From?

Walkin' That Road

King of Procrastination

storm central

Going home!

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Mushroom

Stage name = Chainsaw Sally

Not all who wander are lost

In the moment

Mental Supernova

.

Esquire

The grad students did it

Writing Anarchist

Not all who wander are lost

Absolute sagebrush

Speaking in metaphors

~*~root beer floatz~*~

The force is strong in this one.

~~root beer floatz~~