Writing Inspiration: I WANT to write, but don't know WHAT to write. Help?

MormonMobster · Dec 27, 2010

As the overly-long title says, I have a great desire to write; I've examined this feeling, and deep down... it's just an urge to write.

However, when it comes to coming up with ideas, except for occasional flashes of inspiration, the metaphorical well is all dried up. I cannot think of any idea that I like to keep for more than a day or so.

Do you guys and gals have any suggestions to get solid inspiration, and how to keep it?

rainsmom · Dec 27, 2010

Write fan fiction, just to spark some ideas. Watch your favorite show and then keep the story going after it ends.

Read the newspaper. Read a nonfiction book. Read a magazine. Play what if.

Captcha · Dec 27, 2010

Not really. I'm generally drowning in ideas.

Are you sure it's the ideas that you stop liking after a day or two, or is it possible that you just aren't crazy about the actual work of writing? For me, it's a lot more fun to brainstorm and come up with all the concepts and characters, and then it's work (rewarding, but a more delayed reward) to discipline myself to write it all down.

Maybe you should limit yourself to writing things that you can complete in the brief period of time in which you're inspired. Make yourself complete a 5 000 word short, make yourself polish it, and make yourself share it. Learn from the feedback, and do it again. If you find that you do actually enjoy the writing process, start stretching the length (unless you want to focus on short stories).

If you find that you can't maintain interest even for this short a period, I'd consider the possibility that you like the idea of writing more than you like the actual process.

sunandshadow · Dec 27, 2010

I've got outlines I don't want to actually write, we should trade, lol.

PrincessofPersia · Dec 27, 2010

I had that problem initially too. There were a lot of ideas that I liked for a day or two, but none of them seemed good enough. Just go with them, because they can change and turn into something else. You can polish them and make them better. Polishing a turd isn't just a myth (thank you Mythbusters!).

sunandshadow · Dec 27, 2010

A more serious suggestion, what's your favorite book? Could writing something similar keep your interest longer? You could make an outline of it to use as a starting point, change a few things, and write something that's the same basic kind of story but your original work.

ganstream1 · Dec 28, 2010

Read/watch something until suddenly it sparked to you "I can write this better than this piece of crap!", you'll have an idea of what to write then.

Ae1 · Dec 28, 2010

What do you do when you're bored at work? That's where most of my ideas come from.

You should look at this essay by Neil Gaiman about ideas.
http://neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Where_do_you_get_your_ideas%3F

Also, sometimes you have to work on the crappy projects. That's how they get to be good. That's how you practice. Do you really think your first idea--or your first twenty--are going to be gold? Not unless your name is JK Rowling or Stephanie Myers (and "gold" here is subjective...)
See the bad ideas through to completion. That's the only way you practice, and the only way you'll learn to get the ideas down. Then, when a good idea comes along you'll know what to do with it.

Terie · Dec 28, 2010

Sorry, but writing isn't about 'inspiration'. If you can only write when you're feeling inspired, you're not going to write much.

Inspiration is similar to the 'sweet spot' for athletes....when a runner gets into it, it's wonderful, but most of the time, the running is just work.

Same for writing.

Examine yourself. Do you want to write, or do you only want to have written?

Folks who only want to have written seldom get there, because the actual writing is full of hard work.

If you want to write, sit down, butt in chair, and do it. Even when the inspiration fades, keep writing. There are websites I've heard of that give you writing prompts if you need them. Try searching for those.

But if you want to write, you have to write....no matter what, no matter whether you feel inspired, no matter if you even feel like it.

Writers write.

whimsical rabbit · Dec 28, 2010

Hmmm... I never had any problems with ideas. They just popped into my head out of nowhere, and they were usually related to a film I watched or a dream I had, but in a very subtle way. I already got five ideas lined up.

I think it would be useful if you established a genre that interested you. What do you want to write about? Who do you want to write about? And why do you want to write about them? All of my stories have begun with a character. I saw her in my head and her world revealed itself to me bit by bit.

Another trick is to scan newspapers and magazines. A lot of screenwriters do that actually, and it works.

There's a thread in this section going on at the moment about themes. Although we say that a story's theme usually emerges in the process, perhaps it could serve as a starting point for you?

Or perhaps you want to start with something less defined. Perhaps you want to fill some pages with what's going on around and inside you first, and once the writing is flowing, your head may unblock and a plethora of ideas may storm in.

Try different things. Watch films. Read books. Listen to music. Close your eyes and let your imagination run wild. You'll get there.

seun · Dec 28, 2010

Inspiration is the romatic side of writing. As useful as it can be, time and effort is more important. Focus too much on inspiration and you'll end up one of those people who talks about being a writer and never does anything about it. Like write.

Linda Adams · Dec 28, 2010

If you wait for inspriration, the ideas are going to be few and far between. You can't wait for them.

Try brainstorming. Start with anything and see where it takes you. Read the newspaper to help trigger ideas. A lot of them can come from what happens every day.

Mr Flibble · Dec 28, 2010

The act of writing IS my inspiration, a lot of the time. The more I write, the more I see things around me I could write about until now, where I've got to the point I've got 7 or 8 books in the queue waiting to be written...

Write it, and it will come.

RobJ · Dec 28, 2010

MormonMobster said:
As the overly-long title says, I have a great desire to write; I've examined this feeling, and deep down... it's just an urge to write.

However, when it comes to coming up with ideas, except for occasional flashes of inspiration, the metaphorical well is all dried up. I cannot think of any idea that I like to keep for more than a day or so.

Do you guys and gals have any suggestions to get solid inspiration, and how to keep it?

Write flash fiction, a short piece each day, something in the 200-500 word range based on a word or a phrase or an image taken from anywhere at all. Use that to stretch your writing muscles and get in the habit of generating ideas without a long term writing commitment. Fat-finger random pages in your dictionary if you're stuck for a prompt. You'll be surprised how often you can come up with stuff at that length and there's a good chance you'll consider one or two of them for extending into something longer.

But do that before you get on the internet. The internet is your enemy, lurking in the dark ready to devour your writing time. Use the internet as a reward for having written something.

quicklime · Dec 28, 2010

MormonMobster said:
Do you guys and gals have any suggestions to get solid inspiration, and how to keep it?

quiet time.

seriously--everyone has ideas, there's no real trick to finding them, except geting away from 24/7 texting, Jersey Shore, and whatever else is rotting your mind away. People have and seek distractions all day now; I started turning my radio off on the drive to and from work, and it made for a damn silent forst week, but after that threads started popping into my head. better still, I had the silences the next couple days or weeks to turn them over and over, to let them develop and also seek out loose ends.

Find you some quiet time--Stephen King walks, and it works for him, I have 30 min to and from work each day, some folks meditate, but you need some time minus distractions. Get an hour or so of nothingness--no tv, no ipod, no texting, just being alone in the silence, and your brain re-learns to be just as noisy as it was when you were a little kid. But you need to give it the quiet space to do so.

MormonMobster · Dec 28, 2010

Kate_Sherwood said:
Are you sure it's the ideas that you stop liking after a day or two, or is it possible that you just aren't crazy about the actual work of writing? For me, it's a lot more fun to brainstorm and come up with all the concepts and characters, and then it's work (rewarding, but a more delayed reward) to discipline myself to write it all down.

Oh no, I love actually writing and putting down my ideas on paper/word file, and I enjoy writing scenes (as terrible as they might be).

My only problem is that I get fairly excited about an idea for about a day or so, and though I sometimes write it down and brainstorm a bit, I still get bored after a short while, and have to wait until I think up another idea.

As for the other advice, I'll take all of that advice. I'll try and polish my, uh, literary turds as PrincessofPersia said, for one thing.

Writing similar to an author whose work I like may be a problem, because I have a pathological fear of being accused of plagiarism. I don't want to be accused of stealing ideas, even if that idea is removed far enough from the original mimicry, and won't see the light of day in any case.

I do like the concept of watching/reading something I consider terrible and taking it as a challenge to write a similar, but better story, thanks for that.

I don't think my first ideas are gold, but I do want to get them as correct as possible the first time, which is part of why I'm hesitant to write.

As for idea generation, the real problem is that I get loads of ideas in a short period of time, but I'm usually far enough away from any writing tool that I don't remember half of them, and I get bored with the ones I do recall.

And yeah, the internet is both my best friend and worst enemy. Perhaps I should shove off and do a bunch of random writing on the tool I know doesn't have the internet.

I'll try doing writing prompts and random brainstorming, thanks for alerting me to that.

All in all, thanks for the advice, everyone.

sunandshadow · Dec 28, 2010

Having a pathological fear of being accused of plagiarism is a crippling problem, you should try to get over that. Plagiarism is when you copy another writer's actual sentences and paragraphs, or names and really specific plot twists. There's no problem with writing a book in the same genre and with the same basic plot shape as another book, there aren't that many possible plots in the world and they've all been done multiple times already. You could always get someone to look over your first draft and check if there's any point where you copied too closely.

Jamesaritchie · Dec 28, 2010

I remember reading a quotation, can't recall who said it, that made a big impression on me. "If you have to ask how to write, you're normal. If you have to ask what to write, you're in the wrong business."

I'm not sure this applies to you. You have two problems, I think, but the biggest is worrying about ideas.

No idea is gold. No idea is worth the effort it takes to throw it away.

Ideas aren't what make writers, writing makes writers. Ideas are all good, ideas are all horrible. Ideas simply do not matter, and mean nothing. Only the writing, turning the idea into a well-written, complete story, matters at all.

Plagiarism? Seriously? Unless you're actually copying someone else's work, there's no danger at all of plagiarism. You can't steal an idea. You can only steal the way someone else wrote down that idea. If you don't copy, you don't plagiarize. It just doesn't happen by accident.

Too far from writing tools? So start carrying a pencil and a small notebook. Or, better, don't. If you forget an idea, it wasn't worth remembering.

Getting bored is the second problem, I think.

If writing a book excites you, no problem. If it doesn't, looking for a new idea isn't going to help. Really stop writing down ideas. Stop worrying abut whether ideas excite you. Stop looking for new ones. Stop brainstorming. Sit down and write the damn book. Any book. It's the writing and the book that count, not the idea.

Writer5 · Dec 28, 2010

I've got several 3500K-word shorts about... how I learned about Santa Claus, my favorite Christmas surprise, my son's hamster that died, an old man waiting to cross a blvd and who stopping for saved my own life, trials, tribs, and warm fuzzies... relationships with family members (or one that's meaningful). Start writing and don't stop to think until it's finished, whether it's 100 words or 10,000. Send it to me and I'd be glad to give you some ideas of what to do next. I'm still learning, too, but I'm not entirely ignorant anymore. I know how you feel. Good luck!

Margarita Skies · Dec 28, 2010

When I have that problem, sometimes watching any random program on television, be it a favorite, Days of Our Lives or just something that I find in the program guiden when I am looking for something to watch, which usually happens on the weekends, because on weekdays I have my own programming lineup, I get the craziest ideas from there, for a plotline or something, be it for a storyline within a story I am already writing, or a whole new story. Most of my stories were written that way as a matter of fact. The story that I've been submitting, Angels of the Universe is a rewrite of a story I wrote in 2002 named Living Among The Unwanted, and that story in particular was inspired by the movie Species. I decided to rewrite LATW because I had storylines in there that were a little too dark and went far beyond what I usually write because I knew nothing about the submission guidelines from publishers and agents, you know, what they prohibit, and one day I was looking at it and noticed something in particular that was just...meh... so solely because of that storyline I found too dark I shredded over sixty chapters of a handwritten manuscript and decided to just forget about writing about aliens. One year and a half after the shred, ATU was born, and it took me four years to finish. Wrote one chapter in 2006, left it alone, and I finished it in 2009 and 2010.

Rubicon · Dec 28, 2010

MormonMobster said:
As the overly-long title says, I have a great desire to write; I've examined this feeling, and deep down... it's just an urge to write.

However, when it comes to coming up with ideas, except for occasional flashes of inspiration, the metaphorical well is all dried up. I cannot think of any idea that I like to keep for more than a day or so.

Do you guys and gals have any suggestions to get solid inspiration, and how to keep it?

If your just starting out in writing, it's a good idea to accept that most likely the stuff your writing won't be publishable. Once you can accept that, you won't put so much pressure on yourself so as you can only work on a perfect story idea.
You have to approach writing in a different way. You goal should be to write nearly everyday, and let the ideas comes to you when you have a better understanding of how to turn an idea into a great story. Which is not an easy thing to do.

ksbaby · Dec 28, 2010

Inspiration? I don't know anything about that. I had a story to tell, so I wrote. I've never dreamed of being a writer. Whatever ideas or stories you have, just write them down. Don't discount or try to organize at the first draft part of your writing. I started from chapter one to twenty five. Then I rewrote it, cut a few chapters, changed the order of the chapters, added a few sub-plots, then cut, then rewrite, then revise.... Well, you see how it goes. Just write to see if you have a story/plot that makes sense, then worry about the rest later. You'll get better as a writer as time goes by and you'll have plenty of time to revise. Meanwhile, it wouldn't hurt to read, anything, just read. Good luck!

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 28, 2010

MormonMobster said:
As the overly-long title says, I have a great desire to write; I've examined this feeling, and deep down... it's just an urge to write.

However, when it comes to coming up with ideas, except for occasional flashes of inspiration, the metaphorical well is all dried up. I cannot think of any idea that I like to keep for more than a day or so.

Do you guys and gals have any suggestions to get solid inspiration, and how to keep it?

You must have something to write. Otherwise where is the urge to write coming from? I mean, you must have a vague scene, or bit of dialog, or even just a description of some object, SOMETHING floating in your head.

Start with that. Start with a couple lines of dialog and continue. If it's a vague scene between a couple of characters, start that.

Just start writing and continue writing.

If you're unable to do that, maybe you really don't have an urge to write, you just have the wish to have written.

ksbaby · Dec 28, 2010

Shadow_Ferret said:
You must have something to write. Otherwise where is the urge to write coming from? I mean, you must have a vague scene, or bit of dialog, or even just a description of some object, SOMETHING floating in your head.

Start with that. Start with a couple lines of dialog and continue. If it's a vague scene between a couple of characters, start that.

Just start writing and continue writing.

If you're unable to do that, maybe you really don't have an urge to write, you just have the wish to have written.

My point exactly. Still, I don't want you to be too discouraged. Just follow everyone's advice and keep writing, if that's what you really want to do....

jaksen · Dec 28, 2010

Mormon,

I am old, very old, tres old, but not necessarily old in wisdom.

I have heard so many people like yourself over my many years in teaching. I would say roughly half the people I knew over the years who were retiring said a similar thing to me: I'm going to write a book when I retire. Now I know you're not retiring, but here's the thing: when I pressed them on WHAT they were going to write - mystery, humor, romance, thriller, memoir, etc. etc. - most of them said they didn't know or weren't sure, but doggone it, if the little science teacher they knew (me) could sell a story or two, they could, too.

Not one of them has written a story or book that I know of. Thus, my advice is, if you're going to talk the talk and walk the walk of being a writer, you've got to write something. ANYTHING. Start with a grocery list and turn it into a poem, epistle or a reflection on the true necessities of life. Jot down an imaginary conversation between yourself and a killer or a deceased relative or the sexy guy (or girl) you meet at a bar.

Just write something.

Writing Inspiration: I WANT to write, but don't know WHAT to write. Help?

Feeling like an old timer

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Impractical Fantasy Animal

New kid, be gentle!

Writer is as Writer does

Bunned

Horror Man

Soldier, Storyteller

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

all out of fucks to give

Impractical Fantasy Animal

New kid, be gentle!

Perhaps, today is the day.

Court Jester

Perhaps, today is the day.

Caped Codder