Ideas are interesting things. Ideas are everywhere and nowhere. It’s your job as a writer to notice them and use them to your advantage.
Not the answer you were hoping for? No, me neither when I was starting out.
I prefer to work in specifics. Tell me step by step. Don’t make me assume. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. The more you assume, the more fucks up.
Excuse the French but it doesn’t sound as effective without the cursing. I got that from a movie line by the way, Under Siege 2. Not the best film but entertaining if you like the late 80s early 90s action flicks. I don’t mind them for a bit of numbing of the brain. They’re entertaining and that’s all they are meant to be. If I want something deeper I’ll reach for Braveheart.
Ideas are everywhere. Including in those numbing movies, we are probably wasting our time watching. Consider them research and watch guilt free!
Ideas form from the movies we watch, the television series that we binge on, the books we read, the newspapers we peruse, the people we talk to.
If you’re a writer, you will find ideas wherever you look and sometimes even when you’re not looking.
I tried not looking for ideas once. It didn’t work for long. The ideas where always there, scratching at the surface. Pushing me to go back to putting words on the page.
Having said that, I can’t fathom where artists get their inspiration from. How they paint the beautiful pictures they do? It’s probably the same for people who don’t write. Ideas exist all over the place and we simply must start chipping away at them until a coherent story forms.
I’m a writer. I see ideas all the time. Whether it’s a conversation I overheard at a local cafe, watching the news for the latest scandal, reading the newspaper or a magazine, talking with colleagues, binging on a TV series completely out of my favourite genre, watching, reading, dreaming.
Yet, I still fear one day I will wake up and have no idea. Is that even possible? Well, I’d rather not jinx myself. I hope that there’s always going to be a new idea just around the corner.
Play the ‘What if?’ game
I’ve found that playing the ‘what if’ game works wonders. One kernel of an idea can create an awesome story.
It took me about an hour and a half to outline my novella, Lethal Instincts, using the what if method. I got the bare bones down while my then 16-month toddler was sleeping in his pram and I sipped my coffee at the Hilton cafe.
The story evolved from the initial outline as I wrote. But that one hour and a half were all I needed to get the story moving.
I did this again for another book in a new series recently which I’m hoping to start soon. The idea for it kept floating around refusing to leave me alone so I had to write it down.
So how do you play the what if game? Here’s an example.
What if a young woman discovers she was adopted?
What if her parents hid that from her? How would she react?
Why did her real parents give her up? Who were they? Were they hiding something? Hiding her from someone?
What if someone would kill her if they found out she existed?
What if her real parents decided to find her to save her? What if her adopted parents were willing to do everything to stop them? What are some of the things they’d do?
What if she had something they needed? What if, what if?
You’ve got two story angles. One where the child is protected, the other where they wish to do harm. Which way are you going to go? Which angle will give you the story you want to write?
Write down as many possibilities as you can think of. Don’t censor yourself. This is the fun part. The creative part where you can come up with the most ridiculous scenarios.
By asking questions a story slowly evolves on the page and you can take it anywhere you want. It could be a suspense-thriller. A family drama. A horror. It’s your story, it’s your choice.
That’s the what if game. You just keep asking questions until you come up with a story that excites you. Then start writing.
ACTION STEPS
- Grab a piece of paper or start a fresh page in your Word document.
Start playing the what if game. You can continue on with what I started above or choose something of your own.
- What sort of books do you like to read?
Is there anything you read that you think could be better?
How could you improve on it?
Is there a character you would have liked to know more about?
Create their world and see what evolves. You might be pleasantly surprised.
- Pencil in time each week to brainstorm ideas. James Patterson has too many ideas to write everything himself so he has co-writers. I once read in an interview that he had a filing cabinet overflowing with ideas.
- Create a folder and start collecting interesting pieces of information from the news, from your studies, snippets of conversation, poetry, photos. Anything that gets the idea pot brewing.
- Always carry something you can jot notes on. Smartphones are great. So is pen and paper. Yes, I’m old-school in some ways.
- Read outside your genre. Pick up a national newspaper instead of the local one. Switch radio stations. Listen to podcasts on psychology, sociology, business, economics or whatever topic that interests you.
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