Ideas! Where do they come from?

[Alatariel]

Isn't this one of those questions you hear often but never really answer?

Honestly, it's one of my favorites because for me it changes often. 

Ideas come from so many places for me but they never come when I want or need them. I'm constantly amazed I can produce any contest piece because the pressure of coming up with an idea that conforms to a prompt is a massive Herculean effort for me. My brain resists SO hard to pressure. 

Typically, ideas come from random things at random times for me. Does anyone have a tried and true method for creating new story ideas? I've learned that the things I think are boring or cliche often turn into my best stories. Don't throw away ideas, no matter how much you hate them initially. Especially if they keep bugging you late at night.

[RAVENEYE]

The never-ending struggle to chase down inspiration! Ugh!

I can so commiserate on the brain resisting the pressure to write. It's why I have a hard time with the 100 Word Weekly contest. And why it's probably good I didn't go into journalism. 

So there are a couple of ways I love receiving inspiration for new ideas:

1. Happy accidents!

The ideas that come out of the blue. I was once tying on my tennis shoes to go for a jog and was only halfway listening to what was playing on the History Channel. Whatever was said sparked like a lightbulb and bam! Story idea that ended up being my ghost-story novella "Mists of Blackfen Bog."

2. Gleaned phrases

When I read poetry or fiction, sometimes a beautifully turned phrase will strike me as appropriate for a story title. It's fun to then brainstorm ideas for a story that matches that phrase.

Here are a couple from Pablo Neruda: "Immense Autumns" and "Between Shadow & Soul" -- I mean, c'mon! How are those not gorgeous story titles? Gives me chills thinking of the possible tragedies that could play out in those pages. Now just to sit and brainstorm.

3. My least favorite method of getting a new idea: Chasing it with a club! Hemingway was right. Sometimes getting a new idea is an act of brute force. Those stories aren't usually fun to write, not at first anyway. In such instances, I usually look up random words and see if I can mash them together to form a prompt. But this can be more exhausting than fruitful.

So those are mine...

[Alatariel]

Mar 5, 2021 10:52:11 GMT -6 RAVENEYE said:

The never-ending struggle to chase down inspiration! Ugh!

I can so commiserate on the brain resisting the pressure to write. It's why I have a hard time with the 100 Word Weekly contest. And why it's probably good I didn't go into journalism. 

So there are a couple of ways I love receiving inspiration for new ideas:

1. Happy accidents!

The ideas that come out of the blue. I was once tying on my tennis shoes to go for a jog and was only halfway listening to what was playing on the History Channel. Whatever was said sparked like a lightbulb and bam! Story idea that ended up being my ghost-story novella "Mists of Blackfen Bog."

2. Gleaned phrases

When I read poetry or fiction, sometimes a beautifully turned phrase will strike me as appropriate for a story title. It's fun to then brainstorm ideas for a story that matches that phrase.

Here are a couple from Pablo Neruda: "Immense Autumns" and "Between Shadow & Soul" -- I mean, c'mon! How are those not gorgeous story titles? Gives me chills thinking of the possible tragedies that could play out in those pages. Now just to sit and brainstorm.

3. My least favorite method of getting a new idea: Chasing it with a club! Hemingway was right. Sometimes getting a new idea is an act of brute force. Those stories aren't usually fun to write, not at first anyway. In such instances, I usually look up random words and see if I can mash them together to form a prompt. But this can be more exhausting than fruitful.

So those are mine...

I relate to each of these. Happy accidents are where most of my ideas come from but gleaned phrases happens occasionally, too. 

For general ideas, like the small ones that birth larger novels, they usually come from something random happening to me during the day or a brief moment in a movie/show that's glossed over. For example, I have this huge story based in a world of witches and the basic idea came from the movie The Last Witch Hunter. There's a super quick moment where the queen witch shows the hunter a vision of the world if witches took over and humans were extinct. It was beautiful, nature had overtaken all the industrial buildings and man-made structures, breaking them into crumbled ruins. The sky was the brightest blue and the air shimmered with magic. She was trying to convince the hunter to let her do her thing, you know, kill off humanity for the betterment of the world. Obviously, that doesn't happen or else the movie would've ended in 45 minutes. But it did spark an idea in me! What if the witches DID win and we had that world? Then I had to develop conflict and characters and plot, which was actually relatively easy and fun.

For my current novel, the original idea came from being tired of reading the same kind of fantasy book over and over. I wanted to create something different, but with purpose. I created my world first, then fit the characters into it. My fantasy world has tech built from their magic source, it's not medieval but rather is coming into the industrial period with tons of new tech booming across the nations. They're scientifically minded and their twin gods are not at war with one another but work in harmony. I hated reading fantasy books with constant wars between nations, honestly it feels like most fantasy books are war epics. I wanted to focus in on specific characters and, yes, they're gonna save the world but not in the way people might expect.

On a side note, when I'm deep into a long project like my novel ideas tend to find me and poke me relentlessly. So I have a document dedicated to half-baked ideas. Actually, multiple documents because some ideas are just developed enough to deserve a few pages to themselves plus character outlines. If I get everything in my head down on paper, then I can focus back on my current project rather than get derailed. That's probably the hardest part, not paying attention to new ideas and focusing on one thing at a time. 

[RAVENEYE]

On a side note, when I'm deep into a long project like my novel ideas tend to find me and poke me relentlessly. So I have a document dedicated to half-baked ideas. Actually, multiple documents because some ideas are just developed enough to deserve a few pages to themselves plus character outlines. If I get everything in my head down on paper, then I can focus back on my current project rather than get derailed. That's probably the hardest part, not paying attention to new ideas and focusing on one thing at a time.

Gosh, I wish I had done this. During the six years I spent (re)writing my novel series, I had so much trouble focusing on the task because I wanted to be writing so many other things. But I had to get this series finished, so when new ideas would pop up, I kept telling them to be quiet. I wrote down precious few of them, and now they're lost. 

So sad because now, when my brain is shot and creativity struggling to stay above water, I'd give almost anything to have that fruitful, abundantly busy mind back.

For general ideas, like the small ones that birth larger novels, they usually come from something random happening to me during the day or a brief moment in a movie/show thats glossed over.

Ooo! I hadn't considered trying this tactic. Capturing glossed over ideas, or rewriting badly executed ideas how I imagine they ought to have been done. I think I'd afraid of sticking too close to the source of inspiration in terms of character, world, etc. instead of taking it in a whole new direction, and end up writing an obviously derivative work.

But I absolutely love the idea in the example you mention. 

[ScintillaMyntan]

Just noticing them

To me, getting ideas — as in very raw and preliminary ideas — is more a matter of judgment than inventiveness. We get ideas all the time! "What if the storm strands us inside for a week?" "Wouldn't it be fun to climb a spider web?" "What would I do if I were in that person's situation?" It's just about paying attention to them and being able to discern which ones have potential. During times I write more, I find I have more story ideas, not because I actually have such thoughts more often but because I get in the habit of evaluating them as story material.

As an example, my neighbor's dog kept barking at me. I thought, "I wonder I could get him to stop barking by thinking nicer thoughts." I was just thinking playfully, but I could see someone being more serious about that. Perhaps they might worry they're a bad person deep down because dogs bark at them. That's just the sort of casual hypothetical I assume everyone has, along the lines of "What would've happened if I thought about this differently?" or "if I did something different?" Non-writers just discard this stuff. But it occurred to me to file the idea in my brain for future writing, and when the "Rise from Ruin" contest came round, it morphed into a character being compelled to turn herself around morally because of a hostile dog.

Daydreams

I daydream too much. But sometimes it leads to stories, particularly if I consider what the narrative could do as a story rather than just a private way of making myself feel better about life.

Non-narrative imagery I find compelling

One day I want to explore the image of towers with myriad lights on them in the night. I find that image frightening, and that makes me to want to do something with it. Years ago I wrote a really bad short story that came from a vague scene in my head: two guys reconciling at night in the rain, which came to mind from some music that wasn't lyrically related to this scene at all. Apparently C.S. Lewis got his ideas sort of like that. He'd start with an interesting mental image or series of images and only then consider what sort of literary form would fit it.

I also kind of want to write a story using a fountain as a motif one day. As a kid I liked 'discovering' the different fountains at the local mall, how they came up with such interesting and pretty courses for the water to take. So I know I want the shape of the fountain to be significant. So that'd probably be a fantasy thing. People living in something like a giant fountain? Or a world where everyone has their own personal fountain that represents them? That's the sort of thought process, taking something I just like and brainstorming a narrative from it.

Prompts

Then of course, prompts are helpful. I enjoy brainstorming from prompts and I've come up with nice stuff for our contests and themed publications.

[ScienceGirl]

I know this is terrible!!! LOL I stalk people. At the soccer field. At the grocery store. At a traffic light. I’ve come to believe that all stories offer a snippet of life so I have my collection of snippets and then a story comes together from them. For example, one of my stories is about a girl who through some fancy legal work inherits a farm that now belongs to her childhood bully. I took my high school students on a field trip to see an old furnace, and that little snippet turned into a scene that later became my story.

I think it’s fun to notice two people sitting across from each other at a restaurant and imagine their story. I take mental notes of their body language and actions.

Some have said that the only way to know how to write life is to experience it, and I disagree. To truly know how to describe life is to take the time to observe it with all your senses, but especially your eyes and ears. Watch and listen. See the connections between action and emotion. Have a toolbox of things people do when they are angry, etc.

Then, freewrite. Start with an angry woman in a kitchen. Have her pick up a plate and almost throw it. Imagine the pattern on the plate. Picture her face as she remembers it’s significance. Then give it a story. Ask who, what, when, where, why and how?

Maybe a little crazy but that’s what works for me.

[HDSimplicityy]

Thank Bob Ross for the happy accidents.
Alatariel , so you pulled a JRR Tolkien.


I Daydream.
A lot.


My mind wanders far more than it needs to. Doesnt help I may have ADD. I get inspiration from orchestra music, from video games, books, movies. My own visual imagination. Stuff I want to see in existing stories.
Ever since I became a fan of orchestra music, listening to it like others do with lyrical music, my writers mind lights up! The notes, backgrounds, or if they are from a trailer, they feed me like sweets! Far easier than a prompt. Those are still good, necessary starting ideas. Prompts have a starting structure with just the initial idea instead of depending on tons of images from the above I have to sift through.

I started my book idea from wanting a science fiction version of Lara Croft. I was playing Rise of the Tomb Raider in early 2016. I got both my fanfiction idea and my first seed for the book from it. Now the book is a far cry from sci fi tomb raider. Maybe Ill throw in climbing with axes as a callback.

@scintillamyntan I would never have guessed C.S Lewis got ideas like that. It does not come across at all while I read The Chronicles of Narnia. I like your fountain idea.

[RAVENEYE]

Mar 5, 2021 21:46:34 GMT -6 ScintillaMyntan said:

Just noticing them

To me, getting ideas — as in very raw and preliminary ideas — is more a matter of judgment than inventiveness. We get ideas all the time! "What if the storm strands us inside for a week?" "Wouldn't it be fun to climb a spider web?" "What would I do if I were in that person's situation?" It's just about paying attention to them and being able to discern which ones have potential. During times I write more, I find I have more story ideas, not because I actually have such thoughts more often but because I get in the habit of evaluating them as story material.

As an example, my neighbor's dog kept barking at me. I thought, "I wonder I could get him to stop barking by thinking nicer thoughts." I was just thinking playfully, but I could see someone being more serious about that. Perhaps they might worry they're a bad person deep down because dogs bark at them. That's just the sort of casual hypothetical I assume everyone has, along the lines of "What would've happened if I thought about this differently?" or "if I did something different?" Non-writers just discard this stuff. But it occurred to me to file the idea in my brain for future writing, and when the "Rise from Ruin" contest came round, it morphed into a character being compelled to turn herself around morally because of a hostile dog.

I love this. It seems to take a nimble, aware mind to latch onto thoughts like this when they occur and capture them. I find myself passing over so many thoughts like this, so I'm going to try to be more conscious and intentional about making note of them and see what happens.

[RAVENEYE]

Mar 12, 2021 18:29:15 GMT -6 ScienceGirl said:

I know this is terrible!!! LOL I stalk people. At the soccer field. At the grocery store. At a traffic light. I’ve come to believe that all stories offer a snippet of life so I have my collection of snippets and then a story comes together from them. For example, one of my stories is about a girl who through some fancy legal work inherits a farm that now belongs to her childhood bully. I took my high school students on a field trip to see an old furnace, and that little snippet turned into a scene that later became my story.

Bahahaha! Okay, I'm definitely not that bold. The last time I stalked a person was in 4th Grade b/c the girl looked Haley Mills, and I loved Pollyanna at the time. I wanted to be the girl's friend b/c of this so badly, but I was too shy to approach an upper classman (she was a year older).

[bilance]

Music 
Music helps to spark ideas, stories and scenes for my story. But it sometimes can prove to be a major distraction.

[RAVENEYE]

Mar 19, 2021 10:09:02 GMT -6 bilance said:

Music 
Music helps to spark ideas, stories and scenes for my story. But it sometimes can prove to be a major distraction.

True. Music helps the creative brain connect with something primal and emotional. Listening to music with words while writing is, to me, simply a no-go. Music without words? A great mood setter for scene building.

[farida]

I get a lot of ideas from old newspapers. I love trawling through newspaper archives and use snippets from them in my historial fiction. Sometimes, they can spark a whole story. How about this excerpt from a Bavarian newspaper in 1929:

Police have arrested Anna Sterndl (79) over the murder of Ernst Sterndl, her husband of 52 years, this last Wednesday. Sterndl, who owned an outlier farm, was found by neighbours with an axe in his head. Under questioning, Anna Sterndl said that "the day had come when it was enough".

I mean what the hell? What was this woman's life like on that Bavarian outlier farm? And what made her snap?

And I love ads. Here's one from the East London Advertiser, 1898:

"Parrot for sale. Speaks fluently, tells anecdotes. Enquire at 37 Gower Street. Ask for Mr Stratton, NOT Mrs."

Did that guy sell his wife's annoying parrot on the sly? What secrets and anecdotes did the parrot know? My God, why can't I interview that man?

[RAVENEYE]

Mar 22, 2021 6:07:08 GMT -6 farida said:

I get a lot of ideas from old newspapers. I love trawling through newspaper archives and use snippets from them in my historial fiction. Sometimes, they can spark a whole story. How about this excerpt from a Bavarian newspaper in 1929:

Police have arrested Anna Sterndl (79) over the murder of Ernst Sterndl, her husband of 52 years, this last Wednesday. Sterndl, who owned an outlier farm, was found by neighbours with an axe in his head. Under questioning, Anna Sterndl said that "the day had come when it was enough".

I mean what the hell? What was this woman's life like on that Bavarian outlier farm? And what made her snap?

And I love ads. Here's one from the East London Advertiser, 1898:

"Parrot for sale. Speaks fluently, tells anecdotes. Enquire at 37 Gower Street. Ask for Mr Stratton, NOT Mrs."

Did that guy sell his wife's annoying parrot on the sly? What secrets and anecdotes did the parrot know? My God, why can't I interview that man?

Wow, just wow. This is a resource I never considered using. Guess that needs to change. These are both fantastic. I bet there are thousands of prompts like this lurking in the archives. Holy moly.

[farida]

And the best thing is, there are so many free newspaper archives around. Even magazines and catalogues are now online, all the way back through the 20th century and beyond.

Of course it's too much to ever research comprehensively, but it's super-fun to just pick a week or so from the time your book is set - even if its alternative reality - and have a little browse.

[farida]

I have one more for you, from the newspaper that reported my grandfather's death in November 1960.

WANTED: Strong, fit farmhand and milker, no older than 28, for farm with 24 cattle + calves. Generous salary, Sundays and half-days off. Room and board included - marriage is an option.

Some intrepid female farmer had her priorities straight. We laugh... but in 1960s Germany there were not a lot of men around, for historial reasons. This woman probably thought she might as well save a bit of money and combine the hiring process with the dating game.