How do you kickstart yourself and get ideas for stories?

[Overkill]

I am always looking for new ideas, i get some and they seem cool at inception but they never end up anywhere. How do you guys get yourself going and generate a new idea? Ofr instance, i know that i am more interested in paranormal stories or stories that deal with government conspiracies and shadowy organizations that cause chaos and such. I am always afraid the topics im interested in are overdone. One idea i had was to have a guy who works for a consulting group that deals with violent crimes and that he was once a remove viewer and uses his skills to solve crimes. The other was the same type of deal but the guy working for this group has a much different skill. He sees things in their true form, sees how they work, meaning if he hears music he can actually see the musical notes and know what they mean, if looking at a substance he can see its chemical formula and know what it is.

How would you guys kickstart the process?

[Shadow_Ferret]

I don't really generate ideas. I mean, I don't have a notebook filled with things that say, "Guy meets alien, but thinks it's his mother" or "While driving to Tocoma, guy picks up hitchhiker who turns out to be his long lost sister with a sex change."

I just sit down and start writing the first thought that pops into my head and go from there. Sometimes it meanders and leads nowhere. Other times it finds it's groove and takes me all the way to a nice sized novel.

But the point is, I put my butt in the chair and just write.

If that means anything.

[RedScylla]

Almost always I start with a character. I see the character in my mind, doing whatever he's doing, and I say, "Why is he doing that? Where'd he come from? Where's he going? Who is he? What does he want? Why can't he get it?" I get started answering those questions and next thing you know, I have a story.

[Donkey]

I don't really generate ideas. I mean, I don't have a notebook filled with things that say, "Guy meets alien, but thinks it's his mother" or "While driving to Tocoma, guy picks up hitchhiker who turns out to be his long lost sister with a sex change."


Whoa! Dude, can I use those, if you aren't going to? :D

[Overkill]

I actually was thinking of using the second one, where the MC would have what i call true sight i just need to find the right vehicle for it.

[dirtsider]

Well, given you have some ideas for characters and an association they're working for, how about just reading news on the internet? I've come up with some ideas for subplot/potential plots that way. Look at the odd news sections. Those are fun.

[Overkill]

sorry,donkey, my mistake LOL i didn't read enough to see what you meant, my bad

[Shadow_Ferret]

I actually was thinking of using the second one, where the MC would have what i call true sight i just need to find the right vehicle for it.
Just start writing it. I start with a scene. My current subbing novel started with my MC in stuck traffic trying to get his daughter to school. That's ended up becoming the second chapter after all was said and done.

Another novel started with a scene in a bar and I gradually introduced the main characters and that turned into a 185,000 word fantasy.

A third novel started with a scene between a wizard and his young apprentice doing a training exercise and that's evolved into a LoTR style quest.

The point is, just imagine a scene that introduces the characters for your reader. The crime scene one, maybe start with a scene in the morque where he's with the coroner doing an autopsy, or put him at a crime scene where he's interacting with the on-scene officers.

But just start writing.

[tehuti88]

I don't tend to generate ideas either. A concept works its way into my head, I mull it over long enough, and then I have enough in mind to write a story from it. Granted, I write series stories, so new ideas often build off of previous stories, and I get a lot of inspiration just from the subjects I'm interested in reading about. (I get all kinds of inspired when reading about mythology!)

So ideas just sort of come to me randomly. I don't seek them out. If I do, they tend to fall flat. And I need to think them over for quite a while before I have enough to write a story with. Maybe you need to just mull a while longer?

I realize that isn't very helpful, but I thought I'd say, your second concept, with the guy who sees things in their "true" form (reminds me vaguely of synesthesia, perhaps you should look into that), sounds very intriguing. If you can develop that into a story I think it sounds pretty original.

[Donkey]

Just start writing it. I start with a scene. My current subbing novel started with my MC in stuck traffic trying to get his daughter to school. That's ended up becoming the second chapter after all was said and done.

Another novel started with a scene in a bar and I gradually introduced the main characters and that turned into a 185,000 word fantasy.

A third novel started with a scene between a wizard and his young apprentice doing a training exercise and that's evolved into a LoTR style quest.

The point is, just imagine a scene that introduces the characters for your reader. The crime scene one, maybe start with a scene in the morque where he's with the coroner doing an autopsy, or put him at a crime scene where he's interacting with the on-scene officers.

But just start writing.

Agreed. If you don't have a solid outline/story idea, then just sit down and start with a character's name that you like. Imagine how a person with that name would react to a scene, and then just start writing. The rest will follow. Your imagination is the best tool you have. Letting it run free is sometimes the best way to jumpstart a story.
The best part? You'll end up writing about something that you probably wouldn't have ever dreamed up otherwise. ;)

[Thomas White]

My ideas start with the characters themselves. I decide what their history is, how that influences them in the present, then more specifically how they would behave in given scenarios.

Throw that character in at the deep end and see how things go from there.

[dianeP]

My latest story was inspired by a photo a friend e-mailed me; this great looking, hunky guy. I immediately knew who he was, what he did and how. I've spent the last two months working out the story in my head and finally sat down to write it down last thursday.

I have to think the story or scene through first, I can't do it sitting in front of the computer. If I get stuck, I go for a walk or go sit out in the sun and work through it.

[Straka]

I read a lot, and not just for entertainment but as a critical study. Watch movies, talk to people, observe life... and some handy introspection. I'll take aspects of myself that are interesting to me, and put them into a character and intensify them.

[Shar-Jan]

Tupac had his 'commonplace book' where he jotted down ideas every now and then.


36 Nigga consumes forty ounces of malt liquor. Unspeakable flows. Unspeakable prose.

74 a homie enters flipmode: witnesses strange alternate ghetto where blood wears blue and fingers can be manipulated to spell out CrIP

I do something similar.

I wouldn't recommend it but eating a load of off cheese and going to bed (or if its really bad, just stay awake). Some of my 'best' ideas have come from those sessions, but I think I've damaged myself in the process.

[Matera the Mad]

I don't. If one happens, I take notes.

I don't believe that ideas can be forced.

Ideas are cheap -- it's what you do with them that matters.

[Madison]

Dunno if anyone already said this...

Go out and people watch. Sit at Starbucks and eavesdrop on conversations. Take a walk in a park. Listen in the lines at the grocery store. Read the newspaper.

Ditto what Matera said. Ideas can't be forced; the best ones just come. Although it is sort of like a treasure hunt... you've gotta go out to look for them. Look gently, though.

[donroc]

I have a "library" of unwritten books in my head, and I generally take 'em as they come.

[Niniva]

I like to people-watch. I make up stories about their lives:

What's it like to be that guy? His watch is on the wrong arm. He's wearing a mohawk. Does he know it's the left-hander's arm, but right-handed. Is he doing it on purpose? No, I don't think he knows; the kid seems bereft of knowledge and discipline because of his speech.

(Here's where I start going:) His mother probably didn't know to tell him. *picture hefty woman in curls and pink bathrobe smoking while she cooks* *the ancient third-hand exercise bike is buried under the "clean" clothes in a corner* *single-wide trailer with door that doesn't close right*

It just keeps going from there. All I have to do is watch him move around in my head. He will morph from reality into some sliver of a morality tale.

This is more of a short story thing. I can however string several characters together to get bigger ones.

Also, I try vignettes. I "paint" with words, trying to create a setting that evokes strong emotion in my readers. Kudzu is an invasive plant in the southeast US, and it's blooming. The scent is incredible, but I can't seem to describe it; it smells like bitter-sweet memories: old, a touch sad, but precious. The vines create dark "caves." The Georgia countryside is currently covered in green caves that reek of grown children and broken hearts.

Finally, with those two things in my mind, I like to lay half-awake in bed in the morning to take advantage of delta waves. It's hard to let the characters play free without falling asleep, though. I have to have a "germ" of an idea. In that time between awake and asleep, I "write." I see everything that I'd like to capture that day. I can "write" at other times, but the best ideas come on the delta waves. This last step tells me what the punk kid is doing in the kudzu cave.

You have two characters in mind, pit them against each other. Research their powers; how do you want their powers to work? Do they need another character to balance them? You just have to "watch" them until they do something interesting.

[Niniva]

"Consulting firm... violent crime" -> Aftermath. Interesting work, but disgusting. Sensitive post-crime clean-up for a reasonable-ish price to your insurance.

[RainyDayNinja]

You should take a trip to Schenectady, New York. I hear there are a lot of good ideas there.

[sadron]

Well, I don't generate ideas. I have a plot in my mind and write few things into notebook and then start writing. If I get ideas they come example from movies and nature. They just pop in the mind.

[blacbird]

Talisker.

caw

[Chuck316]

Absinthe

Or just meeting someone boring and trying to figure out what you could do to make them interesting

Or riding around in a cable van all day with lots of time to your thoughts between jobs


All of them work for me...

[MrWrite]

Whoa! Dude, can I use those, if you aren't going to? :D

I was going to ask that but you beat me to it! :tongue

[Woodsie]

I'm a people watcher. I get ideas from trying to figure out who they are and why they do what they do.

[eveningstar]

You should take a trip to Schenectady, New York. I hear there are a lot of good ideas there.

There are, they have a factory for them.

I like to start with interesting, unusual locations and then figure out how they're populated and what kind of things happen there. I'm also fond of combining different ideas and seeing if I can get them to work together.

[dwellerofthedeep]

I cruise around the web, or go out and learn somethingm. I write down notes for whatever it is I'm learning, and I then wonder what would happen if things were different in some specific way.

[Wolvel]

Mine usually come to me out of nowhere.

One of my current wip's grew from a paragraph that got stuck in my head, and I just added stuff to make the first paragraph make sense.

Others are either inspired from conversations or a movie/tv show/book I recently read or saw.

[rubberbands]

just keep a notebook or sketchpad or something- anything that catches your eye you can write down. then if you look at it later and add more to them with your imagination.
dreams, too. or parts of dreams.

but the best ideas wont leave you alone.

[Clair Dickson]

I think part of getting ideas is accepting that some of them are bad ideas or that many of them will crash and burn like a 747 that loses a wing somewhere over Iowa.

It's that whole "it's okay to write crap" thing.

Once you get over that and just see where the ideas take you, you'll find that those beginnings can lead into something else.

The other thing is to ask questions. Why? What happens next? Why did he do that and why didn't she do this? Maybe write a list of 10 or 20 different outcomes from where you've run out of writing steam-- just forcing yourself to come up with the 20 (some of which will be the lamest ideas you've ever heard of!) can help you figure out where you want to go with the story. At least that's what I do. If I don't have a plot, the story sputters out-- then I can either find more fuel (figure out the plot) or abandon it for something else.