Where do Story Ideas Come From?

[argenianpoet]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Sage]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[KikiteNeko]

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]

From personal experience, then embellished to taste.

[NeuroFizz]

From life.

[DeleyanLee]

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]

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

idea indigestion is the worst!

[Ken Schneider]

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]

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]

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]

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

[argenianpoet]

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...

[argenianpoet]

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.

This is very true and that's why you must fill in those gaps, give those monkey golden wings, and set the whole thing ablaze! That is the spirit in which I write. I love stories that dare to go places of the unknown and bizarre, but keep it mundane and real all the while. The fire will engulf the story without your awareness of the fact, and in the end you'll have a truly original masterpiece. But if there is no puddy to fill in the gaps, no golden wings for the monkies and no acceptance of the mundane as an all-powerful tool then by all means do not venture this path ;-)

[jenstrikesagain]

Mindbender grew out of a haunted house story I was working on that up and died on me about 250 pages in. Really, if something's gonna die on you, it ought to have the good grace to do it on page ten. Anyway, I threw the same bunch of characters in another story and genius! The only downside is that I have this huge gorgeous setpiece of a house with which I do practically nothing. Oh well.

[argenianpoet]

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.

I agree. You have a good realistic grasp of the process, but I like to think of it as magic; that helps me lock into it and become one with it. The same idea will turn into two completely different stories if you gave it to two people and said write it. Thing is, an idea has to be something I originally (in my own mind) concieved for me to be able to put that much of myself into it. So I couldn't write something someone else wanted me to write I don't think. It has always been this way for me: I have an idea in my head and that idea grows into inspiration that in turns produces mad words of poetic fury that when I'm done leaves me thoroughly satisfied no matter what anyone thinks about it... I write mainly for me, because in me is the desire to do so and I don't think that will ever change. My heart is set toward distant tides of creativity... The magic doorway is out there for anyone who seeks its inward secret. Go, find, and open that door. Inside you'll find what you really are...