All My Ideas Are Awful

Ideas are the least important part of the whole deal.

Tell me a story.

lorna_w said:

There are many people here who write a story "boy and girl meet, sparks fly, complications arise, they overcome them and get together in the end." In fact, half of all readers read such novels. Whether the girl is a pilot and the boy the FAA inspector, the boy the heir of the copper smelter and the girl the environmental attorney...those "ideas" don't matter. The execution of those books, using genre tropes and styles, is what makes them good for their readers, makes their readers cry and sigh and smile and, perhaps, jump enthusiastically on their spouses that same night.

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I love the bolded line. Speaking as a romance writer, if we had to come up with new ideas for every book, we might as well never try to write another romance novel again.

Fortunately for all of us, execution is king.

I think it was Jim Butcher that said: "No idea is too awful to make a successful novel out of" and he dared someone to come up with two random ideas, and he'd write a novel on it.

Basically, he was challenged to combine Pokemon and the Lost Roman Legion... and he wrote Codex Alera.

Your ideas are probably fine. You just need to see them in a different light.

Mharvey said:

I think it was Jim Butcher that said: "No idea is too awful to make a successful novel out of" and he dared someone to come up with two random ideas, and he'd write a novel on it.

Basically, he was challenged to combine Pokemon and the Lost Roman Legion... and he wrote Codex Alera.

Your ideas are probably fine. You just need to see them in a different light.

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That's really cool. I just checked out the first book of Codex Alera from the library. I'll have to read it and find out if he pulled it off.

Long before Jim Butcher there was Watt-Evan's Law of Literary Creation:

• Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.
• Feist's Corollary: There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.

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> Feist's Corollary: There is no idea so brilliant or
> original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't
> screw it up.

*googling for ghost writers*

-cb

I'm finding that most of my ideas are just...awful. I think they're all just some rehash of already popular series. How do you guys come up with your plot ideas?

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Maybe you're trying too hard. Get away from where you usually write. Take a pad of paper and pencil, go to a crowded park or food court. Then just write anything that pops in your head. Complain, bitch, moan, swear. I do this to clear out some space in my brain for creativity. Like cleaning out a cluttered closet.
Then find some characters in the food court and make something up about them. A whole bunch of characters and try not to think about them to much just write quick paragraphs. Go back and read it over the next day and see if you can put something together. Have fun!

Maybe instead of thinking of large scale plots, just think of a few scenes you would like to read. I've always called them "iceberg" scenes. Once you have a few iceberg scenes write your way into one, then write a connection to the next. In between plot might happen.

You know, until I saw that one thread (that I'm forgetting to link) where OGAspider fell out with Mac, I never knew that "Permaflounced" is a title equal to "Forever-a-Banned."

I guess that makes giving more advice null and void. o_o

Just sayin'~

I use the What would happen if . . . There's nothing wrong with mixing two populas series and see what comes out. Shakespear did this A LOT. It's ok to mix series or maybe expand on a series. Just keep away from the original, make it your own. I just saw a movie on netflix called Goeman http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/goemon/ and it was excellent. It was a combination of Japanese warlord, Hamlet, and Robin Hood all mixed together and yet it was amazing. So it's ok to mix and match. Just don't be obvious about it.

My novel, which a publisher is mulling over, is a combinaiton of Lord of the Rings meets the Lion, witch, wardrobe/winkle in time/golden compass. And from what I gather, the publisher likes it, so we'll see. But I wrote in such a way that even though it has a few of the above elements, it isn't obvious and it's all mine. Does that make sense? I took the ideas, but wrote in my way with my characters and my plot. That's legal.

Ohgodaspider said:

I'm finding that most of my ideas are just...awful. I think they're all just some rehash of already popular series. How do you guys come up with your plot ideas?

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Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what matters.

quicklime said:

I'm guessing the only truly awful idea you've had is the one to whine and self-flagellate

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Actually, he managed to come up with an even worse one: insulting Mac.

Turns out there's such a thing as a truly BAD idea after all.

Shirokirie said:

You know, until I saw that one thread (that I'm forgetting to link) where OGAspider fell out with Mac, I never knew that "Permaflounced" is a title equal to "Forever-a-Banned."

I guess that makes giving more advice null and void. o_o

Just sayin'~

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There's a lot of very good advice here for others who worry about their ideas not being good enough.

"Permaflounced" describes a flounce of such bridge-burning proportions that Mac not only politely got the door for them, she also closed it after their high-drama exit.

I did not know mac was a girl....maybe that's part of why she disliked being called "son" just before another assisted exit.....

Ari Meermans said:

"Permaflounced" describes a flounce of such bridge-burning proportions that Mac not only politely got the door for them, she also closed it after their high-drama exit.

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...and released the guard Chihuahua.

I'm sure some people don't start work on a novel until they have the whole story idea worked out in their heads with major conflicts, plot twists, and all, but I'm certainly not one of those. (Maybe I'd be a better writer if I was. Not sure about that.)

I'll typically start with some plot device and maybe one character and go from there. F/e in my latest fantasy effort it was the idea of two worlds, one more magical than the other, linked together by towers that provided very difficult portals between the two, and one character, a young musician/magician who is secretly a half-breed with the magical people on the other side of the portal. The tower portal idea came from an old video game called Masters of Magic, and I don't know where the character idea came from. Telling his story introduced new characters and they had their own problems which introduced new plot developments and eventually it all came together.

Not saying that's the only or even the best way to do the job, but I'm just saying you don't have to have a full-fledged idea right out the starting gate as long as you have something that will let you get started writing. Sometimes they grow organically.

Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) with vampire hunters.
King Lear with giant robots.
Huckleberry Finn with interstellar flight.
Paradise Lost(John Milton) with doomsday weapons.
Great Expectations with kung fu.

I'm pretty sure Paradise Lost came with doomsday weapons. Wrath of God and all that.

I get my ideas from the stories I'm working on. Usually it's a character, sometimes it's a situation, a group, or an event. Currently it's king's guards. That one rattles around in my head while churning out pages on the current novel. I have three main characters and two side-guys. All I need is a plot. That always comes harder. There's another idea brewing behind that one, but it's getting a little less time right now.

My point, in case you missed it, is that writing itself is a good way to get ideas, better IMHO than someone else's books. The ideas may not be any more original - as sunandshadow said, there's nothing new under the sun - but you won't feel like your piggybacking someone else's ideas.

Sometimes the ideas for stories come from the most random places. For the novel (my first) I'm working on right now it came from power rangers, though it has nothing to do with power rangers. One of my friend's on Facebook posted a status about things that kids who grew up in the 90s would know, that are no longer really around. One of the things was power rangers.

It got me reminiscing about power rangers (which when I was younger I was OBSESSED with) and my favorite Rangers from then, which was always the 6th power ranger. The sixth ranger was a guy who wasn't part of the main team of rangers who came in and played an important part, but wasn't as important as the Red Ranger. Often times there was some trouble in their life that kept them from being a ranger till then.

Specifically, the inspiration for the my MC was my favorite ranger of all time - the Titanium Ranger, Ryan Mitchel (though I named my main character after my second favorite the Silver Ranger Zane who was in a coma for 2 years and wasn't able to be a ranger for that time)- who had a traumatic experience when he was young and taken from his family. When he returned he had trouble fitting in and felt like he didn't belong. Also I had over my life had a series of power rangers related dreams. They were all very similar, I was the sixth ranger and it was between ranger teams (the old team of rangers was retiring and a new one coming in) and I was trying to fit in with the new team. It then clicked that the MC's motivation is trying to find some place to belong and not be alone anymore.

So I had a main character and what motivated him, but I didn't have a story yet. So then I thought about what I liked and knew that i could write about. I had gotten into Star Trek Recently (following my family tradition of being a Trekkie, my brother even collected the trading cards) and from the start it would be a SciFi novel.

So I had a genre and a main characters motivation, plus what general kind of role he'd play, but those things by themselves don't equal a story. So I looked to what I liked and thing I had knowledge of. i love history and politics, love reading about the military and spies, and my favorite authors are Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn. So I decided it was going to be spy novel/political thriller. Current events and history provided some themes, specifically the trouble with not heading warnings when they are given to us.

So I had all the makings of the story. I had what genre it would be (SciFi) and sub genres (political thriller/spy novel) I had a MC, motivated by trying to find his place in life and that provides the internal conflict for him. I had what kind of role he'd play in the action of the story, not a main player such as a general or president, but maybe an aide or something. I had the big external conflict, and I had a theme for it of ignoring warnings that are given to you. So I now have the foundation for the story and now I just have to put it together into a believable plot and fill in the rest.

Here's the advice I'd give to you think through your past. Is there something that happened that really caused made you who you are or were at one time, that you could turn into a story or a motivation for your MC? Or do you have a friend that has a personal story that you could work into a story? read history books, biographies, and memories. you might find something there that could inspire you. read psychology articles and books about what makes people tick and you could find something that sparks an idea.

Ohgodaspider said:

I'm finding that most of my ideas are just...awful. I think they're all just some rehash of already popular series. How do you guys come up with your plot ideas?

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While I watch a movie, I'll often pause it, and think what might happen next. Then watch it play out. Then I try and twist what has happened. This is a good jumping off point and then I try and spin it a different way, with different characters. Anything that spurs the imagination. Movies or TV shows.

lambauman said:

First of all, there is nothing new under the sun.

Just put a twist on the old idea, and you'll have a new one. ^_-

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Agreed. Put faith in your ideas instead of putting them down. You'll find you'll have a lot more to work with if you do.

Ohgodaspider said:

I'm a sucker for mysteries with fantasy elements, The Dresden Files and Harry Potter series are my biggest inspirations.

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I find the best success is to start smaller (as others have said). Invent a character and put them in a genre, tell us about a desperate time in their life. It doesn't have to be violent, it can just be emotional... but it's desperate.

I think we've all had a moment that we trashed a project because we decided we didn't like it... its then you think your an idiot or have nothing good to say.

My main chars always have a sense of humor. Sometimes they do things I didn't plan on... those are the best moments in the story IMO. Give them some life and see what happens.

Good luck.