Coming up with short story ideas

Well, I do sometimes. So, some of these I was already doing, but I'm probably going to try more of them. You know, just to see if they work.

As far as the song thing, you also try listening to song played a different way, for example, see if you find an acoustic version, piano version, etc. That may help you think as well. However, I guess the best advice--no matter what the song is--just let you mind run with it.

Something I've found really helpful is to go into sites that sell premade covers for ebooks and my imagination goes a wild with story ideas. It's a bit like putting the cart before the horse I guess, but it works for me.

JustJas said:

Something I've found really helpful is to go into sites that sell premade covers for ebooks and my imagination goes a wild with story ideas. It's a bit like putting the cart before the horse I guess, but it works for me.

Click to expand...

Could you post a link to one(or more) of the sites you use?

Remember the old Ray Bradbury tv series? At the beginning of every show Ray would be sitting in a room crammed full of books, statuettes, and other bric-a-brac. He'd wave his hand around and tell us that was where he got his ideas, from almost everything.

I, too, like the "what if?" game. What does that fly on the wall think about me? Does he think I'm a God, a threat, or a source of good-tasting sweat? Put your mind inside his and see. I even sold a short story about a doornail. Doris the doornail started life in the year 1708, and I followed her career into a museum. During that time, she went through many adventures.

There are stories in everything you see, read, or observe while driving to work. Your job is to get that story out and tell it in a manner that interests readers.

Charlie

Silver-Midnight said:

Could you post a link to one(or more) of the sites you use?

Click to expand...

This site is great for ideas as it has a huge variety of covers.


http://bookgraphics.wordpress.com/pre-made-ebook-covers-2/

JustJas said:

This site is great for ideas as it has a huge variety of covers.


http://bookgraphics.wordpress.com/pre-made-ebook-covers-2/

Click to expand...

Thanks. I may go through it to see if it inspires anything.

EDIT: I was also able to find some others by searching for premade e-Book Covers. Thanks for the idea. I appreciate it.

Silver-Midnight said:

Thanks. I may go through it to see if it inspires anything.

EDIT: I was also able to find some others by searching for premade e-Book Covers. Thanks for the idea. I appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Glad to help.

I do believe everything has an idea in it. Pick a noun. Any noun. It has a built in story that your imagination should be able to conjure.

Jamesaritchie said:

I do believe everything has an idea in it. Pick a noun. Any noun. It has a built in story that your imagination should be able to conjure.

Click to expand...

So true.

I used to make up stories about talking salt and pepper shakers. They'd zip all over the kitchen table getting into trouble with the plates and cups. Drove my mother crazy.

My dad, however, thought it was great.

Jamesaritchie said:

I do believe everything has an idea in it. Pick a noun. Any noun. It has a built in story that your imagination should be able to conjure.

Click to expand...

I think I'm one of the few people that hasn't worked for yet. I've tried it before but I really couldn't think of anything I think. Maybe I just wasn't thinking about it have enough.

Live your life to the fullest and take notice of the world around you. Ideas wont take long to appear.

Never write just for the sake of writing, write because you have something to write about.

I recommend going onto LiveJournal, if you have one, and looking for a prompts table. I've been working my way through one that contains 100 1-2 word story prompts, which I found in one of the fandoms I inhabit.

Rather than writing fanfiction for mine, I've been writing original short stories with each of the prompts, and am currently up to #72. I also belong to writing communities on LJ that offer monthly challenges which sometimes generate short stories.

I don't know; I guess much of my inspirations revolves around LiveJournal.

Or go to a stock image site like Fotolia and look up a word like masquerade. Some of the images tell a story in themselves, like this one. When you see an image style that catches your eye, click on it, and look at the other images in that series or with that model.

That one I linked to, for example, fits the FMC for a series I have planned… but I have to finish something like a dozen books before I can really work on that one. *sigh* (I have other projects going on, and it's in the same world as one of my series, but set about 50 years later, even though it features some of the same characters.)

Sometimes I go through the archives of tiny ghosts for inspiration. As a bonus, the person who runs it loves hearing about stories you wrote inspired by them, which is pretty neat. Also, very short stories on twitter has some interesting tweets which could lead to a longer story, if you were so inspired.

bethanythemartian said:

Sometimes I go through the archives of tiny ghosts for inspiration. As a bonus, the person who runs it loves hearing about stories you wrote inspired by them, which is pretty neat. Also, very short stories on twitter has some interesting tweets which could lead to a longer story, if you were so inspired.

Click to expand...

Tiny Ghosts looks really cool. Thanks for sharing it.

I don't have a Twitter account so, I can't access very short stories.

I don't think I'd try to write according to the clock, or calendar. I suppose if you use writing to earn a living, you must do this. But otherwise, I'd use something besides time as the impetus to write.

I seem to have started out with one or two unique ideas, that were always in me. With time, these ideas have richened. But no 'new' ideas have ever come along.

Maybe it's less a question of having new ideas, and more the case of being unable for some reason to write out the idea(s) that are already there, within us. My sense is, if an author is given two or three original stories to recount in his lifetime, he should count himself supremely lucky. I suspect there will be writers who will never have one.

So, my advice would be to look within...and not outside yourself...for inspiration.

Alan

I often find that while I'm writing one story the characters or situations in it will give me an idea for another story Just make sure to make notes (also, don't let the second idea distract you too much from the story you're already busy with)

I tend to pick apart lyrics I like and use them as inspiration. It works well for me. My ideas for short stories come from all over the place. Ideas for novels... on the other hand usually have something to do with YA fantasy.

When I wanted to shock my system, so to speak, I read short stories by Stephen King, a lot of them, and then I just relaxed...and BAM! I had story lines for twelve new stories. It's all about what gets your gears spinning. I went through a car wash one time and had an epiphany on a great horror tale. Just relax and roam...warning I would advise a hard hat when the bricks fall...I almost died this one time...let your ideas flow when you try too hard they clog up the intricate valves and refuse to budge. Good Luck.

Hello everybody,

Generating new ideas should not be a problem. My favorite book on writing short fiction proposes many ways of coming up with one. Lets see a couple of them.

Open a dictionary and choose a word at random, then do it again and find another. You can write something out of these two words taken together.

Say you are after an idea and you noticed your hand. Maybe you can make a story out of that.
* An adventure story about an agent who carries a micro flash drive hidden in a small bruise in his hand. (Why ? What is inside micro flash drive ? Who is after the agent ? Is that something domestic or of international scale ? )
* A love story about a handsome young man who drinks at his local corner bar and trying to attract attention of a woman on the next table while he wears his engagement ring (Why is he doing that ? Is that something he does all the time or did something drastic happen very recently and he decided to cheat his wife ? Maybe he is wearing the ring though he is not married ?How does the woman react to him ?)
*A horror story about a child who wakes up one morning and discovers his left hand covered with body hair. (What happened ? Is it something related to his scientist father ? Maybe he should not have gone to that spooky house the day before.)
* A mystery story involving a dead school teacher with three different finger prints found on her body. (Whose finger prints are they ? Is the murderer one of them ? Maybe it is not a murder at all ? )
*A science fiction story about a large scale alien invasion which starts with duplicating imminent people but somehow they can not imitate one vital part of human body, guess which part ? hands ! (Why can this super alien power not cope with this apparently small problem ? How does this change the course of invasion ? Do they have to find another way ?)
* A ghost story about a severed hand shedding havoc at nights in the village. (Where does the hand come from ? Whose hand was (is) it ? Does it involve a mystery with the dark past of this old village people ?)

But still, when you have an idea, you are not done because the idea itself does not constitute a story. Working on the characters, setting, situation, emotion, theme and plot above all as well as the prose will determine how good you manipulate your idea(s) in the story and this process culminates in a good or bad story.

By the way, I must admit that all the good advices here are all eye openers so I frankly thank everyone who places their idea generating methods here.

Also, even though something like this was already suggested, you just try looking through photos of stuff.

You can use Photobucket; they have a lot of pictures. Link: http://photobucket.com/

You could also try Desktop Nexus, which is desktop wallpaper site, but they do have some great pictures.
Link: http://www.desktopnexus.com/


There's also television and movies, but you just have to make sure you aren't plagiarizing or having a scene that 100% like what happened in book/movie/show. I think as long as you change it, you should be fine.

I usually look around picture sites for story ideas. :x Mostly pictures with someone in it because I like to write stories that revolves around the characters.

I use safebooru.org, mainly because I like manga/anime. >>;

NecoFin said:

I usually look around picture sites for story ideas. :x Mostly pictures with someone in it because I like to write stories that revolves around the characters.

I use safebooru.org, mainly because I like manga/anime. >>;

Click to expand...

Oh, that's cool. Have you been by the Anime thread in Moives/TV Section?

Not yet, actually. o-o

In fact... *goes there now*

My short story ideas come from the inspiration of real life. Events, places, people, scents, smells, sights- everything is fodder for a short story.

I recommend seeing new places and trying new things- that always kick starts my creative side.