Last week was about taking that first step, a simple ten-minute writing session and finding space in your life for regular writing, even if it’s only a few minutes once a week. This week, let’s focus on a perennial question authors get asked at signings or events, a question many new writers have as well: Where do you get your ideas?
The simple answer is of course that you get them out of your brain. But that’s not a vey helpful answer, is it?
Instead the true answer is that ideas are all around you. It’s up to your brain to notice them, to put together the pieces of disparate concepts and create something new, dare I say something novel.
Last week, I instructed you to use writing prompts if you needed for your writing sessions, and prompts are a great way to spark ideas. But this week, let’s leave the prompts behind and focus on noticing.
Pick a day this week to make your Noticing Day. Use a notebook or your phone and once every couple of hours write down something you noticed. It might be something you liked, something that intrigued you, or something that repulsed you. It only has to be something that stood out. The things you write down might be a sensory detail from your surroundings, something that happened in your day, something you read about or some bit of conversation you had or overheard. It might be something that made you ask a what if question.
Ah, a what if question. You’re almost there.
At the end of the day, look at your list. Move things around. Mash them up. Combine that interesting science article you read with that bit of gossip you overheard in a coffee shop. Add that beautiful bird you saw in the park to the quirkily dressed pedestrian who crossed the road in front of your car. Most of all, look for the what if questions. And I challenge you to write down at least three story ideas from what you’ve noticed. They don’t have to be fully fledged plots, just those first sparks. And you don’t have to use them, though you can if you like.
Great story ideas are made of noticing, thinking, and combining elements in interesting ways. Think of Star Wars: space plus wizards plus a battle for freedom plus tropes and story structure from mythology. Think of Sherlock Holmes: the foggy streets of Victorian London plus a detective who notices all the little details, things other people find uninteresting and glance over… and it’s those little details that reveal all.
Channel your inner Sherlock for this exercise. You’re not solving a mystery necessarily, though hats off to you if you do, but you are looking to be much more notice-y than the average person, finding those story ideas that other people walk right by because they aren’t looking for them. They’re looking for ideas that relate to their own passions.
If this exercise inspires you to keep going, check out the Storystorm challenge, an idea generating challenge that Tara Lazar holds every January. Tara is a picture book writer, but all writers can benefit from more ideas.
That’s it for this week. Stay tuned next week for another short lesson.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and consider leaving a rating or review or giving me a tip to help support the show on my Ko-Fi page https://ko-fi.com/conniebdowell
Podcast: Play in new window | Download