Feb. 20 - Where do you get your ideas for stories?
One of the great things about being a writer is that ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere.
When you think about the elements that get woven into a story, characters, setting, plot, conflict, and theme, any one of these can prompt an idea. Think of them as the who, where, what, why, and when. Who are the characters, where are they, what is the problem, why do they have a problem, and when does this all take place?
The setting is as important
as the characters. The readers need to know where the story is taking place,
what the world of the story is. Is it contemporary and set in a recognizable city/country?
Is it fantasy, science fiction, paranormal? I mostly write Regency romance and
so I have to be upfront with the era so that my readers don’t get a jolt a few
pages in.
Listening to people talk can often lead to a ‘what if?’ moment that prompts a plot idea. Several years ago, when I had a day in which to please myself, I stayed on a light-transit train right to the terminal to hear the end of the conversation two ladies in front of me were having. Such is Karma, we rode all the way to the last stop and I never did hear the end of their story, but I made up my own conclusions all the way back into the city. The basis of the conversation was that the brother of one of the ladies had taken off, leaving his wife and two children. What prompted him to leave? What was their conflict? Did she perhaps do away with him? Could he be buried under the roses in the garden?
Another overheard conversation in a farmer’s market in Vernon,
British Columbia still makes me chuckle. The gist of it was, the homeowner
couldn’t let the dog out of the house because a bear was in the garden eating
apples. That could work its way into any kind of story, but especially
contemporary western romance.
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| photo from trib.com |
Light and shade can prompt ideas, too. The way the light falls across the surface of water on a bright or a dull day, can create images that help set a scene. Never mind fifty shades of grey there are, give or take, roughly two-hundred-and-fifty shades of blue. Pick one and work a scene around that shade of blue sky. How does that make your character feel? New writers often worry about how much of themselves they put into a story but thinking about how you feel about something is a good place to start in imagining how your character might feel. Transferring those elements of emotion can help create a more rounded, three-dimensional character, as it gives them more depth.
You might see an advertisement, a book title, an incident in
the street. All these can prompt ideas. I once wrote a short story entitled ‘Size
No Object.’ The idea for that came from an advert in a woman’s magazine, back
in the days before the internet when people often looked for pen-pals and wrote
real letters. The gist of this advert was that an inmate of one of Her Majesty’s
Prisons was looking for a female pen-pal, size no object. I couldn’t get that
one out of my head. Another was watching flags fluttering in the breeze on a
castle which prompted. ‘The Hedge Witch.’ Witches always hung around castles,
right? Think of the movies Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
with Geraldine McEwan playing Mortianna. Watch this two-minute clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwyV_mntOHg
which also shows the late Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Next take a look at where my fellow bloggers get their ideas.
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2eA
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Rhobin L
Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com
It seems we writers al function with the WHAT IF question no matter where the initial spark starts. Like your discussion in the train about the bear. Good post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping in, Skye. Yes, what if is a powerful prompt indeed!
DeleteYep, bears in backyards happen. One night we had one of @200 pounds (big! -- but didn't go out and weigh him) lying on his back holding my birdfeeder full of sunflower seeds over his open mouth. The feeder had been on a fairly high tree branch but after his meal was a complete wreck. I'm just glad he didn't come up on the back porch. Lord, you've inspired me. I have to put this in a story. You right, ideas come from everywhere!
ReplyDeleteOMG Rhobin! I can just see that bear. You definitely have to use it somewhere.
DeleteI love how your brain automatically went to the wife killing her absent husband. That gave me a good chuckle. It's so interesting how the writer brain works and how nearly all of us are inspired to ask, "What if?"
ReplyDeleteI watched that clip. Where did the witch get the a boa constrictor in the Middle Ages in England? Plot bunnies, anyone?
I guess you'd have to ask Kevin Costner that! I believe he not only acted in the movie, but was either a director or producer too.
DeleteWhen I was a kid, I used to "insert" myself into the plot for any movie/TV show/books I enjoyed. These days that's called fan-fiction. But it was the start of me having a cacophony of noise in my head. To my amazement, once I wrote "the end" for my first book, those characters were quiet. Then the heroine's best friend started insisting I write her story also. I hope my ideas never run out, and that they continue until my fingers are too old to type. Then I'll get an audio device and talk my stories into it. Hey, a writer's got to write!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHa! You too? When I wrote my first Regency my hero's sister kept turning up every time I had the heroine on stage. Once I promised her her own book, she faded into the background. It's a good job writers understand writers because most people think we're weird when we talk like that.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, I hate to tell you this, but that apple-eater was not a bear. It was the missing guy from the other conversation. He discovered that on nights of a full moon, he shape shifted into a bear, and was horrified he might hurt his wife and children, so ran away to keep them safe.
ReplyDeleteThere are good people everywhere.
Dear Unknown, how silly of me not to have figured that out but you gotta know just how sneaky shape shifters are!
DeleteI love your anecdote about size no object! What a great idea for a story. A few of us in the round robin have mentioned the 'what if?' question, and I think that's exactly how noticing something, or a vague thought, turns into a story. I loved hearing about all your sources of inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helena. This was a fun post.
DeleteWhat if? How may ideas have materialized into stories and novels with that one little question?
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable post Victoria.
Thanks for the compliment, Connie.
DeleteHi Victoria, Great post. We've all enjoyed this one, I think. I once had a deer in the back garden and that's very, very unusual for central Edinburgh. I might never go out there again if there had been a bear. Love the magazine story - I think they're a good starting point for ideas, too. anne
ReplyDeleteI wonder how the deer found its way into your garden? I saw a BBC documentary about deer in London - in one clip a bus driver stopped about 3 am and videod three of them grazing on a grass verge. Wonder where they go in the daytime? Urban foxes are common, but now urban deer?
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