How I Write: Idea Creation

For the next 10 or so weeks, I’m participating in a “HOW I WRITE” series every Wednesday with several writers, where we all discuss how we approach writing a book. Every writer has a different process and this project gives us a chance to share and compare ours. Click on the “How I Write” image to find a list of the participating writers and links to their blogs.

A note about me:

• I write sci-fi / futuristic, fantasy, paranormal and contemporary romance.
• I’ve written 2 novels, 4 novellas, several shorts and have a few more works in the beginning stages. I’ve also written a few YA novellas when I was teen, and may revisit that genre sometime in the future.
• My writing  ranges in length from as short as 750 words (3 pages) to as long as 115,000 words (over 450 pages)

This week’s topic is Idea Creation: Just how do I come up with ideas to write about?

One way I come up with ideas is by engaging in the things that interest me. I can become inspired with characters, settings or plots from even my most basic interests: books that I read, movies, tv shows, video games, fairy tales, being in love, raising a family, imagining the future, as examples. Do you really like to skate? Perhaps that could find its way into a plot. Are you friends with a vegetarian who’s attracted to a meat-lover? What an interesting idea for characters. (Oooh, I have to write both of those new ideas down!)

Another way I come up with ideas is by thinking of twists on ones that I already like. Ever wonder what would happen if Luke Skywalker was a wizard instead of a Jedi,  lived in a medieval era, wasn’t able to get a cybernetic or prosthetic arm to replace the one he lost, and if his powerfully evil father had of lived? Bam, new story idea!

Yet another way I come up with ideas is by thinking of things I don’t see as much of as I would like to.  I’d read lots of stories and even seen movies that were inspired by “Snow White” and “Little Red Riding Hood”, but few that tackled Rumpelstiltskin, so I wrote Say My Name to try to fill that void.

I made a spreadsheet which I call my Idea Database where I capture notes for a potential story on each row. I have columns for me to include the genre or genres the story would fall under, a general idea of how long the story idea would be (short story, novel or novella), a title if I have one in mind, and a sentence or two describing the idea. Whenever I have an idea for a story, no matter how vague, I capture it in my Idea Database. If my spreadsheet isn’t available when the lightning strikes, I jot it down with pen and paper until I can enter it into my spreadsheet later. There are currently 117 ideas in my Idea Database right now waiting to be further explored.

Coming up with things to write about is the easy part. It’s actually deciding which story to write next that’s my biggest challenge!

Don’t forget to visit other participating blogs to see how other writers generate ideas. See ya next week for Character, Plot & World Building!

Tagged as: How I Write, writer