How To Come Up With Story Ideas
Transcript:
There are a lot of videos on how to plot or edit, or how to refine your story after you’ve written it. But how do you get ideas in the first place?
A question I get asked very often is: how do you develop book ideas or get inspired to write?
Finding inspiration is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, so here are my best tips to help you brainstorm awesome ideas.
First, understand that inspiration isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you seek.
A big misconception that a lot of young writers fall for is that you have to wait to be inspired to write. Not true! While being inspired does help and can make the actual process of writing a lot more fun, you can and should learn how to write consistently even if you don’t wake up full of new ideas everyday. But you do need a little inspiration to come up with an idea you want to write a book about.
The easiest way to start collecting possible book ideas is by reading.
Reading helps you become a better writer in many different ways. Reading helps teach you proper sentence and plot structure, but it’s also great for inspiration. Whenever I read, I always have a notepad open to jot down scenes or ideas that pop into my head. This could be all sorts of things.
Sometimes while reading you might get a prediction for what might happen next, or maybe you’ll get excited about the possibility of something that could happen. You may wonder about what motivates a character, or what type of backstory led them to be the person they are today.
I’ve developed an entire book off of a stray thought about how a conflict in a novel I was reading might have looked through the villain’s point of view.
Everyone is the star of their own story.
Just because one character may think something about another doesn’t mean they look at themselves the same way. Lots of writers do this. Stealing inspiration from other stories is not plagiarism if you’re doing it correctly.
Taking the idea of a certain character or plot point and expanding on it new and creative ways is basically the entire writing process. Almost everything is influenced by something that has come before. I made a video about fan fiction a while back that shares the roots of lots of popular stories.
Now please understand, this is not the same as copying direct text into your story, or using the exact same characters and world. If you’d like to delve deeper into a particular story, that’s fine—that’s fan fiction like I mentioned before—but if you want to write a novel you need to make sure your ideas are original.
Reading is probably the best way to spark new ideas, but it’s not the only one!
My absolute favorite way to boost inspiration is listening to music.
This not only helps spark ideas, it also gets me in the writing mindset, so this is the closest I’ve found to help yourself stay inspired while you write. There are many different ways to use music for inspiration. You can create playlists of songs that remind you of your main character, their love interest, the world they live in, the list goes on and on. You can also create mood playlists to keep you sad when you’re writing a death scene, or excited when writing an adventure, etc.
Some people prefer to listen to movie scores or instrumental music so they don’t get distracted, but I really connect with words.
I like to read the lyrics as I listen to a song for the first time and it’s just like reading a novel for me. Internalizing the story of a song helps me find new ideas or connect with my characters better.
Like music, other forms of creativity are really great for inspiration.
I’m not nearly as talented as some people can be, but there is a fun trend going on lately of something called novel aesthetics. This is basically an artful photo collage that you can make to give a visual reference for a character, location, or your entire story. I’ve also heard it called a moodboard.
Here’s an example of two character moodboards I made for my own story. I'll put them somewhere over my face... I like them. I feel like they’re a pretty good summary of what my main characters are all about.
It’s really just creative procrastination, but it’s fun! Jenna Clare, from here on youtube, made a really good tutorial video on how to get started making these type of photo aesthetics.
The biggest tip I can give you is to have a centralized place for your ideas, even before you have enough to piece together an entire story.
You can’t trust your mind to remember tiny little details exactly as you meant them when you first thought of them, so try to write down every little thought as soon as you can. Not everything will turn out into something bigger, but if you’re anything like me you may find rereading old notes is a good form of inspiration in itself.
It’s really exciting for me when I figure out that a note I wrote two years ago is foreshadowing for a plot point I only just figured out.
Another fun method to brainstorm ideas is talking them out with a friend.
When you’ve looked at the same story over and over again, it’s hard to look at it without bias. Talking over potential plot choices or talking through a problem you just can’t figure out almost always helps in at least lowering your stress levels, if nothing else.
Two minds are better than one. Someone with less experience with your story might have an alternate viewpoint you hadn’t considered. I promise you that any good friend won’t mind helping you with a project. I have a very awesome friend I've run book ideas past for almost eight years. She’s always open-minded and willing to help, even when I’m talking about the same problem, in the same book, for the millionth time. She's a lifesaver.
Writing can be a very lonely job, so it’s important to reach out to others whenever you can.
It's important to make friends if you want to make a career of it, because publishing is twice as stressful as writing is. So go out there and brainstorm! Let your imagination run free. The mind works in mysterious ways. Trust your ideas and see where it gets you.
What’s your favorite way to get inspired? Tell me in the comments below.
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Thank you for watching! I’ll see you soon. Bye.
