Where Do Writers Get Ideas For Stories? EVERYWHERE!

 

(1) Suppose you’re shopping in a fashionable ladies’ wear store and you see a woman who seems to be acting strangely-She seems to be avoiding sales clerks. She picks things up, looks at them, and then puts them back. She seems to be watching other shoppers. She keeps checking her watch and seems very nervous.

 

Now, why do you think she is acting this way?

a) She might be a shoplifter.

b) She might be checking prices on products.

c) She might be a mystery shopper.

d) She might be a store security person.

e) She might be trying to buy a surprise gift for someone who is in another part of the store. She might be waiting for someone.

 

There are six possible stories. I bet you didn’t think stopping to buy a pair of pantyhose would be such a good way to find story ideas.

 

(2) It’s a beautiful night, so you take your dog for a walk to the local park. While you settle down on a bench to read, your dog settles down under a nearby tree. Soon, another dog owner joins you. His dog joins yours under the tree. As you strike up a conversation with the other person, you notice the dogs seem to be having a conversation of their own. They’re whining, whimpering, and barking at each other. You wonder what they could possibly be talking about. Hey! There’s an idea for a story. What about the person you’re chatting with? Is it their dog? Are they dog sitting for someone? Did they find the dog? What kind of information can they give you about that breed of dog? There are several more possible story ideas.

 

(3) You’re in the laundry room and you just put your first load in the washer. You’re alone in the house and you decide to read while the laundry is being washed. You settle down in a comfy old easy chair and begin to read. Then, you hear a noise. It sounds like footsteps, but it can’t be. You’re alone in the house and the doors are locked. You decide to investigate.Eventually, you realize the noise was coming from the water heater. You make a mental note to call a repairman. When you return to the laundry room, you realize you just found the beginning for a mystery story. It would be about housewives murdered in their laundry room by a water heater repairman

 

(4a) You decide to relax in a nice warm bubblebath. Some of your children’s bath toys accidentally fall in the tub. You sit there watching as the little submarine sinks slowly out of sight. The little tugboat stays afloat. You make waves in the water with your hands as you watch the little boat bobbing and weaving through the narrow passages between the sudsy icebergs. Then you realize what’s happening. The tugboat is trying to rescue the sailors who are aboard the sunken sub.

 

(4b) Or, the small boat could be a cabin cruiser. Four couples have decided to spend their vacations cruising the great lakes. Everything is going fine, until the temperature changes. Now, they have to manoeuvre their tiny boat through mountainous swells of thick white fog. They have no way of knowing how close they are to land. They only know there are many jagged rocks jutting out into the water and their boat could be smashed into kindling wood at any moment.These are just a few simple suggestions on where to get story ideas. As you can see, getting the idea for a story is easy; writing the story is the hard part.

 

Special occasions: Have you been to an unusual wedding or other gathering? Do you or anyone you know do anything unique or unusual for special occasions, such as meals, desserts, clothing, music, decorations, etc?

 

Eavesdrop. Whenever other people are around, listen to them. You can’t write their conversations down word for word, but you can listen to the way they say things. It’s a good way to get ideas on what types of vocabulary are used by different types of people. You will find a big difference if you compare vocabulary used by teenagers to that used by senior citizens. People from different countries have different ways of saying the same thing.

 

Reading Preferences: Ask people what they like to read. Spend some time in libraries and bookstores. Watch people while they are looking at books. If you see someone looking at books in the genre you write, ask them what makes them decide to buy a particular book. Make certain you explain to them that you are a writer and you are looking for information from readers that will help you to write the type of book they would like to read. Maybe you could offer to give them credit in your book as an information reference.

 

Play games: Playing games is a great way to relax, but it can also be a good way to come up with story ideas. Many video games have a storyline to them. Some stories can be rewritten, while others might give you ideas for completely different stories.

 

Be observant: Watch and listen to adults, children, animals, and even machinery. You can learn a great deal just by watching and listening. Often, you will hear adults talking about what they like, or do not like, about books and television. Pay attention and you may get some ideas on how to write stories they would enjoy.

 

Watching children at play, and listening to them can give you insight into what children like. Studying the behavior and speech patterns of animals will help you to better describe them in your stories.

 

Technology: Machinery and assorted types of technology are often mentioned in various types of writing, but it will seem much more realistic if it is described accurately and descriptively.

 

Television and Newspapers: Newspapers and television are good places to find not only titles for stories, but also, good ideas for stories. Use newspaper articles as a basis for other articles, or even books. How many times have you watched something on television and thought about how much more they could have done with the story? How many times have you thought about different things characters could have said, or done, that would have made the story better in some way? Try rewriting these stories in your own way.

 

Library or Bookstore: Once you have decided on the genre of writing you are interested in, check out your library and local bookstores. Look in the section for that genre you and see how many books any particular author has in that section. You can be certain that if an author has several books there, it is because he/she is an excellent writer. You should study these books if you want to learn how to be a successful writer in this genre.

 

Learn: Become a knowledge sponge. You’re never too old to learn. The more you learn, the more information you will have to use in your writing. There are many times when we need to know something, and all of a sudden, there it is. It just pops right out of our memories. Our minds are full of thousands of pieces of seemingly useless trivia. This pile of trivia is actually an invisible storehouse of usable information we can draw from, as we need it.

 

Buy old books and magazines: Older books and magazines are a good investment. They contain many articles and stories you can rewrite from a more up-to-date viewpoint. They are also a good way to research different eras. Some of them would be quite useful if you are planning to write flashbacks to different decades, or even centuries.

 

The TV Guide Channel: This channel lists TV and cable movies along with a short-sentence summary and in some cases even ratings. Use it to find out what’s been done and how successful it was. Use this information to create new plots with unique twists.

 

Greeting cards: People buy greeting cards as a way of expressing their feelings. The writing is often universal, providing a theme everyone can identify with. Browse through your local card store and seek out the section that best matches your writing. For example, if you’re writing a romance novel, read through the relationship section. If you need something humorous, check out the funny cards. Sometimes a line from a greeting card is just what you’re looking for to give your character some unusual dialogue.

 

Yellow Pages: Believe it or not, the telephone book is full of creativity. Often, a catchy name for a company or service can stimulate ideas for a title or story. The telephone book is also a great resource for character names. Another good source for character names is a book of names for babies.

 

Lyrics: Listen to the radio for inspiration. A line from a song or poem can provide the germ of a story idea. Relaxing to music also allows you to release your worries and helps to open up your creative side. Many country and western songs are really a story set to music.

 

Science and technology magazines: Read these for the latest discoveries and technological advances. They are particularly helpful when plotting science fiction and futuristic stories. You wouldn’t want to write a story about the future and then find out the technology you wrote about was obsolete before your story even reached the publisher’s desk.

 

Comedy sketch shows: Watch shows like “Saturday Night Live” for prime examples of characterization. Study the characters and make notes about why they are funny and what makes them memorable to you, as well as what makes them so popular. This will help you create likeable characters, ones your readers will easily remember.

 

Internet: A search on just about any subject can yield hundreds of ideas. All you have to do is type one word into the search line and your browser will return a list of hundreds, or even thousands, of web sites on that subject. If the list seems to go on forever, you can narrow it down by being more specific with your search criteria. The more description you type into the search line, the more your browser will narrow down the list, and the better the chances will be that you will find the information you need.

 

Photographs: A photo of a place can stimulate an idea for a setting, while a photo of a person can spark an idea for a character. Look through old family albums. They can give you great ideas for stories, especially if you remember stories your family members told about the photos.

 

Commercials: A commercial is actually a short story, and commercials will often hint at what consumers are interested in. Many commercials even present a short story with a punch line or twist ending in just a minute. Try using the same format to create your own short piece. This can be very effective in contest writing, where judges are looking for writers to present information in a unique way. In order to win a contest your writing has to stand out from the rest.

 

Consumer products: Current products are a representation of life today. If you’re writing contemporary stories or articles, people want to read about things they know or use. Fill your stories with familiar things that people see everyday.

 

Stupid criminal books: These books list all the dumb mistakes criminals make. Most criminals in fiction are clever and smart, however, not all of them are. These books will teach you a lot about human nature and can be used to add some humor to your writing.

 

Children’s books: Children’s books offer basic themes that can be adapted and expanded. They also offer an easy and clear way of explaining technical information. One thing you must keep in mind is that children’s books are not easy to write, and can be very hard to get published.

 

Magazine ads: Advertisements are commercials on paper. They tell a story in a few short words, which gives you the opportunity to expand the story. Advertising shows current trends. Try to read a variety of magazines, even on subjects that don’t interest you, because you never know when inspiration will strike.

 

People in a crowd: Pick out a person, imagine yourself in his shoes, and start from there. One thing I have learned from observing people is that certain professions tend to wear certain colors.

 

For instance:

Business executives tend to wear a lot of dark gray, black, or navy blue.

Teachers seem to wear a lot of browns, or brown tones, dark green, gray, or dark blue.

Secretaries tend to wear light to medium shades of various colors.

Another thing I have learned is that you can’t judge anyone’s personality by the clothes they wear. People with bubbly, vivacious personalities, often wear dreary, drab looking clothes.

 

Market research: Read through market listings and guidelines, even in areas in which you don’t normally write, and make careful note of what editors are looking for. An editor looking for a nonfiction article about cloning may spark an idea for a science fiction story.

 

Natural Disasters: Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, etc., are all excellent story subjects. Many people enjoy reading about natural disasters. A talented writer can write a story in such vivid detail that it will enable the reader to experience the terror and excitement of a natural disaster as if they had actually been there.

 

Canadian weather: Contrary to what many people think, Canada is not a frozen wasteland covered with ice and snow 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We experience a full range of temperatures from steaming hot to freezing cold. Spring is usually cold and wet; summer is hot and dry, fall is cool and windy, and winter is cold and snowy. In the spring, we worry about flooding caused by melting snow and heavy rains, and in the winter we worry about roofs collapsing from the heavy weight of ice and snow.