5 Tips for Story Ideas

30secfantasy:

I’ve had a few people ask me how I come up with ideas for my stories and how I can keep going on a daily basis. There are a lot of different ways out there to do this, but I fall back on these when I don’t have one in mind already. Hopefully these five tips can help you out!

1.  Write everything down

My number one piece of advice is that any idea that you have has the potential to turn into an awesome story. Sometimes you’ll write something and think that it is rather mundane because it just was so obvious in your head, but then you show it to someone else, and they find it original and interesting. Write down every idea and review them occasionally. It feels a lot better to look through a pile of source material than trying to remember a forgotten thought.

2. Look at prompts.

There are a ton of places to find them and a lot of them are extremely good. Sometimes they manage to tell a story in the prompt itself. Othertimes it’s just a few words long. Both are useful in their own rights. The more complete ones, in a story sense, are really good for creating a derivative idea. Basically, you can stick to the same rough idea, but change up the subjects or activity to get an original idea. The ones that are just a short blast of words are a little trickier to work with. Sometimes you’ll get a flash of insight and know what to write. Most of the time, at least for me, they’ll fall flat, and you’ll end up scrolling through pages of them until one snaps a story into your head. Perhaps lost Russian subs and North Dakota Highway 21 (both taken from the magical ‘Random Article’ button on Wikipedia) could inspire you in ways you never thought possible.

3. Trying to associate two unrelated things.

Take two extremely dissimilar ideas and bash them together until something common between the two sticks. Easy ones already have a few things in common, like strawberries and sunburn. These normally sound pretty elegant and sensible when you first write them out. The downside is that they may have been written enough to become kind of cliche. It’ll make a nice story, but more effort will be put into making the story interesting than trying out new ideas. Harder ones sit so far apart at the ends of the spectrum, you will feel absolutely stretched trying to find a similarity between the two of them.

4. Stare at nothing for a little bit.

For this, you basically need to engage daydream mode. It’s really easy to be constantly stimulated in today’s world, and if I were to guess, overall daydreaming has probably decreased since the introduction of the iPhone. Being able to have some quiet, non-organized, thinking time leads to some fantastically strange and amazing ideas. Getting into this mode is a little hard to force, so don’t expect this to be your main wellspring of ideas. Again, make sure you record the ideas that visit your mind. What might seem like a silly thought now, could be just what you need to start your next story, novel, or invention.

5. Checking out the news or history

Everyday conflict happens around the world that plays out in unpredictable ways. You can change the players in this conflict and the stakes to come up with your own creative work. It may seem like cheating, but I guarantee you that once you start writing it out, new ideas will fill your head, and the scene or story will become your own.


If any of this sparks a story idea for you, and you happen to write it out, please share below! 

(via nimblesnotebook-blog)


suddenlyprompts:

She dressed in 2000’s fashion, no hover boots or anything, and then wondered why people bullied her.


magentamayhem:

youngbadmanbrown:

shakespork:

Hemingway is a writing checker that is absolutely brilliant.

  • checks all spellings for you
  • checks if you’re over-using adverbs
  • picks out over-complicated sentences
  • suggests replacements for over-complicated phrases
  • picks out the passive voice
  • tells you how readable your text is (Grades/College level/etc)
  • calculates reading time

USE IT. USE IT FOR YOUR FANFICS. USE IT FOR YOUR PAPERS. IT WILL SAVE. YOUR. LIFE.

!?!?!?

image

(via endlesseden)


suddenlyprompts:

She drank the potion anyway.


“No rest for the wicked sounds about right to me.”

writeworld:

Writer’s Block


In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite.

Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence.

Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!


His walls were a mixture of bullet holes and certificates.

writeworld:

Writer’s Block


In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite.

Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence.

Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!


amroyounes:

Camping/Backpacking can seem daunting.  However, it is one of my favorite activities in this world.  Here are a few guides I thought I would share to demystify and encourage you to try it.

(via clevergirlhelps)


What’s this stack of cards?

writeworld:

Writer’s Block


In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite.

Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence.

Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!


Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting.
J.R.R Tolkien (via psliterary)

(via writeworld-blog)


How to Write A Story (Without feeling like your work is awful and wanting to put your fist through a wall)

dark-wizard-alien:

Your First Draft The “Word Puke” Stage

Don’t write anything more than plot. If you have an idea of a character, the most important thing is to just get it down. Don’t worry about errors. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense. The worse your first draft is, the better. A lot of people think that good writing comes from a good first draft that just gets improved. No. Good writing comes from a good idea that is written badly, and then fixed. The more lowly you think of your first draft, the more likely you’ll want to improve it.

I wouldn’t even call this a draft. I’d call it a word puke stage. Just get your thoughts on paper. Once they’re concrete, you can work with it.

Your Second Draft

Don’t worry about writing philosophical undertones to your plot. That comes next. For now, just make sure your story is coherent and has all the basic elements a story has (like fully developed characters, a beginning, middle and end) and all that that you didn’t do in your “work puke” stage. In this stage of your writing, just make sure there aren’t any errors or holes in your plot and don’t forget about adding in other elements that develop the character’s personality, actions and feelings as well as the plot!

Your Third Draft

Now you can write in deeper meanings and other philosophical undertones to your story. Fix up all the mistakes in your second draft, chop out plot holes, revise, and redo and your original idea! You should have a complete and clear plot. Your character at this point should be an “iceberg” character, meaning what’s shown in the story is only about 10-20% of what you actually know about them! The deeper you know your character, the more fun it is to write about them. And remember, the story is told through the character’s eyes, so make sure you really know them.

Your Final Draft(s)

Here’s where the serious editing takes place. This is where you add the finishing touches to your story. By this point, you should be confident in your writing and what your editing comes down to is just how you word your sentences to fit your character’s charisma and develop your plot. Every single word you use should contribute to character development or furthering the plot. Add in the finishing touches and boom! You’re done.

(via clevergirlhelps)