I’ve met several people over the years who just marvel that I’m a writer and have seen my work in two novels and a number of short stories. This always puzzles me. I’m the kind of person who believes that if I can do something, it must not be very difficult. Yet people remain impressed that I wrote a book, just as in this video from Buzzfeed. Check out the responses beginning at the 5:50 mark. They’re funny, yet not an uncommon reaction.
One question we as writers receive more than anything else is: where do you get your ideas from? The answer is, it depends. Some writers can generate ideas at a whim with little efforts, while others have to be more systematic or deliberate about it. That doesn’t mean they aren’t decent writers, however, just that their process for generating ideas is different.
Writing Prompts
I mentioned in a previous post that I used Writing Prompts last fall to help with my November and December Short Story Challenge. That’s an excellent way to get ideas. For example, imagine where you might go with a prompt like this:
A local take-away doesn’t have a menu or serve food, but weird customers come and go. You get a job to investigate
From this prompt, I wrote “Vlad’s Take Away,” about a husband and wife in a storefront who make monsters to order for shipping all around the world. They only purchased the storefront in town because of the tax breaks being offered by the local government.
“The floor tasted like…” gave me a story I entitled “No More Rendition,” about an alien invader who allowed himself to be tortured to gather information to support his invasion. In the story, he decides he’s learned enough and is ready to take vengeance against his captors.
Neither of these stories may knock your socks off, but they were fun to write and they helped me stretch my “writing muscles,” which is the whole point of prompts.
Television and Other Media
I’ve also used television and other media to help with writing ideas. The second Stephanie Hart novel took some of its inspiration from a TV ad for Angel Soft toilet tissue where a Dad is teaching his young daughter how to shave her legs. That’s an important scene alluded to in the novel and shows the strong (and appropriate!) connection between the daughter and step-father.
The #Metoo movement gave me the idea for “Another Day,” a story in which a teacher who had been falsely accused of sexual harassment faces one of his accusers years later. When the accusers recanted two years later he didn’t retaliate against them because he acknowledges that his being falsely accused pales when compared to the many victims of assault who no one believes.
But ideas needn’t come from such obvious sources. I’ve spent time in airports waiting for a plane and saw someone with an interesting tattoo, and developed whole scenarios in my head that could fuel a short story or part of the novel. Think about your life and the things you see everyday. I’ll bet you could take something as simple as the family you see walking through a big box store and create a story out of them. Try it, and then you’ll see how writers get their ideas.
