Hi people of writingforums.org. Im new to the site and to writing. I had a friend read over a little something I wrote in my spare time and he suggested that I start writing short stories and the like. So here I am. The only thing stopping me at this point is that I'm terrible at thinking up plots, characters, etc. I know I want to do something semi-modern in the action genre. I was hoping that someone here would help me get started by suggesting some recent events around the world that might make for a good action short. If it matters to your thought process then you should know that I excel at describing things in detail and have an ability to turn anything into a relatively sensible conspiracy theory. Thanks for the help.
I always think I have no ideas to, but it's actually the other way around. I have so many ideas I just don't know where to start, or which the good ones are. How I narrow it down though is by writing it down, starting with what I know I want first. You already know you want something semi-modern in the action genre, so write that down and expand from there with anything that pops into your head. Once you find a story you like you'll find the ideas will come very naturally to you.
Find what you care about. Find a thesis/moral/idea to bring out of your story; it provides incentive and clarity for the reader. Once you have the heart of a piece, you can fill in the blanks with your plot, twists, technicalities, etc. Nearly every story imaginable has been told. It's the re-writing that is "creative". If that doesn't help: race cars. Write a story about race cars. Good luck
how about going to cnn and finding out what's going on in the world on your own? basically, if you want to be a writer and don't want to 'write by committee' you really have to come up with your own ideas... that's what writers do, y'know...
I beleive what really matters to some writers (and to me too) is originality. As long as you can come up with your own ideas and not someone else's you're fine. I hear many storytelling cliches, but it is eaisy to get into. My work may have the same idea as someone else's but in a different setting, or different character. I don't tend to write stories by watching the news or reading a book. I reverse it by coming up with my own ideas first and then reading books and watching movies that has the same ideas I have. Anyway, if you are having a hard time coming up with something or don't know where to start, I would brainstorm and think of something that happend to you in the past, rather it is bad or good. Better yet, think of someting you wish that can happen to you that hasn't really happend yet. That's what I do, and then I come up with conflicts that keep me from reaching my wishes.
I love conspiracy stories! As others have said though, it's up to you to come up with your plots. You're the master of your own writing, so you degrade yourself a bit by asking others to do this step for you. If you need help with a specific plot hole, that's what this forum is for; not conceptualizing a basic storyline idea. Welcome to WF!
You don't have to have plot or character to write. You can just write vignettes - little flashes from that movie-theater in your head. There ya go. Now, what image can be born in your head at this moment? -Frank
What did you write that your friend enjoyed? Also, what inspired that? Discovering what your inspiration is will be key to inventing your own plots.
I'm having the same problem! However, I want to do something in letter form like the book 'Love Stargirl'. An idea might be to do a spy story, like the Italian Job. A book like that would rely on good description and you could tailor it to have as much action as you wanted.
Same problem Hi, I am having the same sort of problem. I want to do a romance story but I cant think of any good plots! I can't even think of a theme! However, I think I might have an idea for you. Perhaps you could do a spy thing, like the italian job, but instead there is a single guy who steals a ton of cash, and then a group of guys attack him, and the cash/gold is dumped in a river of something. The lone theif gets together his own team and the story becomes a rivalry between the two teams as they both search for the cash/gold. I know this idea is very undeveloped, but it might help you start.
I'm getting this overwhelming feeling that you should do super spy/espionage/military black ops stuff. Seems to fit your criteria and would suit a detailed, descriptive style really well.
why not try a 'plot generator'? someone mentioned this in another post and i took a look at it and it was rather fun, maybe at least it makes the imagination going.
Thanks everyone. Most of your posts were great help, and I finally got started. I decided to go with an ex-assassin type thing. He'll be hunted by his old employer who's also a Russian mob boss. Of course there'll also be the romance portion that I need to work in somehow. Anyway, thanks everyone who posted so far. Anything further that gets posted will be greatly appreciated for future shorts, but please be aware that I won't be coming back to this thread until I'm done with my current project.
The strange thing about ideas, I noticed, is that all of us have them all the time. It's like static in our brain that we ignore. We all see the trailer to a movie, and then, wondering what it's about and what it must be like, we build scenarios in our heads. Then we watch the movie, and it's not at all what we had in mind. But we can write what we thought it would be. Or maybe we watch an item in the news and connect it to a concept we thought about, so we can just tweak it a bit. Anyway, I hope you'll have many more ideas after you're done with this one. I predict you'll have good ideas even before you'll finish writing your current story, and you'll be eager to finish to get to the next one. Good luck!
