New to the forums, looks like a good place... I have been writing on and off with poetry and lyrics for years... but always had the problem of being able to think of stories to write about, im hoping someone will have some good tips/ideas on how to think of a story and develop it, I find it frustrating when I sit down to write and cannot think of any idea's any help is appreciated.
It sounds like you need to pay more attention to things. Dreams, current events, daily life occurrences. These will mesh together and spawn ideas, if you're receptive to them. I have so many ideas every day that I don't know what to do with them all. More important than ideas are how you implement them. Cogito will be by to fill you in better with link's and such. Meanwhile, you should drop by New Member Intro and tell us a little about yourself. Good luck and see you around.~Gar.
I never get story ideas by sitting down, thinking up an idea, and writing. Writing, like anything else, requires lots of time spent thinking, mulling things over and developing such ideas. Ideas that are fully writeable (sic?) usually don't just pop up out of nowhere fully formed. Generally there's a small idea, then one has to think it over for a while before one can do anything with it. A short story might require a few days to think over before you can write it properly. I mull over my long serial ideas for years. You heard it--YEARS. (Good thing I'm always busy writing the previous story in the series before starting on the next.) You're probably getting ideas all the time but since you don't sit down and think them over, they go nowhere. And of course you're not going to get many good ideas if you just sit down thinking they're going to come to you RIGHT NOW and then you can promptly write about them. That's usually not how it works. You have to give it time. You have to work at it. Try doing what garmar69 suggests to prompt some basic ideas, then, instead of just sitting down and writing about them, mull over them a while to let them develop. After some time you should get the hang of it.
wow, thanks for the knowledge... i didnt think about it from that perspective, I shall most defiantly look out for potential idea's and then as said think on these idea's for a few days and see what develops in my mind... very good advice, thanks. any other advice I can also put into use is also welcomed, shamakani
^ Great advice. The last story I wrote came to me as an idea from a scene in a book I was reading. There is a section in American Gods where Shadow works for a funeral home. The description of this widower in one of the scenes prompted an idea that developed over a period of several days. I wrote it in about three hours and spent the next few days editing. Now the whole theme came up because I was thinking of an entry for the short story contest here, 'Coming to Terms with Mortality.' So you see, it clicked together and I had a story. Now how good it is, is open for debate! Since it got only one vote. I'll be submitting it to the review room for comments after Gannon announces the winner. But like Tehuti said, I didn't just sit down, and had it fall out of thin air. Although it kind of did, but after much mulling over.
In fact, if you write song lyrics, I bet you can get some good ideas out of that. A ton of my ideas come from lines in songs.
Perhaps you could start the transition from poems to stories by looking at the stories your poems tell or hint at and filling in the blanks that that exist.
if all fails and you still find yourself devoid of story concepts and can't develop a plot, but are a good writer and simply 'have to' write, you could consider being a ghost writer... for every one with a passion to write who hasn't the requisite imagination, there are probably a hundred with a good story, but no writing skill, who would pay you handsomely to write their book for them... and, unlike writing your own stuff that will most likely never be sold or make a penny, you get paid thousands of dollars up front, regardless of whether the book will ever be published! a win-win situation, no? or, like ann rule, you could turn to the 'true crime' genre, where the stories are all right there and need only be written about... the writing field is rife with options... all you need do is pick the one that best fits your needs and skills... not everyone needs to be or is cut out to be a bestselling novelist!... love and hugs, maia
very good idea mammamaia... I feel I have a good ability to write, it is simply the idea's which are the problem... i will try the advice given by some of the posters here, see how that goes... if all else fails, ill think about ghostwriting thankyou all
Music and art helps me as well. I go to art museums now and then. And music if you find enough of it and listen to everything it gets your head jogging. Ideas come from me in the form of dreams as well.
The following link is the process I use, and it always works for me. I can always come up with a story idea using this process. http://manfacedgods.com/structure.htm
I use dreams, stories and poems I read, even songs. I also think of characters figure out what makes them tick then think of a way to push them just right to get into trouble.
