Thursday, March 22, 2012

Ideas: Question For You Writers Out There

Stephen King once quipped, "People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk."

I'm thinking of doing a blog series on generating story ideas. So where do you find your story ideas?

11 comments:

  1. That quote is great. I get story ideas from lots of places. Somtimes I'll read a book and that makes me think of something or I'll see a situation in life and it makes me ponder and wonder.

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  2. Everywhere. Dan Wells did an opening session on this at UVU's Book Academy last October and even show us how to do it. He said even single aspects of a news story can trigger ideas. Ask questions. What if? A science show? They announce a new finding? Well, what if ____ this happened? Kind of play with it.

    It was a great session and complimented the way Orson Scott Card teaches classes to kids. Ask lots of questions.

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  3. The only thing I'm really good at is generating story ideas. :P

    I have a ridiculously inquisitive mind and I'm constantly asking way too many questions. I've learned to not let all of them come from my mouth but in my head it's a question-asking party.

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  4. I have too many ideas, too little time. My ideas pop up from daily life, mostly when working in my garden.

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  5. That quote is great. For me real story are come from practical experience. Its come willingly subject time and situation !!

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  6. This seems to be The Question. Sentiment, observations, and imagination are good sources of ideas which can then be formed, morphed or combined. Characters may not agree and will see things their own way.

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  7. I find my topics by reading. To test some of them, I post questions on Facebook after reading an interesting article. Based on comments or lack of it, I decide how to write a story.

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  8. Oh my...mostly from my home life with my kids. I also find inspiration from famous comics and their stories :)

    Best of luck
    Sharon

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  9. I find them all over the place. Dreams...history...my kids. Mostly they come in those quiet moments like when you're in the shower or taking a walk, but they always have the fingerprints of the rest of the day all over them.

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  10. I got one from a dream, one from a stupid quiz on Facebook, one from my Dad's talk about the end of the world, one from a flash of memory from a movie scene that was sparked by a random thing on the side of the road. You know, that kind of stuff. I'd love to have more ideas to generate stories from because sometimes the idea isn't enough by itself to carry a full novel as I found out with one of those mentioned above.

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