Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Neil Gaiman’s tongue-in-cheek suggestions aside, there are myriad answers to the question readers most frequently ask authors: “Where do your ideas come from?” Some of the answers might not be right for you, or might not be right at any given time.
But in this as in all things, perseverance pays. If you’re pining for inspiration, here are a few places you might look:
You can use characters as your starting-point. Everyone knows some interesting people, some of them deeply flawed (is there a backstory there?) and others who are amazing and positive. Imagine a fictional situation in which their personality will create drama and tension. What do you think makes them tick? What would happen if they had a change in circumstance?
Always carry a book, and always carry a notebook (both can be electronic if you prefer). Writers need, above all, the read, and reading can kick-start ideas you might not have known you have; nothing stimulates the mind more than reading the work of other authors. And write everything down, even the things you “know” you’ll remember later (p.s., you won’t). It’s by far the most effective way to corral ideas that pop into your head, snippets of conversation you’ve overheard, quick character sketches you’ll have forgotten five minutes later, ideas for amazing titles.
Your ideas are wonderful. They don’t always make for a great book, but honor them, even when they might seem a little fanciful. Plenty of great books have come from the most ridiculous premise. Yann Martel’s prize-winning Life of Pi is about a boy stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with just a tiger for company. Almost any idea can work if it inspires and entails dramatic tension.
The idea is just the beginning. Does your premise stand up to scrutiny once you’ve looked at it from all angles? Perhaps the idea would work better for a single scene in your novel rather, than being the theme that runs throughout. All the best writers have many failed premises behind them and don’t stick rigidly to one half-formed idea. (I actually have about two dozen “attempts” sitting forlornly on my computer’s hard drive, ideas that just didn’t work. That’s okay. I’m keeping them there just in case I ever need one.)
If you’re sourcing your ideas from your own life, that’s grand. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you’re writing about something real and personal to you that you can dispense with story. Yes, your prose might be angry and searing, but if you don’t follow the rules of storytelling, the reader’s going to put your book aside. Stories need to tell the reader something about themselves.
Writing is an active pursuit, not a passive one. Don’t wait for inspiration to come to you. Go out there and grab it. An idea for a story can be found in anything from your own history to something you’ve read in a history book, and there are infinite stimuli out there. Dig for the kernel of a premise in newspapers and magazines, in photographs and paintings, even in your own dreams.
Finally, don’t limit yourself! There’s no reason why your novel can’t be set in the past, the future, in an alternate universe or in your own dreamt-up hybrid of the three. There have been great novels about rabbits, seagulls, wizards, ghosts… You’re only limited by the limits you impose on yourself.
Your mind is rich with ideas. The world is rich with ideas. You just need to focus and find the ones that are right for you!