Finding New Story Ideas

Are you the kind of writer brimming with new ideas? Do you have journals full of starts or slips of ideas in your phone’s notes app? Do you have a stack of post-its with interesting what ifs? When it’s time to start writing is it just a matter of picking one of these ideas and running with it?

Lucky you.

I am not that writer.

I am usually floundering about, writing down wrong paths, or staring into space waiting for the right alchemy of inspiration and motivation to divine the next idea onto my page.

Okay. Maybe it’s not quite like that. It’s more like I have a mash up of ideas that finally coalesce into a story idea and then I spend several years in a monogamous relationship with it. But the plucking or the coalescing are never anything I can force or hurry and that can be frustrating.

Right now, I’m ready to start writing again and realize my idea generator is out of practice. Last week, on my writing retreat, I tried to plan some activities that would hopefully kick start my idea generator.

What’s that quote about the best laid plans…?

By Wednesday night, I was feeling the ticking clock on our time together and no real idea sparking. I may or may not have started to panic.

At dinner, I asked my fellow writer friends how they came up with their story ideas. Everyone has a different process. It’s frustrating to know there isn’t a magic path to the next great story idea, but also comforting to know there is no wrong way to find your next idea either.

When I outlined where I was in the process and what things were niggling in my brain that weren’t quite story ideas but rather a topic that kept popping up in my life during the last year, one of my writer friends encouraged me to mind map. She said, write down the thing in a circle then write 4-5 things that makes me think of. Then write 4-5 things for each of those things, etc…, until your web of circles fills the page.

I gave it a shot. I ended up with lots and lots of circles and did three different maps based on ideas that popped out of the first one. By dinner on our last night, I had much more of an idea pulling at me than I did before.

The ironic part? It’s very much related to the original idea of manuscript two that I diverted from back in 2016. It’s not the same story at all, but the core relationship might still be the same.

And that’s what I found intriguing. My table of writer friends last week agreed.

But phew. It wasn’t easy to even get that far and as far as I came, it’s still not a story idea. More of a situation. A situation with characters I don’t know yet and motivations I haven’t divined.

Those things will come with more time and more work.

So what’s my advice for other writers who don’t have a notebook full of story ideas?

Start one.

Okay, don’t panic. These aren’t really ideas yet.

Start a notebook where you jot down things that are interesting to you. My third manuscript (the one I’m querying now) was born out of a job posting I saw somewhere that intrigued me. I wondered who would do that kind of job and what kind of complications could come of it. Collect the things that intrigue you:

• Snippets of dialogue
• Noticing something out of place (I once saw a horse in the parking lot of my grocery store. Not near a trailer or there for some kind of event. Just a horse tied up outside the store like it was the general store on a dust covered street circa Tombstone. This might not be out of place in Montana or Texas, but in downtown Atlanta? Um, I had questions)
• Someone’s body language
• A newspaper/magazine headline or article
• A memory
• A what if twist to a headline/article/memory/movie
• A phrase describing a beautiful setting
• An outfit you see
• Shop names that are funny or interesting or aren’t clear what goes on inside that place of business
• Job listings/classifieds

Basically, just mark down those interesting moments your writer eye catches during the day. If you’re at the art museum with the kids, write a sentence about a painting that spoke to you. If you’re on a hike, doodle a picture of your favorite vista from the trip. Collect little written souvenirs of your day and come back to them when you need to spur your mind in a new direction. Once you have a few pages, some ideas may reveal patterns or you might want to play with adding that snippet of dialogue to an unusual person you saw in a setting you find strange to see what emerges.

Be observant. Watch for the signs. I had this particular topic pop up in my world over and over and over in different ways–books, music, art. Does this thing have anything to do with the idea I came away from my retreat with? Not technically. But there are some similarities. Similarities I might not have seen if I hadn’t allowed my mind to wander through all those circles.

You never know where your next idea will come from. And chances are, it won’t come fully formed in a dream (if it does, good for you, feel free to share a bit of your muse fairy dust with the rest of us!). Our job as writers is to be open–open hearted, open minded, and with open eyes.

How do you find your next story idea? Share in the comments.

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