How to Come up With Story Ideas
In Part 1 of this series on how to write a novel in a year, we discussed the importance of finding inspiration and choosing good ideas. If you want to write a book in a set period of time, you need to be invested in your concept.
Sometimes that means generating a lot of ideas and then narrowing it down or mashing ideas together. There are several sources you can use to find inspiration.
Finding Ideas Within Your Memories
One place you can find inspiration is within your own memories. Take one vivid memory of your past and explore how you can interpret that memory in new ways for one of your characters.
Both good and bad memories can spark powerful inspiration for new ideas, but if you’ve experienced a lot of trauma in your life, revisit these moments with caution and only do so to your comfort level. Include a trusted friend or therapist if you need to.
Once you’ve chosen a memory to focus on, there are a few things you can do with it.
Take yourself out of your own shoes and watch the memory as an outside observer. What does that person assume or imagine about what is happening in front of them?
Do the same as above, only this time with an active participant in the memory instead of an observer. What does this memory look like from that other perspective? Don’t focus so much on writing the exact viewpoint of that real-life person—copy that moment with completely different people in the roles, and then write what that participant’s point of view might look like.
Lastly, consider changing one key aspect of the memory and exploring how that might make it different. What if it was indoors vs. outdoors? Day vs. night? At home vs. in public? Change something major about the setting and see how that impacts the details. This can also help you distance yourself from the memory in order to write about it more objectively.
If you write in certain genres, you might also imagine how that memory would appear in a work of genre fiction. So for fantasy, what would that memory look like if magic were involved?
We associate strong emotions with our memories, so when writing about something even loosely tied to that memory, you’re more likely to write it with passion, which will resonate with readers.
Finding Ideas Within Your Favorite Stories
There is a common misconception that getting inspired by novels, movies, and TV shows can lead to copying, but every writer is going to tell their own story differently. What’s more, people have diverse tastes, which means they’ll likely drop a few different things in the pot, creating something more unique than the original dish that inspired them.
Plus, people hunt down read-alikes for a reason. They want to recreate that reading experience with every new book they pick up, including yours.
First, choose a novel that you like. Then, make a list of things that you enjoyed about it. Try to aim for 10 words or less for each item in the list. Don’t get too hyper specific.
An example might be: The love-hate relationship between [Character A] and [Character B].
Next, what are some things you did not like? You might have to push yourself a little, but there are likely some things that you forgave because it was such a good read otherwise. Maybe a character, a plot twist, subplot, how it ended—make this list alongside the first one.
Do this for at least three books that you enjoyed, but try to make them as different as possible. Perhaps different genres, different tropes, or even just different types of protagonists.
Then, compare all of your lists. Are there any recurring themes? This will help you nail down the elements you definitely should include vs. the ones you should skip. You can also play with combining things from different books. For example, if one book had a character who left home on a coming-of-age journey while another book featured two best friends who love to banter, you might write an epic journey featuring two leads with great chemistry.
Find ways to mishmash the things you love to create something uniquely you. That is the best way to get inspiration from your favorite stories.
Finding Ideas Within Prompts & Planning Tools
Most people assume that to use tools like story planning systems or character sheets, you need a clear idea of what you’re going to write. But you can actually use these resources to help you come up with a starting point. The reason these work so well is because they often take the shape of prompts or questions, forcing you to respond in some way.
For example, world building sheets challenge you to think about a number of obvious and obscure aspects of the world you’re creating. It can get tedious if you already know what pieces will be important to your plot and which ones aren’t, but if you’re starting from zero, then you get to use these questions as potential sparks of inspiration.
Maybe one of the questions relates to the type of weather, and you opt for a colder climate. That leads you into figuring out how they keep warm in terms of clothing, a heat source, shelter, etc. At this point, it’s still just a world you’re creating and not a plot, but as you go deeper, a character or plot might start to emerge.
When it comes to character sheets, you get to do something similar with physical traits or personality traits. If you decide your character is the type who uses jokes to break the tension or constantly blames themselves for things out of their control—what can you point to from their past that explains these things? Start to get creative about a backstory for this character, even before you know their name or what they look like.
Lastly, story planning systems ask bigger picture questions but they usually start with a character and a problem. You might consider using a story prompt or the above methods to get you going, and then use a story planning system to help you expand on the basic idea.
What does this character’s status quo look like? What incident could throw that status quo into disarray? How does your character go about solving their problem? Having these questions posed to you can help you focus your attention on one problem at a time, before you get too overwhelmed.
Finding Ideas Within Reality
When I attended a writing camp as a kid, we went out to the side of the road to watch the cars drive by. The instructor asked us to choose a car and write about the people in the car and where it was going. I zeroed in on a pick-up truck with a sofa in it, and I drafted a short story about a man getting a divorce and taking their old sofa because his ex-wife didn’t want it anymore.
Obviously, I have no idea where the driver was actually taking that sofa, but I used a small observation and turned it into a story.
We’re surrounded by things happening every single day. Even if you don’t leave the house, you might hear something or see something out your window, or hear a commotion from the shared wall of your neighbors’ apartment. We walk by people and hear snippets of conversation or observe baffling situations that we wish we knew the backstory of.
But missing all these puzzle pieces is what challenges us creatively. If you’re a writer, you are likely more attuned to what’s happening around you for this very reason. But if you tend to move through life with tunnel vision, consider opening yourself up more to the world around you.
I’m not encouraging you to intentionally eavesdrop on people’s conversations or to gossip about things you know nothing about, but let your thoughts run wild when you observe something. Every moment has a before and an after—use whatever you’re observing to think beyond the present and create a story around it.
Ultimately, there are countless ways to find good ideas for stories. The key is choosing a story concept that really excites you. Without that intrinsic enthusiasm, you’ll never maintain the momentum you’ll need to write a novel in a year.
