As writers, students, readers, we often hear, ‘where do all these ideas come from?’
There is no short answer to that question. Write what you know is not a mandatory ingredient to write well, to pique your readers’ interest.
Drawing from universal life experiences to create your work of fiction shapes characters and situations. At the heart of the story is the writer’s passion to either showcase a better world, expose the ills of the world or present hope in dark situations.
Thrillers can be inherently dark but genre in contemporary writing morphs into what the story becomes, often crossing more than one genre.
Crime Fiction will reflect the elements of the genre, as would Romance – what good would these be without a dead body, missing person, corporate embezzlement or terrorism etc. Crime Fiction without investigation is, for me, like eating apple pie without the apples. Imagine romance without lovers? While these might be diverse genres, the point of commonality is conflict.
Conflict keeps the reader, hanging on, will there be a resolution or does the tension mount, will the character I’m rooting for, be saved, loved, killed or elected etc?
To deny that conflict is a significant aspect of life (as much as we abhor it – oh the drama of life!) while creating a perfect world with perfect characters would no doubt be like having a dose of ‘soma’ as in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
In creating characters, the potentially ‘good’ characters that are fraught with conflict, are truly memorable ones. They represent the reality of life through fiction – a point of reader connection. Shakespeare’s mastery on the creation of the ‘good wayward’ character, is timeless, and there are many such writers who create unforgettable, quotable characters.
How do you imagine and create your character ideas? Where do they come from?
Observations of people in the bustle or stillness of life, the man sitting on a park bench or train alone, lost in thought – Who is he? Where does he come from? Why is here? Why is he alone? What is he thinking?- A story idea prompt is wherever you are in your day.
Turning to the works of influencers of the craft will create inspiration for story ideas:
To quote Stephen King, ‘You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.’ attests to ‘Reading a lot and writing a lot,’ as essential for generating ideas, developing and enhancing your writing style.
Reading gives the composer a storehouse of ideas to draw upon in creating a new, unique story world that readers connect to.
Keep reading, keep observing the hive of life, learning about new ways of thinking and behaving, story ideas abound around us.
Writers Block you say?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the spring of hope…we had everything before us (A Tale of Two Cities– Charles Dickens)
There’s much on the social and political landscapes, history in the making, story ideas can be a fusion of the past and present, to shock, delight, inform and move your reader.
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