Wallpaperswide.com

“Ideas can come from anywhere and at any time. The problem with making mental notes is that the ink fades very rapidly.” – Rolf Smith

The bane of the writer’s existence is the idea that arrives at an inconvenient time. I don’t think I’ve ever had a story show up while I’m sitting in front of my keyboard, hands poised over the keys, ready to dash down the idea as it forms. Ideas show up in the middle of the night as dreams, or wake you from a sound sleep with a mind blast of a brilliant idea you’re CERTAIN you’ll remember in the morning. Then morning comes and you struggle to clear the fog away to remember the unforgettable. Ideas come while driving, walking, taking a shower, in the middle of a conversation, on a bike ride. They come from all places: dreams, the lyrics of a song, a two-second sound byte of a news story, a newspaper headline, an article on the internet, an overheard snippet of conversation, and completely out of the blue as if by lightning strike.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single writer I know state they are going to go sit in front of their computer and come up with a brilliant idea to write about. Invariably, the idea has come and we are itching to get to a keyboard and get it down. BUT what happens when you’re brain is a magnet that collects more ideas than you can write at the moment? How do you capture the idea, especially the one flitting through the night? Most writers I know have a list of story ideas they work from. And once they get started on one from their list, invariably a shiny new idea makes its presence known.

Some keep a notepad and pen on their nightstand to capture those middle of the night revelations and travel everywhere with a notebook or journal for capturing the ideas as they arrive. A friend of mine uses a recording device in the same way. Because thoughts can be elusive. My method is this: survival of the fittest … up to a point. If I have a dream or an idea wakes me in the middle of the night, I don’t jot it down. I wait until morning and if the idea is truly one meant to be captured, I’ll remember, or it will come back. Because my stories that are waiting to be written can be pests. They don’t leave me alone until they have been properly documented and saved in a file.

I used to document the ideas in a word document, jotting down as much of the story as I got at the moment, and adding to the document as more thoughts for the story arrived. I have since modified to using OneNote because I can post a segment of an article from the internet and the URL of the article is automatically captured, or if I explain my idea to anyone, or something develops during an email conversation, when I copy and paste the pertinent bit into the document, it links to the email exchange — which can come in handy. I can also save pictures for character representation and have multiple pages to document things like setting, character background, etc. so organization is much cleaner.

Once I document what I need to, I close the file and go back to what I’m working on. Sometimes it takes years before I get around to the story, but in the meantime, as ideas occur related to the story, I have a place to keep them so I don’t forget. My brain happens to be one of those idea magnets, so my list is always huge, but when I’m ready to work on something new, I never lack for something to write about. How do you capture your ideas?

The post YWS: Saving Ideas appeared first on Be the Cat.

Wallpaperswide.com

One of the questions that most fiction authors are asked at one point or another is “how did you get the idea for the story?” Sometimes this is a hard question to answer.

The easy answer is: LIFE

Actually, there are several ways in which an author can come up with an idea for a book.

Through reading or hearing about a current or past event. Maybe you read about a historical event and something about the situation intrigues you and you start imagining characters and how they deal with the events occurring. This can be through newspapers, something you see on TV, or even other books you read.

Visual imagery — You might see a picture that draws your attention and you can start building up a story about what happens in the picture. I still have one book that I haven’t written where I came up with the idea in this very same way. I was visiting a friend’s house and she had a picture on the wall of sketching of two girls and just looking at the picture, I started to imagine the story of what was happening in the life of those two girls. I even knew their names just by looking at the picture (Cassandra and Alexandra). I have jotted down my ideas for this story and one day will get around to writing it.

A setting — I once went to school in Owatonna, Minnesota, and realized that the school I went to would be a great setting for a story. I knew that my main character would be someone who was not used to having any rules enforced, and the school rules were very strict. This story will actually (when I finish it) cover the course of 3 books, because the story that I want to tell with it is too long for one book.

Daydreams — Sometimes your mind wanders off on its own and something you see or hear sparks a line of “what if” thinking or imagining and you realize that when you get through to the end of the “what if” that you have the basis for a story.

Dreams — Believe it or not, the first book I completed writing was the result of a dream that I had. When I woke up from my dream, I knew that I had the making of a story — I knew the beginning, the middle and the end. I didn’t know all of the details of course, but the major points of the story were all there and all I had to do was write it.

Reading another story — Sometimes you read a story and think to yourself “that’s not the way I’d write it”, and then write your own version of the story. Or maybe it’s just part of the story where you think an underlying part of the story was left out.

Tips for generating story ideas:

Study an author whose books you like. Identify what it is that you like about how they write. It’s also important identify things that you don’t like and know why. It helps you to avoid the same thing in your own work.

Some writers carry a notepad wherever they go so they can jot down ideas as they come up. Or they will keep a journal to at least write something down every day. The more you write, the better you can become.

The internet is like a cornucopia of ideas waiting to be found. Google or Yahoo writing prompts and you will find several exercises to give you ideas. Something like: Start with a character that has an unusual fear. What is the fear? How does the character react when he/she has to face that fear? If you start with an idea like that, you are well on your way to creating a story, as well as character development.

These are just a few of the ways in which you can come up with a story. Can you think of others?

The main thing to remember is that you shouldn’t try to force yourself to come up with ideas. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to coming up with an idea is the fear of not being able to come up with an idea. Just relax and let your mind wander. Something will pop in sooner or later.

The post YWS: How Authors Get Story Ideas appeared first on Be the Cat.