I am a firm believer that anyone can write a book. And if you have a story idea or a topic that you can’t stop thinking about, you should write that book.
But what if you’re on the opposite spectrum? What if you want to write a book, but you don’t have an idea yet? Or maybe you’re here because you’re curious about where we get our ideas from. I get asked where my ideas come from quite often, so I thought I would dedicate a post to gathering together the different places that I get my ideas from. If you’re trying to find an idea for your book, hopefully this will help you find something.
Ideas Come From Dreams
I have always had weird, often vivid dreams that stick with me after I wake up. Sometimes, I wake up and think “that would be a fun story.” Rat City, Beast Within, and my most recently finished novel are examples of stories I wrote after dreaming a scene and writing it down. These stories tend to be a lot of fun to write. They take on a life of their own once I start writing.
From Disappointment
This one isn’t what you think it is. I have written whole series’ because I read a book or saw a movie and was disappointed in the outcome and decided to write my own. Yes, this is a thing you can and should do. I even read a series, loved it, thought I could improve on it, and wrote my own. Of course, this could be misconstrued as “Writing to Trend” which is something that I don’t do, or at least not on purpose.
Ideas Come From Real Life
I think this one is probably pretty obvious. If I’m going through something or experiencing something that I’m struggling to process, I will write about it. I will write it into my characters’ stories and process it the best way I know how. By writing. When I get some distance from it, i.e. my characters are going through it instead of me, I can process what my head and heart are doing and figure out how to move based on that.
From Art
Anyone can be moved by art, whether it’s paintings, music, books, whatever. Art, whatever the medium, be it paint or pencil or poetry, prose, or films, awakens things within us that we have a hard time expressing without creating art ourselves. It speaks to a part of our souls that is hard to keep quiet, and it forces us to create. Consuming art in all its forms is a surefire way to find inspiration and ideas to write.
Ideas Come From Nature
Again, anyone can be moved by nature. I think it’s probably the purest form of inspiration. To go for a walk-through nature and glean inspiration from the things around you. Haven’t you seen a weird sea creature and thought “nope, that’s an alien”? Don’t feel like hiking or climbing a mountain? Visit a botanical garden or the aquarium.
From Conversations
Conversations I have with other people and conversations I overhear from other people can often be inspiring. You gain a perspective on something that you would never have had on your own. It allows you to see it from a different angle, a different direction, and that’s often I think where we struggle with writer’s block. We get so stuck in our own heads that we can’t see where the narrative is going anymore. Gaining some outside perspective can help shift that until we’re able to move forward.
Ideas Come From Boredom
I started writing my vampire series because I was bored and I wanted to see where it would go. I had finished my first book. It was a story that I had been working on since I was probably about 13. I first wrote it as a screenplay and then turned it into a novel. That all took five years. I wanted to write something totally different. At the time vampires were huge. Scorned was one of the first things I wrote and finished as an adult. I sat down one day and gave myself a prompt and just started writing from there. That leads me to the next one.
From Prompts
I don’t use a lot of writing prompts, mostly because I have so many ideas swimming around my head any given time that I don’t usually need them, but every now and then I will see one that will jostle an idea loose or I will create one for myself. They are a great way to get you going if you want to write, but you don’t know what to write. I dare say, you can use art as a prompt as well, should you need to.
Getting out of your house and your routine is also a great way to find inspiration to create. Get out of your head, your space, your daily grind and see something new. Learn something new. Go to a museum and learn something new about something random. Go to a play or a movie or try an opera for the first time. (I’ve been to an opera and it was absolutely lovely.) Before I was published, when I was struggling to keep motivated I would go see a movie alone or I would go to Barnes and Noble and find where my name would fall on the book shelves in my genre and imagine my book there between two people who were already where I wanted to be.
So, get up and get out. If you haven’t written in days or weeks, then getting out for a little bit isn’t going to make all that much of a difference. The blinking cursor will be there when you get back just waiting for you to fill the blank page with all of the inspiration you gathered. Don’t let lack of inspiration stop you from writing your book. There is enough inspiration in this world, and we’re not going to run out. The world needs your book. The world wants your book, and I can’t wait to see what you create.
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