Writers: where do you get ideas for storys? Fiction?

Question

I'd like to write a story but i don't know where to start. I write often, mostly poems, thoughts, my life. Have only written a few short storys.

Answer 1

Start with a character you know well and are interested in. Give this character an objective, something he or she needs desperately. Then put an obstacle in the way of your character getting what he or she needs. How the character overcomes (or fails to overcome) the obstacle will be your story.

Answer 2

Ideas for fiction are all around you. Watch the news, read the news, read fiction, read non-fiction, watch movies...

In my experience I've found the best way to get the creative juices flowing is to write. Create a character, learn about their life and their personality and then place them in a conflict. Based on what you know about your character see how they react. It doesn't have to be great fiction, just enough to get the juices flowing.

Also, carry around a notebook, or something you can write on at all times. As ideas come to you, write them down so they don't slip away.

Steven King says that writing is like archeology. The stories are there, you just have to uncover them.

Answer 3

I have hundreds of published non-fiction articles but never could figure out how to write fiction.

Something you could do is write up a humorous event that happened in your life, then embellish the facts, change the names and use a different location. Let's say that you dropped a slice of pizza on your lap when eating at a greasy surf-side pizza joint in New Jersey. Your friends all laughed and your boyfriend said that you had to go home and change immediately.

Write the story out, then change everything. Instead of pizza, it's lobster in an intimate restaurant in Miami. The man with you is your handsome lover and your husband doesn't know of your affair. How will you explain the food stain on your nicest blouse, especially when your husband thought you were taking the car for a checkup?

Okay, that's romance-novel drivel but it's one way to get thinking about writing fiction. Non-fiction works for me, though.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Think about the stuff that happen in life, or around you, and make that into fiction series. Are you could turn a poem you wrote into stories.

Answer 5

Look in the paper for ideas.

perhaps something from your own life.

I wrote a story about a man who feels that the only way he can get a girl is to increase the size of his manhood.

This came from all that spam I got in my e-mail and an article that deviced like that don't work.

My take was,"what if something liked that really worked? How could it affect a man?"

That is an example, but you get the idea.

How about "Wicked"? Oz before Dorothy.

We have new planets in our solar system. How about a trip to one of them?

I bumped into this motto "Giving Matters"

How about a selfish person who realizes that helping people makes a difference?

You just need to look about

Answer 6

the suitable formulation to apply whilst writing a narrative/e book is to have a placing,difficulty,answer,yet another difficulty or conflict,answer and then a end incorporating all the circumstances highlighted interior the plot. this manner you have no longer have been given readers asking on the tip of the e book what happened to this that or the different till you're making plans a chain or a secret novel as such. besides the undeniable fact that no rely what proportion classes or seminars you attend telling you what the rights and wrongs are of storytelling it is ultimately as much as you the author via fact basically you already understand a thank you to tell the story you opt for for to tell the suitable! As for having all your techniques floating around the suitable situation to do is shop a pc with the techniques as they arrive to you or perhaps a tape recorder next on your mattress in case an extremely incredible theory comprises you. stable success with your e book, they are surely a incredible situation to have and seem back on with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Answer 7

actually i get alot of ideas for my short stories from shopping. when you are shopping you see all walks of life, whether you are at wal-mart OR the mall. i pretend to be looking at something, and i'll eavesdrop on others conversations. say there are two old ladies talking about how they are soooo sorry it didn't work out between their children (like they were dating). well when i get home, i write this down and htink of why it didn't work out, and a story develops

Answer 8

I've written exactly the same as you. Most times I base them on my life's experiences. But I change the names. Sometimes mt ideas are just wishful thinking. And try to remember what keeps your attention when you read.

Answer 9

Just sit down and do some brainstorming, think about things that interest you, things that you find annoying about books you have read, ideals that you would like to vanquish or uphold, sit outside and watch people in the park or down a crowded street, you will find it interesting the amount of ideas that might pop into your head.

Answer 10

I write poems also....never any fiction...but I think it would be somewhat the same...just start writting..use your imagination. Start out with things you like, and then expand on them.