Thinking Of Writing A Book. Any Topic Ideas?

Question

I want to be a writer because I love to write and read. But whenever I try to write a book, my ideas suck. Got any ideas for a topic, title, characters, or anything else?

Answer 1

You are going at this hindside-to. You don't fish for ideas for a topic, title, characters or anything else, they have to evolve from whatever you choose to write about. There are so many different kinds of writing, and you give no indication of what you want to do. Non-fiction writing can be very straightforward and factual. In some ways, it is the easiest kind of writing because the subject flows in a more-or-less straight line. Of course, some subjects are more difficult than others to research, and then there is the problem of making the writing interesting. But fiction is a whole different ball game because you have to create a situation, create the characters that inhabit that situation, and then motivate each of them to play their role in the story.
If you really want to write, start by creating a character. See how real you can make that person. Describe how they look, how they dress, how they move, and then tell what they think, what their hopes and aspirations are, and the things that bring them down. Get to know that person as well as you know yourself. Then put that person in different situations, and see how they react to those situations, and to other people. Once you start doing this, you are going to build the beginning of a theme, which can work into a plot, and that is essential to writing a book, because a book without a plot can only be a phone book or a catalogue, and neither of them makes great reading.

Answer 2

So, don't write a book. Go smaller.

Write a story. Write a description of a character. Write a description of a house, a garden, a car, a tree, or a cat. Write a vignette.

Write instructions on how to use voicemail on a cell phone or how to shop for a new sweater. Write a letter to your friend telling about the day you had yesterday. Write a letter to an employer telling her to take her job and shove it.

The more you write, the better a writer you'll be, but you don't have to go book-length to start.

Imagine that you just found a $500.00 bill on the sidewalk. Think up the story of the person who had the bill - how she got the money, why it was a $500 bill and not (for instance) 25 $20 bills, how she managed to lose it, and what thoughts will be going through her head once she realizes it is gone. What consequences will she face - what will happen next? Think it all through, then write it down.

g'luck!

Answer 3

If you really want to be a writer, make sure you never let rejection slips get you down. The best authors are the ones who experienced rejection and yet pressed on. Having said that, let's get to your question... as you're just starting out, the best topic would be something you are familiar with. If you're a teenager, why not write about teenagers....you can give the story a twist (it is fictional, after all) by creating a setting in the future, the past, or write in a Sci-Fi or Fantasy genre. It's good to write the kind of material you enjoy reading.
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Also, if you find you need help from a published author/editor/ghostwriter, see www.jeanbaileyrobor.com
Good luck with your writing!

Answer 4

I find the easiest way to write a story is to have a character.

Design a person in the most ideal way you can. Whatever you want, desire, have put into this person.

Give them special powers if you like fiction/fantasy.


Then think about what you deal with. Then try out the idea of what they would deal with.



Or another good excersize just to get the juices flowing is to take a book your like and put you or your character in the main characters place and work your way through what would happen.

Answer 5

It's been said to write what you know - my take on that is to create a fantastic story but use your own emotions and maybe the personalities of your friends in the story. Take an unusual situation and write the story as if you and your friends were in the situation. A good place to try your hand at writing is fanfiction.net, where people take the characters of their favorite TV shows and write stories based on those characters. I used to write there before I got addicted to this place!

Answer 6

to get warmed up and practice, try taking an old imaginary friend (or another imaginary character), a comic-book setting (past, present, or future), and a fairy tale.
change the fairy tale to fit the setting, but leave out the ending. Make the 'person' your main character or another character.
Think how your character would react to the circumstances, and don't stick to your original story line completely. Pretty soon, you'll have a completely different story! (I did this with three different stories, got completely different ending, and combined all three into a whole other story)

Answer 7

it really depends on the type of person that you are and what state of mind you are in when you write. carry a spiral and pen with you always. some ideas:
1. a teenage girls runs away from home because her family sucks, she becomes a hooker to make her money....

2. A Deadly sickness wipes out the main characters whole family except her beloved mother (or father, or whatever you like) she has to race agians time to find the cure........

3. An orphaned girl searches thru her past to find what happened to her family and why they left her so suddenly. to her suprise she finds out that they.....

Hope i helped. if you need any other ideas feel free to emial me. I'd love to hear what you writing about. :P

Answer 8

Basically, you should write about things that happen in real life. People like books that relate back to their life experiences. Because I just finished reading a book called Ida Mae, this book was wonderful. It is the fact that I didn't get bored reading it, because it talked about people in a housing project. The things that went on in this project is happening in the world today.

Answer 9

Try to invent a really catchy first line or paragraph and go from there. I did this once and ended up with a pretty interesting little novel.

Answer 10

You should start by writing a biography of someone who interests you and who lived locally. Ideally it would be someone who did not die too long ago and whose relatives/aquaintances /friends can be traced.