We’ve all heard the question.
Where do you get your ideas from?
And most of the time we’re like, I don’t know, tons of places. Or at least I am.
Because yeah, ideas come from everywhere.
But what if the ideas have dried up? Or at least you can’t flush one out?
With Nano coming up, a lot of us are trying to figure out our next project and there’s always that point where you’re going, What the f#*k do I write next?
And seriously, just start writing random things down. We get ideas from everywhere!
I have gotten ideas from everything from dreams to things I’d wished I’d said during an argument.
The first Evie story came out of me hearing things when I was babysitting for my friend during law school. The second came from a joke I made on Facebook about gathering all the loose good luck on Friday the 13th and giving it to a friend to help her with the bar exam. The third came from a nightmare.
The latest Ariana book idea started with a friend making a bad joke about who’d ever want 72 virgins because virgins are horrible in bed.
Go onto Facebook and see what random stuff your friends say. Like about daily troubles, cute things that happened, political posts. What can that spark?
If you’re stuck, pull out a notebook and just do bullet points of random things that come to you.
Want some examples?
Cupcake war leads to murder. Ghost has a sense of humor. The books are alive.
Whatever crazy stuff comes up.
Look back at your life. What has happened to you? What have you wished would happen? What have you been terrified would happen?
Ohhhhhhh. That last one’s a good one. What are you afraid of? That’s usually a good place to mine for ideas. Dive into your fears, write them down and see what you come up with around them.
You get the idea.
Give yourself permission to play, to just brainstorm ideas, to use your own issues, to use someone else’s issues, to have a fight you always wanted to have out, to make something right you never were able to in real life.
My early ideas usually came from the “What If” game when I was bored in class or at work, or my mind wandering while I walked home.
What if someone was looking for witches in class so they passed out candy that was laced with something to show a witch and I was affected, but didn’t know I was a witch before then?
What if someone came into work and just started shooting?
What if I was suddenly teleported somewhere with a group of people I didn’t know?
Okay? You get the gist? Fantastic. Go forth and brainstorm.
And happy writing 🙂
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