Writing Up A Storm. Generating Writing Ideas.

So often, when you sit down to write the flash of brilliance you’d thought of just moments before, you find it has just disappeared. Poof. Sometimes it comes back to you, but quite often it doesn’t. Who knows where it vanished off to?

But, if you’re going to be a writer, then you need to learn how to generate ideas without waiting for lightning to hit you and the great thing is: they’re everywhere. In the newspaper or on TV; listen to the newscaster and try renaming the people, places and incidents to form your own connection. You could be out at a restaurant and listening in to other people’s conversations or standing amidst a crowd doing nothing, but listening and letting your imagination go where it will. Something as inane as a car, dog, cat, child, bridge etc can spark off some new suggestion. Especially if you ask these questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? For instance, ‘who is that person and where did they come from? When was that car parked out there and what is it doing on this deserted street?’ and it goes on. Or maybe think about a piece of furniture and place it in a house, wielding a story around it, the house or its inhabitants.

Any of these things can set off a creative spark which might just lead into some of your best ideas but remember: when you’re using real circumstances of people you know in your books, try to cloak them as much as possible. I don’t know about you, but I’m not very keen on getting SUED.

Writing prompts are useful idea generators as well, especially if they come with time limitations; nothing sets off a creative fuse than a ticking clock. There are some great places out there on the Internet that will provide you with free writing prompts.

When you finally do hit upon a workable idea, don’t just stand there looking stupid, run with it! See where it takes you. Sit down at the keyboard, or with a pen and paper if you’re a traditionalist, and don’t stop writing until the ideas run out. Don’t pause for editing, that all comes later. And…if you can’t write at that exact moment, jot down some notes for when you can.

While these suggestions are not hard and fast rules, they are definitely something to get you started.

What’re you waiting for? Start writing, already.

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