We all have them: story ideas. Sometimes there are more than we can capture and other times we can go for days or weeks (or years!) without a good one. How grateful we are when a beautiful one comes along that we're able to capture, nurture, and develop!
Have you ever wondered where these skittish birds come from? Some people find inspiration in music. Other people find it in snatches of conversation overheard in a crowded diner. Often it's found in pictures or in the news. Sometimes they can be found just from asking "What if...?" about things we take for granted. ("What if the Prime Minister was a robot controlled by aliens?") Whether we coax those ideas out of cover or they come to us unbidden, their origins are mysterious.
Practically speaking, the imagination is that part of the brain that can generate images, objects, and ideas out of nothing. I'm no expert in this sort of thing so, like everyone, I asked Google. Predictably, Wikipedia came up as one of the results with an article titled "Imagination". Under the section Brain Activation it says "A study using fMRI while subjects were asked to imagine precise visual figures, to mentally disassemble them, or mentally blend them, showed activity in the occipital, frontoparietal, posterior parietal, precuneus, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the subject's brains."
Oof. Heavy stuff. To all you neurologists reading this post, that makes all the sense in the world but I'm still wondering how all these parts come together to form the image of my niece in my mind, let alone a character I'm writing moving around in a scene dressed like a Hollywood movie. All those "parts" are made of tissues which are constituted of neurons that communicate via chemicals across a synapse. How does all that manifest as an image in your mind when I say "Think of an elephant"? Ponder that for a second and keep in mind that we're not all imagining the same elephant.
Where does the elephant come from?
Let's set all that aside for a moment and assume it just works "somehow" and talk about the triggers that spark an idea.
My mind generates some of its best ideas when I'm doing routine things like loading the dishwasher or vacuuming the apartment or driving in the country. It is as if my mind's executive centre takes a break from all the hurly-burly it contends with and some piece of junk that had been fermenting in the subconscious breaks through. In the moment an idea strikes, it is as if the world "fades" momentarily and this new thing that never existed before emerges. Sometimes I see it as a still image and other times it's like I've tapped into some live stream and captured a few seconds' worth of "video". If it's a strong idea, it stays with me and I play with it, follow it along different paths and ask questions.
When I am bereft of ideas, one source I rely on to jump start my creativity is writing prompts. Writing prompt sites are legion on the Internet, but one that I visit on a consistent basis is https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/. Of all the sites I've experimented with, I like this one the most. The ideas are specific enough to provide useful constraint, but general enough to encourage freedom and creativity. For instance, I selected their "Thriller/Suspense" genre and the following prompt appeared at the top of the pile.
Write a near-future thriller where a piece of everyday technology has turned against your character — and only your character.
The first idea that came to mind was a disgruntled toaster that takes its frustrations out on the owner by burning his toast every morning no matter how light he set the Light/Dark Toast knob. The toaster is connected to the coffee maker, the refrigerator, the stove--the entire home--through the internet and it manages to turn the entire house, even the blender, against him. Hilarity ensues. (Hey, Pixar! We can talk about licensing that idea!) Writing prompts can be touch and go as I alluded, because some prompts don't ignite an immediate spark in my brain. If the prompt is too vague there's nothing to bite on. If an idea doesn't come to mind almost immediately, then I shuffle the deck and try a new prompt.
Many writers, myself included, get ideas from the news. In my case, it's print news that has the most immediate effect because it's just the page and the print. There are no vivid graphics or video to distract my mind from the story. Besides, I was raised pre-Internet so print will always have a special place in my heart. If you're a crime writer, you might gravitate toward the local or national crime section. If you're a sci-fi writer, you might find inspiration in the science section or in science news magazines like Discover or Scientific American. If you're an adventure writer, try the travel section.
Is there a particular setting in which I read the paper that generates more ideas than others? That thought just came to me as I was typing all this out. (Good job, Brain!) Yes, I imagine that setting would bear some kind of influence on whether a story idea will appear. Setting promotes a specific state of mind and they come to me most often when I'm relaxed and comfortable. Often I will read the newspaper cover to cover over a pint of Guinness or Smithwick's at Irene's or Patty's. You can't get much more relaxed than that.
I can recall one idea that came to me when I read an article about the tragic death of a young man who fell from an apartment balcony. In the aftermath, police claimed that the death was suicide, the subtext being only a guilty person would choose to end their life rather than face justice. The dead man's girlfriend suggested that the police had a more active involvement in his death, that during the course of the arrest there had been had been a struggle and her boyfriend escaped onto the balcony, presumably to jump to another balcony. After reading the article, I began the "What if...?" game.
What if the dead man was murdered intentionally? What if a corrupt cop was stealing cocaine from evidence lockup and selling it? What if the dead man was one of his dealers? What if the cop had hurt or killed one of the dead man's friends? What if the cop discovered the dead man was about to rat him out? What if the cop murdered the young man to protect his drug dealing operation? What if the cop was a pawn in a much larger corruption ring and had been ordered to eliminate the man by someone above him? What if the cop's wife was the kingpin? How could we make that work?
See how much fun that is? It doesn't take much for one idea to build off the one before.
Music is a great source of ideas for me and the type of music will often generate different ideas. Jazz and classical music has tone and emotion and listening to it on a good pair of headphones allows me to immerse myself fully in the experience. With the music washing through my mind, I feel the emotions the composer put into the piece and that sets my mind to wandering and day dreaming about someone who might be feeling those emotions. Who are they? Why do the feel this way?
Other times music will set a particular atmosphere--dark and lonely, bright and cheerful--and my mind will conjure up some setting that matches the tone of the music. When that happens I let my mind wander and it usually supplies some characters. I don't know them, their goals, or their motivation and the fun part is figuring that out. Before long before I've established some kind of conflict at which point I have the seed of a story.
Lately I've been listening to a lot of ambient music while I work and write. There's a channel on YouTube Music called BLUME that has a lot of good playlists. Check it out!
Story ideas are elusive creatures, especially if you're only just starting out writing in a serious way, but if you learn to recognize when one comes along, you can capture it, take some notes, and live with it a while to see where the idea takes you. Some ideas--like the murderous toaster--are boisterous and fun and can lead to strong stories, but don't discount those ideas that don't fully present themselves right away. Some are bashful and need patient coaxing to tell you their secrets, but when they do you're in for a surprise.
Where do your ideas come from? Let me know in the comments below!