12 Sources for Generating Ideas for Stories
A lot of the time, we’re so busy tearing our hair out over writing itself, that we forget that coming up with ideas for stories is its own uphill climb. Preferably in flip-flops, waist deep in snow because we writers love the struggle (amiright?).
It’s not hard to come across the notion that coming up with a story idea is time consuming, difficult, and needs at least a few dotted journals and salty tears.
Nope!
It can actually be really quick, relatively simple, and even fun!
I’ve compiled 12 great ways to come up with ideas for your fiction stories that don’t require blood, tears, or your life savings.
Some of these ways of brainstorming story ideas won’t serve up your story beginning on a silver platter. That’s okay. If you get a beginning, great, write it down. If you get random, individual scenes, awesome; you can always write around them. If you get an ending, fantastic (see #11)!
Enough chit chat, let’s get to brainstorming!
12 Great Ways To Generate Ideas For Stories
1. People Watching
This has been around since there was more than one person on the planet; it’s just the way we’re built.
We’re constantly wondering all kinds of things about other people (“He doesn’t look like he got any sleep last night”, “That dress looks really uncomfortable”, “I wonder if she’s noticed her son is drooling all over her silk blouse”, “I’d go crazy if my cat meowed that loudly all the time”, “Does anyone else what to duct tape that kid’s mouth shut or is it just me?”). Look at all that material! And those are just individual, passing thoughts.
You can also witness a whole situation: an argument, people meeting, people saying goodbye, conversations, games, near accidents… basically any kind of situation in everyday life. It’s all a story just lying there waiting for you to pick it up and put it on a page.
Write it up exactly as you saw it or add your own imagination to the mix, either way is fine.
2. Music
Music has the undisputed power to move people (quite literally).
For most of us, listening to music we really enjoy brings up random images or scenes in our heads. We sometimes say that we have music videos playing in our minds.
It can also bring up memories of a situation or time during which that music was playing. That’s crucial since that already hands you pieces of a potential plot and insight into characters. Use the emotions you feel to breathe life into your story.
Later on, go back to your story without the music and see which ideas still hold some magic.
3. Dreams
Dreams are basically your imagination with no working brakes. It’s a mishmash of memories, thoughts, analysis, and randomness and it’s a rich source of ideas for a story, plot, or character.
Even if your dream seems utterly ridiculous, jot it down while you still remember it. Note down any feelings, senses, sounds, or smells that accompanied your dream. Later you can make your way through the dream sequence and pick out the ideas that you want to keep and turn into a story.
4. Alternate World
Want to generate a quick story idea? Put Indiana Jones in ancient Greece. Or put Julius Caesar in a Democratic party convention. Or maybe you want to send Xena up into outer space?
This may seem a little out there or something that you’d see in the realm of fanfiction, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Putting a character or plot in a completely different setting challenges your imagination to solve a lot of immediate problems. How does Xena throw her chakram in zero gravity? What kind of scholar would Indy be? Would Caesar win a Democratic nomination or would he run to the Republicans?
Those are pretty ripe pickings as far as your story and plot are concerned so dive right in and enjoy!
5. Writing Prompts
When all else fails, you can always get someone else to generate an idea for a story.
There are lots of free websites that offer short writing prompts and story idea generators to help you start off your writing. These can generate a general idea or sometimes they prompt you with a short, first line of your writing and you take it from there.
Either way, pick a writing prompt, run with it, and see where it takes you.
6. First Sentence
This differs from writing prompts since this brainstorming idea has you reach for the opening line of a story you already like.
You can find a great example of this in the movie Finding Forrester, where the character Jamal writes an essay using the first part of an existing piece that Forrester wrote.
I’m obviously not condoning stealing the work of other writers; you’re just borrowing it for a minute. Once you feel more comfortable in the direction your own story is going and who your characters are, go back to the beginning and change the sentence that you borrowed.
7. I Wish I Had…
Writer or not, this is something that everyone goes through at least once in a while and it’s a fantastic source of story ideas.
“I wish I had told him how I feel”, “I wish I hadn’t yelled at her”, “I wish I had applied for that job”, “Why didn’t I ever learn to swim?”, “What if he had answered the phone that day?”
Though similar to the “what if?” question, this is a little different as it’s usually more specific and realistic (if compared to “what if humans could teleport?”). Since it’s tied to something that actually happened in our lives, we feel a greater emotional connection to these ideas. Those emotions can be positive or negative; maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t tell him how I felt since it turned out he’s in love with someone else.
The great thing here is that you already have at least one character and part of a plot ready to go. Start from that and watch your story grow.
8. Ask Questions
“What if?” is one of the most powerful questions a fiction writer can ask (obviously).
“What if we could see in the dark?”, “What if dogs could talk?”, “What if the world was actually flat?”, “What if Brad Pitt saw me on the street and told me that I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen…”
Ahem, sorry.
Of course this goes for all the question words, not only “what if”.
Ask a question, but then address the consequences of that change. If the world is actually flat then do people fall off it? Do humans stop forming friendships with themselves in favor of dogs? Let the new reality form the basis of your story and character interactions.
9. New Perspective
This is another source of new story ideas that is basically never ending; one situation can actually create several stories!
In her Masterclass, Margaret Atwood gives an example of a new perspective by taking the famous story of Little Red Riding Hood and suggesting that it could start with “It was dark inside the wolf.” A simple change in perspective and you already have a massively different plot, story, and character.
Another twist you can add to this is to simply make a parody of a story you already know. Let’s say you have the famous general story idea of a prince who tries to win the hand of a fair princess. The prince climbs up a steep mountain, battles a dragon, and rescues the princess from the tower… to learn that she doesn’t want to marry him at all! I’d definitely read that story!
10. Genre Flipping
Genre flipping takes a little more fiction knowledge in order to do it well, so it might not be the best idea for very new writers.
It requires exactly what its name suggests: switching up the fiction genres. Let’s say you have a work of romantic fiction that you really like. Try to turn it into a horror story or a sci-fi work. What would the plot look like then? How would the characters behave?
It’s somewhat similar to the idea of creating an alternate universe except that here it’s the genre you’re changing, not the characters’ physical reality. As long as you’re within the “boundaries” of the given genre, you can make the story go wherever you want.
11. Start At The End
Every writer knows that writing the beginning of a story is no easy task. So why start there at all?
Sometimes you know exactly how you want your story to end and that can be a perfect place to, well, start.
Write down the end of your story and simply work backwards. In other words, it’s reverse-engineering the plot or outline of your work. For example, let’s say the main character dies in their lover’s arms at the end. How did that happen? What happened before that? Write that scene. Then write the scene before that. Follow that pattern until you get to the end, which in this case, is the beginning. And viola, your work of fiction is done!
12. Artbooks
This is something I stumbled on by accident and I’m so happy I did.
I’m a huge fan of computer game artbooks in particular and I often thumb through them when I’m lacking ideas for a scene or character. Looking at the concept art inspires different feelings and moods and can help with generating an idea for a setting or scene. I once came across a drawing of a gloomy forest and created a scene where my main characters were walking through that forest, wishing the whole time they were back home and grumbling at each other.
Character sketches work well too and can help you create your character’s physical traits as well as their personality.
Phew, that’s quite a lot to choose from, but I hope you find these ways useful! Don’t despair writers, you can see that we’re literally surrounded by ideas for stories!
