10 Ways to Find Ideas for Your Next Story

If you’re new to writing, you may wonder how to find writing ideas and inspirations for your stories. The good news is there’s no bad way into a story! Here are ten ways I have generated story ideas.

1. Write the Story You’ve Longed to Read

Your first novel is often a passion project, born of a yearning to read a book no one has written. There are many posts on the fiction-related forums and subreddits, where people ask for recommendations based on a wish list.

If you want to read a book about a robot living in a land of domesticated dragons who yearns to win a beauty contest but can’t afford a new dress… and you can’t find it? Write it yourself!

2. Follow Your Curiosity for Ideas

The phrase “What if” has inspired many of my stories. What if you woke up one day and found out your life was really a dream? Or, what if you inherited a magical object? What if you learned your neighbor was a clone? What if water suddenly became toxic? When your imagination answers your what if questions, a story may flicker to life.

3. Give Your Character the Third Degree

Sometimes a character pops into your head. You may not even know what kind of story they belong in, but once they arrive in your imagination, they may demand you find a story for them!

You can use one of the many freely available resources to help you interview your character, delving into their motivations and goals. Once you know who they are, what they want, and why they can’t get what they want… you have a story.

4. Explore A New World

When a fictional land unfurls before your eyes, you’re duty-bound to explore it. It doesn’t matter if your world is reality-based, an alternative history or future, or made up entirely.

Disgusted with the state of the real world, I wanted to explore a realm free from the conflicts that come from the pursuit of political power, religious intolerance, income inequality, and conspicuous consumption. A world where people work cooperatively and where artists and art are valued above all else. This desire to explore a different world is how Oil and Dust was born.

5. Deadlines

When I’m itching for a new project between novels, I often look at writing contests themed deadlines from literary magazines. While I may have an unpublished story that fits their theme already, sometimes I’m inspired to create something new anyway.

There’s something about a looming deadline that unlocks my creativity. If you work well under pressure, this might work for you too! Best part is? Even if you miss the deadline or decide not to submit, you’ve still written a story.

Similarly, NaNoWriMo also triggers my deadline-fueled creativity. To write 50,000 words in a month is a lofty goal, but absolutely do-able. Hint, November is only 45 days away!

6. Holiday Inspiration

Tension, conflict, and emotions—the building blocks of story—arise during the holidays and can inspire ideas. This may explain why I see so many calls for holiday-related short fiction, nonfiction, and novels.

Holiday stories are also a great way to play in new genres or mashup two things that rarely mix, because who doesn’t love a Christmas tale of terror, a werewolf on a Valentine’s Day blind date, or a trick-or-treat murder mystery?

7. Get Prompted for Ideas

Writing prompts are another great way to generate ideas. A quick web search will produce many sites who offer daily or weekly prompts.

Writing prompts come in all shapes and sizes, from moody pictures, to quotes, to songs. The free daily Twitter prompt #vss365 provides a single word, and the resulting stories are incredible, albeit short.

You can also use story generators as writing prompts. Here’s a fun one by Tom Gauld.

8. Weird Reality Ideas

The headlines are full of stories so bizarre they sound fictional. From family dramas to improbable love stories to mysterious crimes, you can find fodder for nearly any type of story you’re drawn to write!

Have you experienced something odd or unworldly? Even better! However, unless you’re writing a true-crime style book, make sure you change the names and fictionalize the events to protect the guilty.

9. Take a Class

I love writing classes. There’s something about learning a new aspect of how fiction works that shakes stories loose for me. Last October, I attended a free class put on by my local library on how to write scary stories, inspiring my short story, A Place of Peace, published by Terror House Magazine.

10. Improve Someone Else’s Art

Have you ever finished a book or movie and wished it had ended differently? Use the ideas sparked by bad books and terrible movies to write a new ending! Note, if you write an alternate ending using the same characters and story world, you are writing fan fiction (aka fan fic). There’s nothing wrong with fan fic, but you should know you cannot submit it anywhere for publication. However, if you use the book or movie as inspiration for your original work, your publication options are unlimited. This is actually how E.L James developed Fifty Shades of Grey.

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” — Orson Scott

I hope you’ve found this list of how to generate story ideas inspiring. Pro tip, combine any of the ten suggestions above to generate even more story ideas.

Warning: once you start writing, you may find you have many more ideas than you have time to write! How do you generate your story ideas?

Header Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash