The Craft of Writing: Finding the Ideas

Sometimes the ideas don’t come easily. You can be at the beginning of a story, deep into a second draft, a fifth draft, or far into final edits and you may still find you need new ideas, new avenues to add that last bit of sparkle. I’m what one would call and “organic writer” and I need new ideas at every pass through a story – which means I need them almost every moment, within every page, even if it’s only a different perspective on a moment.

Where can we find the big game changers or little sighs that make a story come alive? While the answer is as unique as our writing, I think there are some exercises that can help on a broad level.

I will often sit and simply ask questions:

What’s in the news?
What concerns my family? My friends? Me?
What questions do I hear people asking?
What books are people talking about? Engaged in?
What does the economy look like? The housing market? The college market?

These general questions often help me find contemporary relevance or character motivation. I also find layers developing as I follow the threads further and deeper down the line of thought.

Then more questions come – ones specific to the story:

What’s my character’s core need?
What deep questions is she asking? Why is she asking?
Can answers be found? Can I find them? Can she? Should she?
What are some sensorial ways to allude to these? Smells? Weather? Clothing? Scene? Texture?
Who has the answers? How can I show that?
What is she doing at a particular moment? And why?

I ask general questions and I ask very specific ones – for every detail matters as big aspects of plot and character become richer and more significant if illustrated through the minute. I also find that this kind of “conversation” gets the story moving faster and in new directions.

Let me know what you do to get the ideas flowing – I’m always ready to try something new. Thanks for visiting!