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03-02 Creating Story Ideas

Thoughts from Liam’s Lair

Examples

Think back to when you were in high school. Yes, I know, that may be further back for some than others. In at least one of your classes, the instructor told you then when you wanted to come up with the idea for a project to turn in, use the “What If” method.

It’s no different for creative writing. You need to use the same method. Ask yourself “What if the story looked like…”, or just simply “What if…” Take a pencil and paper and just jot down ideas that come to mind. Make a list of at least twenty-five.

Why twenty-five? Because the first fifteen will probably not be useful; they’re just to get the juices flowing. Starting around fifteen to twenty, you’ve settled down, gotten into the grove, and have started to generate useful ideas. Exactly when this happens is different for different people. If you’re experienced in this type of exercise, you’ll get going sooner. But just let it go until you “get in the groove.” After this point, go for at least another ten to fifteen ideas; these are likely the ones that may turn out to be useful.

Examine all of them. Yes, I know the odds of the first fifteen or so being useful are way less than 50-50, but don’t throw out potentially good babies with the bathwater: examine them all. Pick out the top five candidates that you believe might make a good story for you to try on for size.

Ask yourself some questions. The following are useful, but by no means exhaustive:

- Is the idea captivating enough for me to spend hundreds of hours

exploring and then writing about it?

- What genre does this story idea fall into? Is that my best genre?

- Is it involved enough to merit the 80,000 to 100,000 words of a novel?

- Would I have enough imagination for the intricacies required to make the

idea into of the story to make it attractive for a large audience?

- Does it “click” in my mind?

         Notice: at no time did I ask if are you up to the task. These are all “feeling” type questions. Writing fiction is more of an imagination business – leave the non-fiction books to the PHD types. You need to satisfy your readers – and translated, that means you need to give them a story that generates the specific positive feelings go with the specific genre for the story. If you can’t have those feelings about writing the story, you won’t be able to generate those feelings on the page.

         Pick the top three to five – no more than that – for you to explore. Note: I said explore. You’re going to stack them up against each other. Make them enter a fight to capture your imagination and affection: which one will win? Give each of them an equal chance in the arena. Do research on other similar books or background facts necessarily to properly tell the story. Whatever it takes.

         Now pick one.

         Sleep on it overnight. Let the decision well up in your unconscious to emotionally confirm your intellectual decision.

         Go with it; try it on for size.

         For most people, it helps if you can see a few examples. Accordingly, that is what next article covers.

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