And here was the thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was sure he was a good writer, which is great, but he hadn\u2019t actually written anything. Worse still, he said he didn\u2019t have a single idea for a story, so could we maybe give him one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right. Yes. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s how Herman Melville got started too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the fact is, all of us know what it feels like to feel uninspired and stuck in a rut when ideas just won\u2019t come. And this post is all about solving that problem, showing you how to get started writing a book, and how to come up with ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where do<\/em> ideas for a book come from? How do you know if they\u2019re any good? And how can you take your existing ideas and make them better?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Big questions, but let\u2019s see what we can do to help. What follows is a simple way to generate good quality ideas that work for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know they\u2019re going to work for you, because the ideas come from you. In fact, you already have them in your head right now. All we\u2019re going to do is help you find them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider this. It\u2019s not a question of forming the idea, but of recognising one (or ones) you already have, so let\u2019s do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make lists of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write actual lists of these things. Not in one single half hour session, but bit by bit, over time. Let things stew, bubble up. Almost certainly, you\u2019ll find something nagging at you. Something that stays with you after you leave your lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That there is your idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good, huh? But stick with us. We\u2019ve only just got started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trouble with inspiration is it never arrives fully formed. Writing is messy. Few novels arrive complete. Most have had to be hacked out of rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s okay, though, if you decide development is easy and fun, and remember ideas take time. You don\u2019t get from nowhere to perfect in one leap. It\u2019s not a generator. It\u2019s an incubator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t find<\/em> your idea. You grow<\/em> it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll talk a little more about that shortly but first, ask yourself. Is your book idea any good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be sure your idea is strong enough to carry you to publication before you start writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are techniques for (a) figuring out if your idea is strong enough and (b) adding sparkle to it if it isn\u2019t, fortunately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the area, niche, genre in which you are going to write. Read widely. Stay current. Know new names, not just old ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a massive mistake not to do this, and many new writers don\u2019t. You should, because these are the books your ideal readership is reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get a sheet of paper and write down what you know about your future book, or interests you\u2019d like your story to make room for, to explore. That might be very little at first. It might be no more than:<\/p>\n\n\n\n That has no characters, no plot arc, no meaningful line of development, but it\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not just that, but it\u2019s an exciting one. There\u2019s a frisson of interest there already. A stew that might bubble up into something wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So keep going. Whatever comes to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you’re looking at how to come up with characters for a book, and developing the plot, jot down words and sentences. Note down anything that comes to mind around plot events, themes, settings, ideas for your protagonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep listing, see what comes to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Try out things. So you might find yourself writing things like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you feel about those? Take a moment to see what your actual reactions are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Me personally, I think the ex-Special Forces seismologist could be a decent character, but the glamorous Russian Olga feels like a bit of a cliche. I feel I\u2019ve seen her too often before. And the \u2018baggage from the past \/ mission gone wrong\u2019 element feels dangerously on the edge of cliche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s fine. Remember that this whole process is a development exercise. So you can try things out, see how they feel, and discard them as much as you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discarding stuff is good \u2013 that shows that you\u2019re pruning the bad stuff and keeping only the good stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just add explosions \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So maybe we try again. We might start sketching something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe we haven\u2019t yet nailed much with this list, but it\u2019s the forward-back process of development that brings rewards, helping you make subsequent connections (e.g. perhaps you decide Leila\u2019s the only woman on that team, perhaps she needs to prove she\u2019s as strong as any of them, etc., etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only test of whether a list like this works is whether you have a deep-ending tickle of excitement about your jottings. If that fades, you\u2019ve gone wrong somewhere, so find out which element isn\u2019t working, delete, and try again, following your intuition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that the process of story development is one of constant experiment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You sketch something out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see how it feels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It feels good? OK, great. You continue to add depth to your sketch. (Add a character, a possible plot point, some more about settings, some more about the challenge to be faced, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It feels wrong? OK. So scratch out the thing that felt wrong. Try something else in its place. Or if you can\u2019t find (say) the right antagonist for the moment, then leave that issue for the moment and turn to an area where you do have some good ideas. You\u2019ll find that as you build up one area of the story (say, settings), you\u2019ll find that other parts (say, your antagonist) suddenly flash into view. Each part of the story illuminates and supports the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as you\u2019re doing this, remember that readers always want something new, something unexpected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So give it to them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way to do this is to make sure that your list of story ingredients always includes a rogue element \u2013 something that you don\u2019t expect to be there. That rogue element will always have the effect of lifting the story and giving the reader a little thrill of excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more the rule basically applies to ALL huge-selling novels of recent years. Take romance plot ideas, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n BORING STORY<\/strong>: a normal American teen falls in love with a normal American boy. Two versions of the same thing; the basic ideas to write a love story. One is too dull to cross a room for. The other one (Twilight<\/em>) was one of the biggest YA sensations of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or how about crime novel ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n BORING STORY<\/strong>: a journalist investigates a murder in Sweden. The \u201crogue element\u201d of Lisbeth Salander\u2019s kick-ass character basically gave the Stieg Larsson\u2019s Millennium<\/em> trilogy the fire it needed to conquer the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so on. You can look at any huge selling hit of recent years and find that unexpected ingredient that blasted the book to international success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you can repeat that trick for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find your story is just too expected, then throw in something to freshen it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, let\u2019s go with this Arctic idea, and let\u2019s say that your draft story looks something a bit like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIRST DRAFT STORY:<\/strong> And what are your feelings there? I\u2019m going to guess that you thought, roughly, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s OK, but it doesn\u2019t really set my pulse racing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the issue is that everything is exactly what you\u2019d expect. It\u2019s as though we read this story plan, and already feel like we\u2019ve read that book or something very similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So now let\u2019s apply our rogue element strategy and see how the story might run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n STORY WITH ROGUE ELEMENT How\u2019s that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personally, I\u2019m not yet sure about it \u2013 I literally just this minute came up with the idea \u2013 but I will say this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You were not expecting that story to emerge. You\u2019ve never read anything like it before. Already, it has a grip over your imagination that the first version never did.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, if we took the bones of that story and really did some work with it, I\u2019d say we\u2019d have the chance to create something really extraordinary. A story that no one had ever read before, or would ever forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The short moral of this example is obvious:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the process of story development is intuitive, trial-and-error, and has plenty of dead ends. But it\u2019s not random. Good stories follow a formula, which can be put roughly as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your passions + a rogue element = a great story<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to structure that process some more \u2013 and you should \u2013 then do use our idea generator, available on this page. It\u2019s great, and it\u2019s pretty much guaranteed to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From here you can go on to work on character development<\/a> and character arc<\/a>. Developing the plot beyond your initial idea is important too, so check out our articles on seven basic plots<\/a>, and plotting a novel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give yourself time to muse over your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If all this takes a week, it\u2019s taken you too little time. Three months would be good, but if it takes six months, that\u2019s fine, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jack Kerouac, famed for writing his draft for On the Road<\/em> in twenty-one days, pondered his ideas for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My most successful novel (Harry Bingham writing) was two years in development, then written within two months \u2013 so development matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Real inspiration takes time, care, effort, and thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, new writers can give up on a project by starting in a rush, noticing things aren\u2019t quite working. They don\u2019t quite know how to analyse what isn\u2019t working, though, so give up \u2013 probably convinced that they don\u2019t have the talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s not just untrue, but a shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing books takes time and needs patience. It is also tough, and some new writers spend no time learning how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best solution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you know what? Jericho Writers is a club for writers like you and was set up to help writers like you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We once got a strange email. It was three lines long, from someone telling us he wanted to write a book. OK. That\u2019s great. The email wasn\u2019t written very well. The spelling wasn\u2019t great. The punctuation \u2013 uh \u2013 had all fallen off. But none of that was the issue on his mind. His email<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28665],"tags":[27498],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plotting-and-planning","tag-idea-generator"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBook Ideas: How To Get Them And What To Do Next<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How To Have Ideas: The Good News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How To Handle Ideas For Books (What To Expect)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Learn The Market<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"develop](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/stock-image-9-1024x298.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nStart Developing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
An Example: First Attempt<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"arctic](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/arctic-camp-1024x298.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAn Example: Second Attempt<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dialogue.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow To Give Your Story The \u201cX-Factor\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
GREAT STORY<\/strong>: a normal American teen falls in love with a vampire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
GREAT STORY<\/strong>: a journalist plus a bisexual, Aspergers, rape-surviving, computer genius combine forces to investigate a murder in Sweden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Leila, ex-Special Forces British seismologist is sampling ice cores in the Antarctic.
She finds evidence of recent blast activity \u2013 human-made.
She suspects of team of Russian scientists are really testing a new type of nuclear device.
She investigates.
The situation escalates.
It resolves itself in a dramatic shoot-out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Leila, ex-Special Forces British seismologist is sampling ice cores in the Antarctic.
She finds evidence of recent disturbances that make no sense.
And there are thefts from the camp \u2013 unexplained>
At first the Russian team is suspected, but \u2013 caught out with a Russian captain, Arkady, in a snowstorm \u2013 it looks like Leila and Arkady will both perish. But they\u2019re saved \u2013 mysteriously \u2013 as fresh kerosene is added to their supplies.
Leila and Arkady come to believe they are dealing with the ghosts of Scott\u2019s tragic expedition to the Antarctic.
They realise the souls of Scott and his men are trapped in the ice and are only seeking escape. Leila & Arkady use their knowhow and technical resources to liberate the ghosts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nRemember To Give Yourself Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Technique Matters, Too<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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