From Spark to Story: Generating, Capturing, and Using Ideas
You know the feeling – you're in the shower, or on a walk, or just waking from dreamland, and suddenly -THE IDEA.
I mean, THE idea. The ONE. You scramble for a piece of paper, or your phone, some way to get it down. Or maybe you think you’ll remember, and will get it down later (almost always a mistake, but we try to convince ourselves otherwise).
Ideas rarely come expectedly, when it’s convenient. And when they do come, how do you know they’re worth pursuing? Is it strong enough for a scene? A story? A whole novel?
Or maybe you struggle along, searching for ideas for a new story, or that scene that just seems dead in the water.
What to do? How to generate ideas? How to capture them? And what to do with them then?
Generating Ideas
It’s often times when we’re unfocused that allows those messages from our unconscious to appear. This is why we often get our best ideas in the shower, or in dreams, or when we’re involved in some other activity where our minds can wander.
This “dead time” is harder and harder to come by. We are almost never simply alone with our thoughts. Any dead time we used to have is often spent staring at our phone. When we walk or run, we have earbuds in, listening to music or a podcast. The shower is about the only place left where we don’t have our attention split, but even then, our minds may be full of plans for the day.
So, first, be aware of how you spend your time. Let yourself ruminate without immediately reaching for a distraction.
Also, set aside writing time to play. Daydream, do writing exercises, use story-generating dice, freewrite for a timed interval, flip through a magazine and tell a story about the first ad that catches your eye, blindfold ourself and write what you see... Sometimes we get so narrowly focused on producing words that we forget to let our imagination run free.
Capturing Ideas
If an idea does capture your attention, don’t be too quick to hang a big story on it. If you jump immediately into telling the story, it can scare the idea off. How many writers get 50 pages into a new novel, only to have it peter out? Better to give it space and time to develop in the unconscious. If necessary, make a few notes.
Some writers use physical notebooks to capture ideas and scraps of writing. Others use an app on their phone. It doesn’t really matter, although there is some evidence of the connection between physically writing and the brain creating stronger associations and firing off new ideas.
Consider that maybe it’s not one idea, but several. The more ideas you develop, the more you may see new and interesting connections between them. This is the kind of stuff you couldn’t consciously figure out if you tried. The more ideas you generate, the more you can let go – and the more you have to weave into new and intriguing forms.
Using Ideas
When you get to the point where you have a pretty good idea of what the story is, it’s now up to you to pants it out (just write and see how it goes) or develop a detailed outline, or something in between. Only you can say what works best for you. Even with a fairly solid outline, though, you want to be open to new ideas and surprises. Otherwise, the writing becomes dull – for you, and for your readers.
Above all, don’t be afraid of the dark. Don’t feel like you have to be in control of every word, especially in the first draft. You want to delve deep, live in the dreamworld. It can be a scary place, with no compass points and no map, but you have to stay there long enough to, in the parlance of the Hero’s Journey, “bring back the magical elixir.”
How do you know when an idea is robust enough to support a whole novel? Here are a few questions to ask:
1. Are you in love with it? As in, it won’t let you go? Do you keep thinking about it, rolling it around in your brain? Are you excited about it? Might that excitement carry you through the next months or years it will take to write the novel and work through multiple drafts?
2. What is the premise? Is it strong enough to sustain a novel?
3. When you see the story, how complex is it? Is it something that can be wrapped up in a short story, or does it expand easily into more scenes, characters, and complications?
4. What are the stakes? Are the internal and external stakes big enough to drive a novel? For this, you need a character (or characters) the reader will want to follow, who are challenged and grow as a result of the plot.
Think of a short story you know, for example, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” The stakes are life and death, but would the impact be the same if it was a novel, where we had a two-hundred-page lead up to learn about the characters, their lives, hopes, dreams, conflicts? Boring, right? What about if it instead revolved around a character who decides to stop the Lottery for once and for all? That might be something. Something more, in fact, like The Hunger Games.
5. Does it hit that sweet spot of being both original and also familiar? It might be a good idea to start by writing down the inner flap or back jacket copy. Can you distill it down into a paragraph or two that is compelling and intriguing? What tropes can you mash up to create something new, that readers will also recognize and be excited by?
Of course, maybe you’re not going for a novel. Maybe a short story is what you’re looking for. Is it simple enough to tell in 30 pages or less? Does it pack an emotional twist that reveals something about the world, humanity, or life?
Or maybe you’re just after an idea to jump-start a stalled novel, or solve a problem in a particular chapter. That’s okay too, and the ideas above under “Generating Ideas” will bring a breakthrough if you’re patient and don’t leap at the first cliché your mind comes up with.
Ideas are everywhere. By devoting time to let them appear, and developing a system to capture them, you’ll never lack for ideas for stories, scenes, or novels. Understanding what kind of ideas you’re looking for helps you use them effectively. You never need to worry about running out!
If you like this, head on over to the Contact Page and sign up to get my monthly newsletter featuring tips on creativity, productivity, and the writer’s craft.
