Need a Story Idea? You Need a Creative Boost.

Getting good story ideas can be hard. Sometimes all you need is a creative boost. For me personally, I get my story ideas when the "creative well" is full AND I'm doing something boring (like trying to fall asleep, doing dishes, folding laundry, or waiting in line). So I have to make sure my creative well is always full to take advantage of the boring parts of my life.

Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner always gives good advice. She has a list of things you can do (when you're not writing) that will feed your book-writing later in her post: How to Become a Better Writer.

Routines for Writers is a great resource for any writer. Shonna Slayton has multiple posts on boosting creativity, including this one on Daydreaming. She gives a few methods to get the creative side warmed up.

Have you ever heard of the Rule of Twenty? Upstart Crow writes that your first 5 or 10 ideas may not be gold, but keeping trying.Creative riches lie ahead!

Good Story Ideas: Where do they come from?

Helpful writing tips and links have been sparse lately, and I apologize for that. I'm trying to redirect this blog so it has a piece of me in it. I want this blog to be helpful for writers, but I also want it to be MY blog. I'm still trying to find that balance. (Any feedback is appreciated.)

So, getting back that helpful stuff, I thought I'd blog about getting good story ideas.

I haven't been published yet, but I've already been asked The #1 Question Writers Get: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Um... I don't know. They just come to me.

Okay, okay. I've given it some thought. The first decent answer I came up with was: my story ideas come to me just like any idea comes to any person.

Inventors come up with incredible gadgets. Usually, when they answer The Idea Question, they talk about a problem they were having. Then, they'll say,  "So I invented the doohicky-o-matic!"

So... you got your idea from a problem? Didn't the idea come AFTER you had the problem?

Seriously, I think that's how our brains work. We see a problem, and we try to come up with a solution. Some of us are better at it than others. (But is it possible that it just takes practice?)

When I want a story idea, I have to define my problem, with specifics. And no, the problem isn't just 'I need a story idea'. My problem is: I need a character that lacks something, in an interesting setting, with the potential for a lot of problems to happen around him/her while he/she struggles with her own problems. And it needs to be entertaining.

But how can your brain work with garbage like that?

Be more specific!

I want a 70,000-word YA novel with a spunky female protagonist who doesn't know what's good for her, who finds herself in a situation with a fantasy element in it.

Usually, the more specific I am, the faster the ideas come to me. I analyze each idea until I find one I'm excited to work on. (Because, let's be honest, sometimes my ideas aren't all that good.)

Of course, there are other ways I get ideas. I got my idea for Ivy Thorn because friends challenged me to approach writing from a different angle. I wasn't looking for a story idea then.

And I got my idea for my zombie book from the voices in my head a dream I had while I was awake. I wasn't looking for a story idea then, either.

So my Top 4 pieces of advice for coming up with good story ideas are:
1) Be specific with what you want
2) Read a lot
3) Try new things with your writing
4) When an idea does come, pick it apart to see if it has "great idea" potential. If it doesn't, keep trying.

More on story ideas to come...

Pennwriters: Character Driven Stories

I'm (finally) home from Pennwriters! Can I just say: I love this conference. You can smile at anyone and start a conversation because you know you have something in common with them: You're both crazy.

But that's another post.

My adventures at Pennwriters started on Thursday, a three-hour workshop with CJ Lyons. Not only is she a national bestseller, CJ has insight into how she got there. Her classes don't disappoint and this workshop was no exception.

The class was based on her e-book No Rules, Just Write: Crafting the Character Driven Novel. I can guarantee you I'll be reading this book. The class was so helpful!

Here are some highlights:

Your main character should have an outer goal (the main conflict of the novel) that's concrete and easily defined. This is what he wants.

He should also have a weakness or flawed way of thinking, some way in which he needs to grow over the course of the novel. This is what he needs (although he probably doesn't know that he needs it).

So, what does your character keep doing that's holding him back? Maybe he's quiet and reserved because in the past, getting attention has always led to bad things in his life.
Maybe she distances herself from people because she's afraid of being vulnerable (or, she's afraid of getting hurt if she made herself vulnerable).

What is it that your main character really fears? Abandonment? Poverty? Not being in control?
And what does your character do to avoid it?

Once you have that, you can use it to motivate his actions as he works toward his outer goal. (Cool, huh?)

CJ used techniques like this to explain the three-act structure in a way I've never seen before. I've read about it dozens of times. It's always seemed like more of a checklist to me. Set up the character. Bring him into the conflict. Make things worse. Have him lose hope. He triumphs. Blah, blah blah.

This was different.

This made sense. And when I broke my WIP into the right pieces, I saw rich conflict that I didn't even known was there. Now I know what to emphasize. Ivy is going to be so much more compelling and real.

After this workshop, I was a little torn. On one hand, I was excited that I'd learned so much and that I knew how to tear my book apart to make it better.

On the other hand, now I have to tear my book apart to make it better.

Happily Ever After is Hard Work!

In my church, we're called upon to serve in various areas. We don't have a paid clergy. Recently, I was asked to be a part of the youth program. I now work with the young women (ages 12-18) which I absolutely LOVE.

As part of this job, I watch what's called the Young Women General Broadcast where the world leaders of the church speak directly to the young women, their mothers, and the young women leaders (that's me!).

Overall, it was very nice, but President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (second counselor over the entire church) gave a talk that really struck a chord with me. He began talking about fairy tales and all the adversities the characters go through before they reach their "happily ever after".

He went on to talk about how we need the bitter in order to taste the sweet. A marathon runner feels so fantastic at the finish line because of the hours of pain she experienced before. He tells of his personal experiences with heartache as he tried to win the heart of a beautiful girl (and how sweet it was when he did).

I can't wait to look up this talk later. It should be here soon.

But it got me thinking.

We all suffer. Some more than others. And sometimes we feel very much alone. President Uchtdorf encouraged us to turn to the Lord, who knows you so well and is familiar with your adversity.

But, obsessive nerd that I am, I thought about fiction. We're told that a character must suffer in order to be interesting. There needs to be something at stake. There needs to be conflict. Otherwise, what's the point? It's boring.

Why? Don't we strive for easy lives? Wouldn't it be great if our characters could be interesting and carefree?

I think that everyone is looking for their own "happily ever after", but it's not easy. I think, as humans living this life, we like to know that we're not the only ones that have to work for our happy ending. We want to see others overcome adversity and hardship so we can have more hope for our own circumstances.

Sure, a character's hardship may come from aliens or dragons or ninjas, but that just makes it all the better. We're taken out of our own worlds and sent into a new one.

Even in this new world, completely different from our own, there is hardship. There's pain and suffering and struggle. My conflicts seem normal by comparison. They seem more... conquerable.

All characters have to have flaws for the same reason. We lose interest if a character is flawless and wonderful in every way. Because then we can tell ourselves: if that (imperfect) character can overcome her problems, I have a chance too.

Hardship is necessary, in life and fiction. Without it, we can't grow. We wouldn't learn anything, and we'd be helpless as infants. Yes, it's hard. Of course it is. That's the point.

Just remember: the harder you have to work for something, the sweeter it is.

So you want to be the next J.K. Rowling?

There Are No Rules is putting out a series of articles by Jim Adam on what makes the Harry Potter series so great. I just finished the first one on Storytelling. He provides a nice little checklist for writers looking to write a best seller. Good stuff. :)

Masters of Storytelling

This is just plain fascinating, from a story-teller's point of veiw. The Secret of Pixar Storytelling. Of course, they have a whole team of people working on these stories ;)