Where do you get your ideas?

Whether you’re a blogger, novelist, short story writer, or poet, this question comes up again and again in the writing world.

It might seem like some writers just magically “get” writing ideas, out of nowhere. And maybe you’re wondering if you’re missing out on some magic trick.

Here’s the good news: all writers can come up with great ideas. 

How Do Writing Ideas Come to You?

Ideas are like a spark, formed by the friction between two things:

• The external world
• Your internal world

The external world can give you a starting point for an idea. You might read a book that you love – or hate. You might overhear a conversation. You might see something which captivates you – or which scares you. Something tragic or wonderful might happen to you.

That’s not quite enough, though. The idea itself doesn’t come from somewhere in the world – even though writers are often asked “where do you get your ideas from?” The idea comes from you: your memories, your thoughts, your insights, your fears and hopes and dreams and loves.

Two writers can look at the same painting, or hear the same piece of music, and create pieces of writing that contain completely different ideas. Those ideas won’t necessarily have an obvious connection to the external stimulus. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of following a train of thought, where something n the external world makes you think of something else, then something else, until you wonder hang on, how did I get here?

You’re Creative Too

I firmly believe that we are all creative people. You’ve got the capacity in you to come up with wild and wonderful ideas, and to bring those ideas into life.

Maybe you wouldn’t describe yourself as “creative”. That’s okay – I don’t describe myself that way either. (I think “writer” fits me better.)

The important thing is that you can come up with ideas, lots of them, if you want to.

Before I give you some techniques for quick idea-generation, there are a couple of things which you need to know not to do:

#1: Don’t Judge Your Ideas

I’m sure you’ve had ideas which have made you think that’s stupid.

As soon as you start judging your ideas, you make it harder to come up with more. If you’re saying “nope … no … stupid … rubbish …” to your ideas, you’re going to end up stopping trying altogether.

I’ll let you into a secret. I use no more than a quarter of the ideas which I come up with, both for blog posts and for fiction. The rest, for one reason or another, aren’t quite right for me. You might think that sounds horribly inefficient – but it’s only by coming up with the ideas which I don’t use that I can come up with the ones I do use.

#2: Don’t Wait for Lightning to Strike

Sometimes, an idea for your writing will suddenly appear out of nowhere … but that’s rare.

I find that fiction ideas do come out of the blue (but even then, I can trace their origins — to a song I was listening to or to an experience I had).

With non-fiction, like my blog posts and freelance pieces, I come up with ideas when I deliberately sit down to do so.

Inspiration rarely comes as a bolt from the heavens. Don’t wait to “get” an idea: go out and hunt it down.

So, with those two out the way, let’s get on with some idea generation:

Five Simple Ways to Come Up With Writing Ideas [Plus Examples]

There’s no “right” way to create ideas, and different writers will have different techniques. Having said that, these are five techniques which work for me and many others.

#1: Write a List of Ideas

This is as simple as it gets, but also very effective.

When you’ve got a few minutes to spare, grab your notebook and start writing down ideas for a particular project. I often do this for guest posts, jotting down ideas for the Aliventures blog or for my guest blogging – and while I don’t use all the ideas, I always have a few good ones.

This technique is really effective if you aim for quantity and speed, rather than quality. You want to start tapping into your subconscious mind – rather than letting yourself self-censor your ideas.

Try it:

If you’re staring at a blank page, take the title of a popular book, blog post or article, and come up with several different versions of it.

You might want to start with just changing a word or two, and gradually work up to more diverse ideas.

Example:

I’m using the title “Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?” from Copyblogger to create a list of potential ideas for Aliventures:

• Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Writing Faster? 
• Do You Recognize These 10 Common Editing Mistakes?
• Do You Recognize These 5 Pieces of Bad Writing Advice?
• Do You Struggle With Any of These 8 (Solvable) Writing Problems?

#2: Use Someone Else’s Words

Sometimes, I’ll start off a blog post with a quote from a reader comment, or with an inspiring or encouraging quote. Fiction authors also occasionally use quotes at the start of books or chapters, setting the tone or raising a question.

You could use someone else’s words by:

• Taking a quote from a book that you’re reading
• Running a survey on your blog to ask readers what they’re struggling with (thanks to everyone who filled in the recent Aliventures survey)
• Finding two opposing points of view about a contentious issue
• Writing down a snippet of overheard conversation

Any of these could spark off an idea.

Try it:

Read several blog posts in your area, or pick up a book or magazine. Is there anything which makes you want to explore a particular area? Is there anything which you totally disagree with? What questions does the material provoke?

Example:

I read Becca Syme’s Dear Writer, You Need to Quit a couple of weeks ago, which is aimed at self-publishing authors. It brought up lots of great food for thought, but it also helps me come up with ideas I might write about on Aliventures or even in a story:

• What assumptions do bloggers (or freelancers) commonly make … and are these correct? (If you’ve come across Becca’s work, you’ll know she’s very big on “question the premise”.)
• What common mistakes do freelancers make … and what should they quit doing?
• What happens when someone questions an assumption or received wisdom? How do people around them react? (This could be the germ of a story idea.)

#3: Find a Gap

If you’re writing with a particular market in mind – like a magazine or a blog – then a great place to look for ideas is by finding the gaps.

What topics hasn’t that magazine covered recently, or at all?

What categories are looking pretty thin on that blog?

You may well have expertise in a particular area which you could use to help plug that gap. (Or even if you don’t, you might be interested in researching it.)

Of course, you want to make sure your idea is still relevant: sometimes, a “gap” might actually be a topic that a particular publication simply doesn’t cover. For instance, here on Aliventures, I don’t cover academic writing.

Try it:

Pick a blog or magazine. Read through the recent articles, and look out for anything which hasn’t been done – or anything which you could bring a new angle to.

Example:

Here on Aliventures, there are quite a few areas I’ve not covered recently or in much depth, but that might be a good fit:

• Writing action scenes in fiction
• Writing poetry (I’m no poet – but this could be an interesting subject to tackle)
• Pitching to editors and agents, or even traditional publishing in general
• Marketing your books

#4: Turn to Other Types of Art

While writing ideas can often come from reading, they can also come from different forms of art. I find this particularly helpful for novels and short stories.

Pay attention to what captures your attention, resonates with you, or even sends a little shiver down your spine.

Perhaps it’s a particular lyric, a situation between two characters, or simply the feeling you get from a haunting melody or a dramatic use of colour and movement.

Could this be the jumping-off point for a new story?

Try it:

Immerse yourself in something you enjoy. That could be music by your favourite band or in your favourite genre. It could be something new to you: I normally listen to metal, but I’ve been enjoying dark country music recently. It might be art, film, anything you want.

Example:

There are plenty of stories that have been inspired by art or music, such as:

• Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier) – this takes its title (and main character) from the famous painting by Vermeer
• Bright Lights, Big City (Jay McInerney) – this takes its title from a classic blues song by Jimmy Reed

#5: Use a Writing Prompt or Competition Theme

If you’re still struggling for an idea, writing prompts or competition themes are a great way to spark ideas.

You might think that having a specific prompt or theme would restrict you too much … but creativity thrives on restraints.

If I tell you to “write a story about anything” then you might struggle to get started. If, instead, I ask you to “write a story about a 14 year old who runs away from home and meets a dangerous ally” then you’re probably starting to come up with ideas already.

Try it:

There are hundreds of lists of writing prompts out there. Some that I particularly like are Take Three Nouns and these fiction writing prompts divided by genre.

If you’re looking for non-fiction ideas, try these blog writing prompts.

Example:

My story “The Birthday” was based on a Writing Magazine competition prompt (it had to start with the line “Is that what you meant to do?”)

The Writing Magazine competitions are great ones to enter as they almost always have a theme or prompt to write from.

Ideas are plentiful. You can’t “run out” of them. In fact, the more ideas you come up with, the easier it gets – because one idea often sparks off several more.