Getting Ideas

Okay, so you want to write.  Now, what do you write about?  In all honesty, getting ideas has never been a problem for me.  It's focusing on one idea long enough to finish a whole book that I have issues with.  But I know that lots of writers want to write and just don't know what to say or even where to begin.  So I figured this would be a good topic for today's post.

Most of the time, my ideas come from dreams.  As I said in my first post, I came up with a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy because of some dreams I had that I then strung together into one storyline.  That may not help you if your dreams are normal or if you don't dream at all.  Maybe you need to watch some more scarey movies or eat more junk food before going to bed or something.  Well, another way I get ideas is from my every day life.  If you like writing outside the world of realistic fiction, do weird things happen to you?  Do you mishear people?  Do you sometimes get random calls from some guy who thinks you're his girlfriend but in fact he just has the wrong number?  Have you ever seen something strange out of the corner of your eye but when you looked back it was just a park bench? 

What if these occurrences weren't really mistakes?  What if there was a character that thought these were all accidents but in fact were part of a deeper story?  Maybe instead of mishearing people, they're actually hearing their thoughts.  Maybe that guy on the phone is really trying to warn that character about the spy watching their house.  Maybe that park bench is a transformer.  One of the reasons I love writing science fiction and fantasy novels is because you can let your imagination run wild.  If you write this genre, it helps to be a little paranoid.

If you prefer realistic fiction, do normal things happen to you?  Whether or not you think so, your life is interesting.  Seinfeld was a show about nothing but it was one of the longest running sitcoms because, in fact, real life is funny.  It can also be terribly sad, frightening, and inspiring.  If you can't think of anything to write about, start jotting down childhood memories.  Childhood is hilariously traumatic.  If you can't get something out of there to do a whole story on, you need to do some more thinking.  Anne Lamott (yes, I do quote from her a lot) suggests writing about school lunches.  She did it once and started thinking of the kid who sat alone by the chain link fence.  What was up with that kid?  What kind of family did he come from?  What did he think about all alone over there?  That's a story.

Some of my ideas come from wishing that something was real.  For instance, I'm not very good at parking, and I've often wished I had super strength, or even telekinesis so I could just lift the car and put it in a perfect position.  From that, I came up with some characters with super-hero powers who use their gifts for regular tasks.  The plotline hasn't yet taken shape, but this is how it starts.  For realistic fiction, you might wish you were rich and famous.  What might that be like?  Imagine you or your parents made slightly different decisions in life.  Where would that put you?  Write that story.

Another good way to begin writing is to come up with characters.  You don't have to put them in any world or any plot or situation.  Just think of some people.  I once heard of a book where the author started with nothing but two characters.  He had no idea where he was going with it, he just had these two, well-developed characters and he had them interact with each other.  Eventually the decisions they made led to a climax and an ending.  If you know the name of this book or author, please let me know so I can give due credit.  Anyway, that is really the purest form of writing there is.  You see, characters shouldn't be driven by the plot.  The plot should be driven by the characters' decisions.  If you can think of some characters that have real depth, it doesn't matter what you do with them, the story will be good. 

So think of someone you would want to write about.  It can be your uncle, the kid down the street, the person you wish you were or the person you would hate to be.  Or someone else entirely.  Maybe you'll just write about yourself and it will still be totally fascinating.

Finally, remember that you don't always have to have a completely unique idea to begin with.  Fan-fiction is alright.  Some best selling novels started off as fan-fiction that was then tweaked just enough to be publishable.  And even if you don't get the thing published, at least you'll be writing.