by
Lisa Binion
Before I began to write, the complex plots in the books I read would amaze me. I just could not figure out how the authors of these books came up with such fantastic ideas. Since beginning to write, I have discovered ways to come up with some terrific ideas.
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A few years ago, something happened to me that I’ll never forget. It is something that I don’t want to live through again. While I was out jogging, a spider must have fallen on my shoulder or in my hair. That’s bad enough in itself, but when I discovered this spider on me, it was in my ear. I didn’t realize at the time it was a spider. All I felt were its legs as it crawled deep inside my ear. Many excruciating hours later, I finally managed to coax it out by about drowning it with hydrogen peroxide. It was one clean spider when it hit the floor. I couldn’t let that horrifying event be for nothing. I’m writing a book, Whisper, very lightly based on what happened. Again, it will be a tale of horror.
If you can’t decide on an event in your life to write about, take a look at things that have happened in the lives of people you know. Read newspapers and magazines to see what interesting things have happened in the lives of people you don’t know. Check out current events and what is happening in the world today.
When you go shopping or go to town to pay bills, notice what is going on around you and listen in on other people’s conversations. Just try not to be too obvious about what you are doing. Is there someone you see doing something unusual? Maybe someone is dressed in an unusual way. Did you see someone walk away from their cart only to have someone else come along and pick up an item out of their cart? Was that arranged beforehand? Maybe it was a trade of some kind.
Perhaps your neighbor has a strange habit. Does she walk outside every morning at exactly the same time and look down the road? Is she watching for someone? Why? And who is she watching for? I’m sure you can come up with all kinds of interesting scenarios to explain that.
Listen to your muse. Pick up a sheet of paper and write down a word that interests you, a word that has a lot of meaning for you. Now start jotting down other words that your main word brings to mind. Before long, a story should start to form in your mind. Keep at it long enough, and you should have enough to start writing.
One other way you can come up with ideas is to look at story prompts. There are hundreds of these floating around on the Internet. A lot articles on my BellaOnline Fiction Writing site have story prompts included in them.
Story prompts happen all around us each and every day. All you have to do is notice them and build a story around them.
