{"id":977,"date":"2018-07-18T07:37:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T11:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=977"},"modified":"2018-07-18T07:37:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T11:37:30","slug":"idea-ology-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/18\/idea-ology-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Idea-ology"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 4, 2018, Writeforfun wrote, I\u2019m desperate! How do you come up with new book ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n

I accidentally killed my computer four weeks ago and lost all of my files\u2026and hadn\u2019t backed them up for the past two years (yes, I know, you\u2019re supposed to back your computer up way more often than that, but I\u2019m a chronic procrastinator, so I never got around to it). I lost everything I\u2019ve written for the past two years, which includes two novels I had halfway finished and the two previous novels that I was working on revising. I can\u2019t stand the thought of starting over on that stuff, at least not for a good long while, but I\u2019m dying to start writing again.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to think of a fresh new idea to move onto, but coming up with an idea that I can really get into is proving impossible. I have dozens and dozens of story ideas that I\u2019ve come up with over time, but only a few have piqued my interest in just the right ways to get me obsessed enough with them to write them (that\u2019s pretty much the only way I can write something \u2013 if it intrigues me in just the right way that I can\u2019t stop thinking about it and I crave a chances to sit down and write more of it!).<\/em><\/p>\n

Right now I have one idea that has really sparked my interest, but, alas, it is a fanfiction, spawned off a backstory that an author never wrote; I love it, but I can\u2019t stand writing fanfiction and I can\u2019t figure out a way to convert it into something original \u2013 I\u2019m afraid it wouldn\u2019t work in any other world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas for how to come up with\u2026ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n

HeroLass wrote back, One of the ways I come up with ideas is to go for a walk, nature inspires me and when I walk I let my mind wander.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another way is to look at everyday objects and go what if\u2026? (\u2018What if\u2019 solves many of my lack of idea problems.)<\/em><\/p>\n

And Melissa Mead wrote, Can you tease out the core of what you love about the fanfiction, change everything else, and write that?<\/em><\/p>\n

There is actually a book called What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers<\/em> by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter (high school and up, I think), which is a great resource for idea generation. So that\u2019s one source we can all turn to.<\/p>\n

I am backed up in multiple ways, and, except for my little memory chip, all of them are managed by my techie husband. If not for him, I\u2019m sure I would be or would have been in Writeforfun\u2019s boat more than once. I\u2019m very sorry this happened to you!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m with HeroLass on the usefulness of activities that let our minds wander. Walks, showers, repetitive and mindless activities can be potent sources of ideas. In my experience these work best if they\u2019re preceded by intense though unsuccessful brain cudgeling. After that kind of effort–which may include free-writing, list-making, talking obsessively about the problem with anyone who will listen–the subconscious is primed and, when allowed to roam free, will produce results. This works for major ideas for entire projects and for smaller ones when we get stuck in our WIP.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m on an idea hunt, I often think about the problem just before I go to sleep, and–sometimes–I wake up with the answer. This is another form of the relaxation technique above. It presupposes, as I believe, that our brains really do have answers. The difficulty is finding opening the lock. Sleep is often the key.<\/p>\n

It can be useful to keep a pad by the bed and write down our dreams, which otherwise are likely to slip away. Dreams are surreal and unexpected. We can mull them over, write notes about them and lists about where we might take them.<\/p>\n

I agree with Melissa Mead about changing the fanfic enough to make it entirely your own. Lists may come in handy here. We can list the elements of the world that seem unique, that we can\u2019t do without\u2013and then list ways we can do without them. We can list the elements of our idea that we love and then list ways to use them in a new, non-derivative story.<\/p>\n

One of my chief worries in the year that preceded the publication of Ella Enchanted was that everyone would notice how derivative the book was, how I had stuffed it with all the elements of what I loved about many of the books I\u2019d read. No one ever made that accusation. We may not be copying someone else even when we think we are.<\/p>\n

We can list our obsessions. What do we care about? What has been an interest through our entire life? For each item on our list, we can start a new list of ways to use that interest in a story. For example, suppose we\u2019re fascinated by trees. What can we do with that? Dryads? The secret lives of roots?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m finally writing about the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, a subject I\u2019ve been curious about for years. I keep finding books (unread until now) about the subject on my bookshelves. My subconscious was preparing me. I bet yours is, too.<\/p>\n

As most of you know, fairy tales are a major source of inspiration for me, but not all of them open to me quickly. There are several on the back burner that I hope to get to eventually: \u201cRumpelstiltskin,\u201d \u201cEast of the Sun, West of the Moon,\u201d \u201cAladdin,\u201d to name a few. When I think of something that may, finally, allow me to move into actual writing, I type it into my ideas page for that story.<\/p>\n

And I keep a running list of ideas that I may be able to work with in the future. I\u2019ll probably never get to many of them, because new ones continue to come along, but when I\u2019m preparing to start a new project I always go back to my list. I\u2019d encourage everyone to keep such a list, and, if we\u2019re in danger of losing it in a computer disaster, print it out periodically or keep it longhand in a notebook.<\/p>\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Pick a book you\u2019ve loved that was published in the last few years, definitely still copy protected, and use it as the basis for a list of ideas you can spin off to make your own original story. Pick one and start writing.<\/p>\n

\u2219 The following is one of my dreams, which I put in a poem. I offer it to you to change any way you like if it seems to have story possibilities: I knew that if I ate the shrimp I would turn transparent. I didn\u2019t serve myself any, but they were on my plate anyway.<\/em> That\u2019s all I remembered when I woke up. Do I eat the shrimp? Who wants me to be transparent? Is being transparent the same as being invisible?<\/p>\n

\u2219 The genies in Aladdin interest me. How do they grant wishes? Where does their power come from? What\u2019s their relationship with the evil magician? Write a list of genie story possibilities. If one grabs you, write the story.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 4, 2018, Writeforfun wrote, I\u2019m desperate! How do you come up with new book ideas? I accidentally killed my computer four weeks ago and lost all of my files\u2026and hadn\u2019t backed them up for the past two years (yes, I know, you\u2019re supposed to back your computer up way more often than that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions\/978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}