Are you ever stuck for story ideas?
Here are where some of my best story ideas come from:
- Things that have really happened to me or to people I know;
- Memories of people, events or places;
- People I see on trains and buses;
- Conversations I overhear;
- Newspaper articles;
- Other books;
- A picture in a magazine;
- A place I have been to;
- A smell, sound or feeling;
- A problem or dilemma being faced by someone I know;
- Playing with two words that don’t quite go together eg Flower attack;
- Using the last line of a story I have written as the first line in a new piece of writing;
- Thinking of a secret that someone might want to keep and what would happen if it was discovered
- Imagining getting a letter or email from someone I have never met
If I’m still stuck, I think of a character/name and match them with an action to try and get me started.
For example:
- Ashley fell
- Ashley twisted
- Ashley tumbled…
- Ashley rocketed…
- Ashley flew…
- Ashley leapt…
- Ashley shook…
- Ashley dropped…
- Ashley shivered…
- Ashley bobbed…
- Ashley soared…
- Ashley is…
Then I ask myself:
- Why did this action happen to Ashley?
- Where did this action happen?
- When did this action happen?
- How did this action happen?
- What happens next?
I hope these suggestions help you to come up with great ideas for stories.
Don’t forget our ‘Belonging’ writing competition.
You could win great books by Wendy Orr and Amra Pajalic
Happy writing:)
Dee
About Dee White
