# I want to write, but I have no ideas.



## virulan (Dec 10, 2014)

Anyone care to dish me some?


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## SkyeLansing (Dec 11, 2014)

Ideas are quite possibly the cheapest part of writing. If you cannot come up with any of your own then you are going to have a rough time writing, more than likely.

A better question is "How can I come up with some?" That is the one I will be helping you with. 

The first place to start with this is always as follows: What interests you right now? That is a really broad question so lets break it down some shall we? 

Starting with the obvious, what sort of setting do you want to write in? There is contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, historical, and any number of sub-genre. This is a good place to start thinking because really you can tell any sort of story in any sort of setting, but certain settings lend themselves more easily to some ideas than others. As an example if you are going to write a story about the impact of rapid technological advancement on society then this really fits much easier with Science Fiction -- however you can also do it in a historical setting by putting it during a period like the Industrial Revolution. You could even make it work with a fantasy setting with some sort of new 'technology' that makes ever more powerful spells available to the masses (or something similar).

A word of caution: don't just assume that what you want to write will be the same type of thing you yourself frequently read. Using myself as an example, I read a LOT of science fiction however find that I am most comfortable writing Low Fantasy usually. Don't be afraid to try different things out.

Once you pick a setting you may start to have some vague ideas, this is good! Pay attention to those, but let's keep going. In your chosen setting what sorts of things are you interested in? You would be surprised how much something like this can drive a story. For example, a large portion of the Harry Potter series is devoted to answering questions about how things would work if there was a hidden community of magic users in the world (especially when it comes to education). Naturally some questions lead to others which can lead to others which can lead to others...

Now if you are just beginning to write it is probably best to start with a smaller concept. Large concepts are certainly exciting but they also take a LOT of effort to see through to the end. I suggest that as you are learning you pick out something you think can be finished fairly quickly -- no more than 10k words. If you are wondering how you can guess at how long it will take to cover a topic... well... honestly that takes experience but you will rapidly get better at estimating the more you write. Don't worry about length too much, simply focus on writing the story out and then editing it to make it as good as you can.

And here is where I am going to touch on one last detail: story arcs. There are basically only 3 main types (though there are subtypes within these classifications): Positive Arcs, Negative Arcs, and Neutral Arcs.

Positive Arcs are probably the most common. Look at most stories where the hero triumphs and you have a positive arc. The key to these sort of arcs is that something about the Hero changes (they may learn a new skill, a new belief, or something of that nature) which allows them to overcome their opposition.

Negative Arcs are less common but still popular with audiences. These are your tragedies and often either see the hero change for the worse in some way, or they do change for the better but it ends up removing the "rose colored glasses".

Neutral Arcs are IMO the least common (at least in the things I've read), but can still be very compelling. Here the Hero does not change but instead sets out to change the world (often to match their world view).

Most stories will have a number of Arcs, however we are mostly concerned with which will be the "main" arc for your story. You need to know what sort of arc your writing has because that sort of sets the tone for the work.

Hopefully all of this has been helpful.


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## BadRoy (Dec 11, 2014)

It would not be very productive for you if we just handed you writing ideas. 

You should think about what you really enjoye and draw inspiration from that. Think "How would I tell this story?"


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## ArmorcladCoyote (Dec 18, 2014)

Story ideas are the easy part. 

If you have done research into motifs and themes there are some fun games to play with some of them. (Not to mention liturature professors go gaga for it.) While done a lot, the seven deadly sins can be good practice. Sometimes turning them on their heads can also gives you a starting point. Rather than a character representing life being good and death being evil, give it the vise versa. 

If you really can't think of anything, go find a story out there but change a major factor in it and see how it progresses that way instead. What if two star crossed lovers didn't meet at the ball? Then the story may have been about the two families stealthily working to destroy each other under the prince's nose. What if the evil king decided not to fight the prophecy that a certain boy would rule on his throne and instead find a twist in it by adopting him instead of trying to murder him in the crib? We could see the corruption of a destined hero or possibly the redemption of a dark heart. While you can try changing the setting, you'll have to make sure that actually makes a change to what happens or you get a crappy Hollywood knock off.


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## GarthTheWereWolf (Dec 18, 2014)

You could always give Writing Excuses a listen. Its a podcast by several published authors that talks about different writing topics in 15 minute sessions. Most of their episodes have a writing prompt at the end of each session to encourage people to write.

Could always try them out and see what you come up with.


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## Laptisen (Dec 24, 2014)

Oh boy.

Come up with something simple, then elaborate on it. Look at some books you find interesting, and take a look at the plot. What do you find compelling? The adventure? The villain? The motifs behind it all? It's okay to use an existing story's components, just don't take it all. Write what you want to read.


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## Fopfox (Dec 29, 2014)

If I had ideas, I would keep them. Sorry.

There's no shortcut to getting ideas and no one will give you one for free.

It's best to find something that can inspire you and work off of that. There is always something that can inspire you; I don't know who you are, but you have been through things that are incredibly interesting. Everyone has, it is a matter of identifying that.

I worked as a grocery store cashier for three years. I found stories in the people I met. There was one older woman who came every week and I got to know her. One day she came in and when she left she said, "I'm going to do something crazy, but I'm excited. I'll tell you about it when I return."

What happened? I don't know, I never saw her again. There's a story there.

Think about some encounter you've had with someone that you never found out the truth about. I'm sure you can find a story to tell from your experience.

Now, once you have an idea, it's a matter of getting into the technical side of writing. But that's another topic.


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## Art Vulpine (Dec 30, 2014)

The best way to get an idea is to observe the world around you and think about what you enjoy doing. Like hiking through forests? Maybe write a book about a person being stranded in a forest. Been to a mall lately? Maybe a story about a haunted mall. Basically to make this work you need to bend the laws of reality and accept anything to happen in such mundane areas and tasks.


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## Maugryph (Dec 30, 2014)

write something that is short, simple, and manageable and then build up. Write about anything. Don't worry if its a original idea. You just have to get yourself to start writing.


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## Half-Note (Dec 30, 2014)

Don't start with writing the story, but spend some time first thinking about how to write it. Choose a character. What's their name? How old are they? What's their gender? What's their occupation? Do they have any flaws? After that give them a setting either completely related to who they are and what they do, or put them in a setting where they won't belong. Then add a situation and choose to build it up however you like.

I'll give you an example. Let's create a character first. The protagonist (main character) is a male accountant in his early 30's by the name of Marco Fayweather living in New Jersey whom is struggling with a divorce and threats of losing custody of his children as his job isn't bringing in enough money to support himself in the least, let alone his family. With odds stacked against him, he takes a big risk by investing all his money in gift cards for Target, but unfortunately Target gooes bankrupt and the gift cards lose their value. Being on his knees and refusing to give up, he is forced to accept a job from a mysterious man called Adam Fussmore. It's a simple chauffeur job and Adam claims that it's legit, but can he really be trusted?

From there you can build up however you like. Also, I can't believe I just came up with all that in a few minutes. I guess I'm creative in that way.  Anyway, I hope I've helped.


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## Half-Note (Jan 2, 2015)

Another thing I should've added, the story title.

This is something you should with until you've gotten into the story, as it helps with creating original and catchy titles that fit well with the story. You don't HAVE TO make the title fit, but I doubt people would be impressed with a story called "Rays of Happiness and Sunshine" when it's a depressing story about a plague killing the entire family of a young boy and leaving him to fend for himself in an anarchistic society where it's every man for himself.

Here's an example of a good title. The story is about a former Spec Ops soldier that after a traumatizing event is sent home and forced to work as a computer thief that drives around to stay undetected while hacking into bank accounts in order to get by (I know it's a silly concept, but I'm the one explaining things here, so shush). This man is tasked with putting together a team in order to steal a hard drive belonging to the US government, AND HE DRIVES AROUND WHILE DOING IT! 

A good title for such a story or film would be 'Hard Drive', or 'The Drive'. Both are catchy and guaranteed to make people interested (granted that you put some related artwork on the cover, like I don't know, some artwork of a car driving out of an LCD screen?).


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