Six Suggestions For Creative Prompts
The two most frequent questions I receive as an author are, “What is your writing process?” and “Where do you get your ideas?” Maybe it’s small talk or genuine interest, but I’m more apt to believe they ask because they figure if they know my secrets, they can replicate them to create their own success. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Your process and creative inspiration are highly personal and likely will only work for you. But here are some ideas for generating interesting storylines.
Consider Your Own Life: If you read my first novels carefully, you’ll see that I’ve unintentionally spread my autobiography out in surprising detail over six volumes. The real estate industry is the setting for three of the books, travel writing for one. My battles with yo-yo dieting, my time volunteering for Glengariff Nursing Home during high school, and later at Meals on Wheels, my angst at not really “being seen” after turning 40, my exposure to the world of autism, wise words from my therapist—all there for the world to see. Very cathartic. For those wary of writing a memoir out of fear of being sued by those unhappy about how they’re portrayed, fiction may be the way to go. Which parts of your life can you fictionalize? And more interestingly, how would your life have turned out if you’d made different decisions, taken an alternate direction? My husband always says that there’s no “control group” in life, but as a writer, you can certainly deviate from what you’ve already experienced and explore what might have been.
Interview Your Friends…and Their Friends: Looking for new ideas for mysteries and crime fiction? Ask your friends who work in various industries where the gaps are. How could devious co-workers or patrons/clients exploit those gaps to prank the system? Likewise, if you have friends who are police officers, detectives, insurance investigators, lawyers, or corrections officers, they are gold in terms of plot ideas. Take them to dinner, ply them with liquor (just kidding. Kinda), and urge them to spill.
Read Other People’s Memoirs: Be they famous, infamous, or just everyday folks, biographies and autobiographies are rife with story ideas. Fictionalize some characters—even minor ones—and then have those characters make different choices. What happens to them may make for a very interesting novel. Or just rewrite them as ghosts and zombies, as some authors did a while back. “What if” is your friend.
Read Online Confessions and Gossip: Read online threads where strangers anonymously pour their hearts out. Grab some ideas as story elements for your next book. (Note that I didn’t say steal those stories. Just let them inspire you!) Here are some links; you can google others. This will also give you an idea of their speech patterns and phraseology.
Current Events and True Crime: Read local newspapers and also read about local crimes that perhaps haven’t already been sensationalized by the national press. This may work for true crime (nonfiction) as well as for fiction writers. For main stories, secondary plots, and peripheral characters, also consider offbeat stories on sites like these:
Go Back to the Classics: Consider books that are in the public domain. Write a prequel or sequel. Modernize the story for the twenty-first century. Add a character or two. Create an alternative story or ending. Change the medium—would the novel work as a play or screenplay? Pick a secondary character and rewrite the story from their viewpoint. When in doubt, go paranormal. What if Oliver Twist had been a werewolf?
Note: What you can’t do is falsely attribute the original work as your own, plagiarize the original work, gain moral rights, or violate trademarks.) You can check which books are in the public domain here and here.
I’d love to hear your ideas for creative prompts. Please list them in the Comments section–and have a very Happy Holiday!
Dawn M. Barclay
Dawn offers developmental and copy editing through SuggestedDevelopment.com, and ghostwrites personal histories and corporate profiles through LegacyQuest.net. A member of ITW, she has served as president of Hudson Valley Scribes, vice president of Sisters in Crime-NY (still a board member), and the newsletter author/board member of the NY chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Follow her at www.dmbarr.com.
I love the links! I once heard an author say that readers would be shocked to learn that authors tell so much about themselves in their books. Of course we have the ability to shape our experiences and our emotions to suit the story–to disguise them? It really is cathartic to revisit our life experiences on the page at an emotional distance. As as English lit major, I think of how I used to look for themes in great literature and tie them to the author’s life. Sometimes now, as I’m writing, I ask myself, “What would (will?) a literary critic learn about me from my books? Or possibly a psychologist?
My favorite place to get ideas is history–specifically “history’s mysteries.” Some pretty odd things have happened…lucky for me.
Oooh, these are great! Thanks for the confession links. I subscribe to the local Patch, and sometimes I go down rabbit holes of real crime in my neighborhood. The only problem with this is that, unlike fiction, real crime is mostly grimy and repetitive. The themes are pretty much drug dealing, sexual assault, child abuse, and insurance fraud. None of those are fiction gold… BUT, the details are. I incorporated several details from these real crimes into my current WIP. I also get stuck on concepts sometimes, and then I come at them from different directions until I have a story. For example, I’m currently learning German (why not, right?) and for some reason, one of the phrases the app keeps making me learn is “The owl never hikes in winter.” It’s hilarious and weirdly sinister. I keep thinking, under what circumstance would a person actually SAY that? Stories ensue…
Great listings, Dawn. Yes, those are the two questions I get asked the most often. People who don’t write are curious about those of us who do.
Since my Nora Tierney series is set in England, I subscribe to several papers and threads there to keep current on what’s happening in the UK, from Royals happenings to politics to crime and how they are adjudicated. Find those very help ~
Happy Holidays, Dawn~
Wonderful links and prompts! I find ideas come to me when I am not *trying* to come up with ideas for books and stories. Touring a historic house, walking in my neighborhood, and looking at paintings in a museum: they have all yielded ideas. One of my favorite moments in a movie is in “Topsy Turvey,” when the actor playing Gilbert gets the idea for “The Mikado.” He had been stuck in a creative rut, and when his wife insisted they see an exhibition of Japanese culture in London, he went reluctantly but then was fascinated and bought a Japanese sword. He mounted the sword in his home, and when it fell and he picked it up, the camera closes in on his eyes and you can see the plot of “The Mikado” stirring within.