Creative Writing Ideas: Firstly, Where do you get your ideas from?
Does this ever happen to you? You have to write something for school. You sit down to write it, and you just can’t get a word on the paper. You’re stuck. You have writer’s block.
You wonder “where do writers get their ideas from?
The answer is not that difficult because ideas can come from everything we see and hear and find in the world around us. If you break the ideas into three departments you can see that there are stories waiting to be told by looking into:
- The Experience Department = Do you travel a lot with your family? The airport is a great place to watch people arrive and depart. Ask yourself, why are these people here, what are they wearing and how do they look? Are they leaving to start a new life somewhere else? The questions are endless. If you use your imagination you can think up characters and events based on the people you have seen.
- The Memory Department = Your memories are terrific ideas to use for your writing. They are based on a fantastic character – you! They are easy to remember as they always have a beginning, a middle and an end. Can you remember when you first started school, went on a holiday, joined a new team for sport or may be got lost in a large department store? Do you keep a diary? You’re lucky if you do because you have all the journal entries there waiting for your new story to begin. The memories are all locked away in your mind just waiting to emerge as a story.
- The What if Department = What would it be like to have a clone of yourself, someone who looked like you, talked liked you and may be he/she is you and you are really the clone!! What if you hypnotized your sister and you couldn’t snap her out of it? What if you could hear your dog’s thoughts? Think about it and have fun writing.
Concentrate on gathering as many details as you can see but don’t forget smells and tastes in five minutes. (Even set a timer if you have one to make you think and write faster)
What I do is to think about the senses ie. sight, smell, hearing and taste because they are all part of the world that you inhabit. Don’t forget feelings, they are just as important in your story as the characters themselves . If you write down your ideas about a story in a list or notes as fast as you can without making the writing sound perfect, then you have already started your creative story. Just put the words down, you can always go back and put them in the right order later.
Try putting ideas down using a concept map or fishbone diagram.
If you still can’t write down anything, try this: Tell the story out loud.
Pretend you’re on the phone, telling a story to your best friend. Once you’ve told it out loud, it will be easy to get it down on paper.
