Ideas for stories
Stephen King once said he was caught in a traffic jam, inching past some massive roadworks that included a large hole in the ground, behind a Cadillac, and that on the instant he got an idea for a story from looking at the hole and looking at the car.
That type of thing never seems to happen to me. Looking at stuff, to me, is just looking at stuff. Is there a message there somewhere?
Originally Posted by ppsage
I have for a while suspected you of a conscious tendency to ribaldry
I think I've suggested this before - ask the question, 'what if?'
Observe a situation; and impose an alternative upon it.
Some people have more ideas than others. I don't know why we assume everyone has an endless stream of concepts they want to work on.
Oxtail - you seem to be asking us, (in various ways over the years) to tell you are an uninspired twinkie and that's why you should give up writing.
Shan't.
Writers are all different. Some get their ideas out in the world, some in their beds, some don't get inspired at all and have to squeeze everything they write out like a hamster taking an alsation's shit.
You're stuck with being a writer, like the rest us. At least we don't age a decade every time we read one of your stories.
If you can search through my logs and find my oldish short story The Outcasted, you can see how far 'just looking' can take you.
But it's definitely not just looking. It's also thinking, analyzing, and combining various ideas until they hit an inspiring amalgam. In Outcasted I was driving home one day in the fall, and there were leaves strewn all over my dirt road. At the same time I was thinking of how to tell a story in space. Once I saw the leaves it clicked, giving me a starting point. The detail of leaves on the ground was just a catalyst for a story entirely unrelated to leaves.
In my story 'The Love of my Life,' there were two things I looked at that combined with some thoughts I had. The thought was my reflections on a past (and dead) relationship. I was moving on, and realizing it, and wondering if my thinking about it meant I wasn't as far along that I thought I was. Around the same time span I had some strong nostalgia for old school power rangers. Then, after driving home from work one night, I saw a flash of lightning on the road ahead of me. The three concepts clicked in my head, and in the next few minutes I was home and typing up a story.
...and those are just two examples. I could name a few more stories, and a handful of poems that came about in similar ways. I can't be sure how much my examples (and near-mindless self promotion) will help you, but if nothing else they should solve your latest HOWDUNNIT.
No, I don't think there's a message. People are inspired in different ways.
I've had expenses like the one King describes, but more often than not, I'm inspired by a number of things that have been percolating a long time -- people I know or have met in passing, things that have happened to me, themes or subjects that interested me or with which I have experience.
I do know that none of my ideas come from trying to conjure up ideas or by using some method. They just pop into my head.
Yes, you've touted this before -- but have you actually employed this method and did it work for you? How do you decide on which situations or scenarios to impose your alternative? Doesn't that require some inspiration or recognition of a potential idea? So what's the difference or advantage?Originally Posted by qwertyman
Last edited by JosephB; 12-13-2009 at 09:33 AM.
"Some people call me the space cowboy, some call me the gangster of love."
-- Albert Einstein
"I am really only interested in a fiction of miracles."
-- Flannery O'Connor
Ok I laughed at that.
Protagonist2Antagonist, a blog by a nut.
This is how my mind works, although often it does require some sort of trigger before things come together.
I agree with the others that Stephen King having a method you don't does not disqualify you from being creative. Sorry.
www.theoddvillepress.com
"A plot-driven story is anything with a plot." ~BS
All lines are arbitrary; otherwise, we wouldn't have to draw them. ~Nicholas Vesiri
I respect Stephen King but no more than I respect you or myself. We can get ideas in so many different ways. And not just for the whole story. The ideas could merely be where you want to finish one para and start the next.
If there's a quote from you, it may have just as much merit as from Stephen King. STEPHEN KING? Wow! That must be right!
So, no. I don't think there's a message there.
I get ideas like that all the time. Every day.
I remember about 1/20, and they never do me any good.
So that in and of itself doesn't count too much.
Turns out you have to have a working short-term memory and the ideas themselves actually have to be good.
And I was so close.
My most recent - Best Be Prepared - That Sick (Ch 1-3) - Necessities - A Friendly Dillema - Pluck of the Draw 1 - Pluck of the Draw 2
In truth, not for some time and then only in short stories, (which I no longer write). I am not sure if it would have the same use in full length novels unless you could pick up the baton and carry it forward.
I was trying to be helpful to someone who has difficulty creating a situation, I grant you a situation isn't a story and it doesn't necessarily follow that something alternative or unusual happening has a fruitful outcome in terms of a story - but if you're staring at a blank piece of peper it's a good place to start.
I am supposing that the OP may not be able to create but can recognise something creative. If an editor said to me, ' Qwerty, I need a short story 1000 words to-morrow. I think I would start with 'What if?'How do you decide on which situations or scenarios to impose your alternative. Doesn't that require some inspiration or recognition of a potential idea? So what's the difference or advantage?[/?
Last edited by qwertyman; 12-15-2009 at 01:34 AM.
I bet it never happened to Steven King either. Not in any real sense. When someone asks you where you got the idea for a story from you don't go into the days/months/years you spent thinking about it. Noone wants to hear an answer that is longer then the story. You give them a quick little bit of inspiration that had been important, but by no means the entire process.
And besides, Steven King has been doing this for years. It has to improve with practise. More relevant to most of us would be the process he went through for his first novel.
I pointed to the cover, which said 'best-selling' and not 'best-writing', and recommended she drop creative writing class and study sales. - Robert Kiyosaki
http://www.kiwiwriters.org/d/challen...oredmormon.png
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