Thread: Having idea in writing job?

Everybody know that idea is very important in writing job but more important, how to have idea? It's so difficult for me.
Any feedback is appreciated!

What kind of writing job do you mean? Straight reporting? Research? Background preparation? Documentary scripting? Or do you mean self-assignments such as writing short stories, novels, poems, or plays?

Well, I can't say much for other kind of topics but for fiction, I would try using generators. Generators can give you ideas from which you can develop your stories. You can pick from a variety of ideas, from characters to plots. A favorite of mine is Seventh Sanctum. It covers all aspects of writing, from plots to names, to thinking up ideas for races. Other than that, you can try word prompts. It's easy enough to search for these on the internet and you can even pick your own topics.

“Where do ideas come from? From the world around me, this morning that world constituted your post:-


The comparison of mind and body is more synchronous than a simple metaphor. Perhaps that is simply my view; however, there is a useful comparison to be made.

As children our bodies are naturally active, aspiring to go further and faster, we learn to walk and run, we push our bodies to keep up with adults and compete with our contemporaries.

Our minds are curious, looking for explanations of the world, learning to talk, then discovering new words, inventing games, tags, catches and rhymes. The couch potato effect is not limited to the body.

It is easy to accept; to accept a comfortable chair; to accept the opinions of others as fact, rather than a starting point; to accept the ready cooked meal; to accept the processed sweetness of popular culture and music as a diet, rather than as the occasional treat.

The result is similar in mind and body, as the indulged body loses the ability to skip and run, even to walk ultimately, so the indulged mind has no creative ideas or independent thought.

When Pandora opened her box and loosed war, famine and pestilence upon the world she looked in the bottom of the box and found that hope was left as mankind’s comfort and saviour, there is always hope.

For the unfit hope lies in good food and exercise, this can be a struggle and a trial, the ties of the body to sugar, fats, and sloth are chemically and physically ingrained. The good news is when exercising the muscles of the mind do not have this massive hurdle to surmount, you will not suffer addictive longings, aches and pains as you recover your natural abilities, merely pay attention and do not backslide.

First feed your mind good food, up your reading, pay attention to your conversation, avoid the banal. Someone once said that a classic is a book that everyone feels they ought to read but no-one has, like most quick humour there is half a truth in there, but the whole truth is that it became known as a classic because it contains something of excellence.

It is no use eating good food if do not chew, initially wholemeal bread, plain meat and vegetables seem boring, in time one finds that they are the only truly satisfying dish, rich sauces and sugar fancies become occasional, unsought treats.

Up your game, buy a better quality newspaper, then read it all and attempt the crossword. Attempting to run a marathon your first day out is not on, neither is it sensible to take on Shakespeare, Dickens and Jane Austen straight away. There are plenty of modern authors who will lower you into the literary pool more gently at the shallow end, and books of quotations and sayings can be stimulating, but learn to analyse and pay attention to what you read.

To generate original ideas might seem more difficult. Though association with quality thought is a great stimulus most writing is impersonal. My personal assistant and trainer in this case is the notebook, it prompts me and reminds me. The things I note down may not be of great significance, but something caused them to stick out, if only slightly, often so slightly that without the book they would be forgotten.

For example, on a bus the other day I looked out of the window and in a side street, waiting to join the main road were two identical little yellow cars, there are so many makes, models, and colours the experience was slightly remarkable, in it went, “two identical cars in traffic”, without the book the not-even-incident would be forgotten.

Reading it later I could reflect; how different the society would be if variation was the exception rather than the rule. “The two cars, with their sculpted lines and bright colours, stood out in the uniform line of traffic waiting in the drizzle” sets a scene reminiscent of “It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen...”

I may never use it, but ideas stimulate ideas, initially they come from our surroundings, if we pay no attention they will fade back into them, get a notebook and remember.

People ask successful authors all the time where their ideas come from and most of them don’t really have any idea. The answers are usually just variations on -- well, I just have them. Or -- the thing isn’t having ideas; it’s recognizing which ideas make good stories. And so on. In other words, things that aren’t very helpful.

I’ve seen people suggest all kinds of ways to generate ideas or capture them or whatever. The writing down random crap in a notebook thing seems to be popular. I tend to remember the ideas that are worth remembering, so I don't bother with doing that.

I sort of use the “what if” method. If you can call it a method. But why does one scenario or thought or event trigger a “what if” when a gazillion others don’t? I have no idea.

Unfortunately, there isn't any formula or magic bullet for coming up with good story ideas. It’s almost like if you have to ask, you just may not be the kind of person who has them -- or who can recognize which ideas make good stories or however you want to put it. I know some people probably don't want to hear that, but oh well. Otherwise, there's really only one way to find out if your ideas are story-worthy -- and that's just start writing and see what happens.

The voices tell me!!!!! What? A story about killer peas attacking the Earth? Sounds like gold!!!

Well, most of my ideas are just regurgitated life experiences be it small or big with a little bit of fantasy or regret mixed in. As a writer I'm pretty much writing my own life where I change the situation or exaggerate it for emphasis of some great truth I've discovered, proven, or disproven. You have to be 'driven', really.

Have you ever missed a bus or a train? There's a lot of good material just right there alone cuz say what if you were the only one who could disarm a bomb that was going to blow up the whole world and everyone you knew? Then you can write about how either got there just in time to catch the ride or how you used quick maneuvering, superior thinking, and maybe even a little bit of luck to get around the obstacles in your path and save the world.

I think in the end you have the desire to want to tell a story too. Because the best ideas in the world might just fall on deaf ears and miss the mark if you didn't have a little passion about it too.

Off Topic:

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

To generate original ideas might seem more difficult. Though association with quality thought is a great stimulus, most writing is impersonal. My personal assistant and trainer in this case is the notebook, it prompts me and reminds me. The things I note down may not be of great significance, but something caused them to stick out, if only slightly, often so slightly that without the book they would be forgotten.

For example, on a bus the other day I looked out of the window and in a side street, waiting to join the main road were two identical little yellow cars, there are so many makes, models, and colours the experience was slightly remarkable, in it went, “two identical cars in traffic”, without the book the not-even-incident would be forgotten.

Reading it later I could reflect; how different the society would be if variation was the exception rather than the rule. “The two cars, with their sculpted lines and bright colours, stood out in the uniform line of traffic waiting in the drizzle” sets a scene reminiscent of “It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen...”

I may never use it, but ideas stimulate ideas, initially they come from our surroundings, if we pay no attention they will fade back into them, get a notebook and remember.

Last I heard, your garden shed was chockers, filled to the gunnels, overflowing, with shelf upon shelf of notebooks. Do they serve any purpose, or have your notes taken on a life of their own? You want to watch it, mate. “Hoarders” might get you on their show.