I've Got Nothing to Write About!
A Half Dozen Hints for Finding Story Ideas
If you want to be a writer, but have no story ideas to start with, these exercises will help you.
You’ve made up your mind you were meant to be a writer. You’ve scheduled daily “Writing Time.” You plop down, switch on the computer…
…and suddenly realize you have nothing to write about.
“Things to write about” is such a vast subject that individual ideas get lost in space. So to catch one, start by narrowing down hiding places:
1. Consider your reading list: the ten books or short stories you have most recently read, and/or your ten all-time favorites. What do they have in common? Genre? Setting? Strong female characters? Happy endings? Matters of life and death?
Of course, you can’t rely too closely on another writer’s story (unless you consider a copyright violation suit a desirable means of attracting publicity); so, if Hint One doesn’t lead to any original plot ideas, read on.
2. Consider your interests. The writer who has been at the resort where a story occurs, or in the organization to which a character belongs, naturally creates a more believable tale. If you’ve recently returned from a trip or if you have an unusual hobby, the mere phrase “write about what you know about” may unlock a world of story ideas.
If, however, your life is “typical American,” you may think you don’t know about anything—at least nothing anyone would be interested in reading about. Don’t give up:
3. Consider your hometown. Not all adventures need be set in Manhattan, Hawaii, or Paris. What do your neighbors gossip about? What issues arouse local political candidates? What community events draw crowds? How was your city founded?
4. Consider your work. Even if you hate it—even if you’re “only” a number cruncher—something must have led you to take your job. If the reason was that you were desperate for work or that your parents nagged you, then create a character in the same situation, and let him or her handle things differently. Or put your character in your job, contemplating means of escape.
Hated or loved, any profession can be mined for story fodder. Use a character in the same field, coping with struggles you have faced: an engineer rushing to create the design that will secure a contract; a teacher with a major problem student.
5. If you try all the preceding and get only a jumble of characters, settings, and already-told stories, play “what if.” At the root of every story is a problem; when everything goes smoothly, readers go to sleep. So think about everything that might go wrong. What if your main character, disgusted with city life, decides to open a candle shop in a small town? What if her new neighbors are suspicious of “outsiders”?
If you have trouble formulating “what ifs,” consider: what are your biggest worries? If that doesn’t help, ask coworkers, friends, and family members what they worry about.
6. If all else fails, try “free writing.” Start typing whatever is on your mind, even if that means writing “I can’t think of anything to write about” fifty times. That can lead to complaints about how hard it is for writers to succeed, which can lead to speculation on what would happen if a publisher started hiring full-time novelists…. Do you see the skeleton of a plot forming?
Your own thread of free writing may lead in an entirely different direction. The important thing is to start the ideas flowing—ideas that you can turn into a compelling plot.
(The next article takes up the intricacies of making your plot satisfactory reading from beginning to end.)
