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what a novel idea!

Well.

I'm thinking about shelving my current WIP for awhile. (Oh, wait. Two monts without real progress? I think I already have shelved it.)

So, I'd like to start writing something new.

But, what?

Writers, how do you come up with your story ideas?

Non-writers, what kinds of books do you like to read? What plots appeal to you?

Anyone at all: if you have a suggestion or an idea for a book, leave it in the comments! Don't you sometimes hear about a certain situation and think, that would make the best book or movie? Do tell!

(I know, if it's so easy, why don't I just come up with my own idea?!)

(Come on, I'm preggers. Throw me a bone.)
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Comments

Artemis Grey said…
Great post. Sometimes a WIP of mine will shelve itself that way. I find that quite a few of my WIP ideas come to me in random attacks. Most times I'm just working at the farm or going about daily routines and an idea thunders into my head. Several have been the result of dreams. The ms that I'm currently sending out to agents was actually born from it's first sentence, which came to me while I was without the convenience of a bathroom.

Another thing I love to do is sit somewhere and people watch (a good pastime for a prego) and make up little backstories for the people I see. You can build little worlds around each one of them and link them together to make stories. It's fun and sometimes great ideas spring out of it.
June 15, 2010 at 8:26 PM
Anonymous said…
Listen to some new music. Sometimes the lyrics from songs will spark ideas for stories. They do for me all the time.

Or you could start a story with this line: I didn't really plan on dying, but in retrospect, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

Or this one: Smothering someone with a pillow is harder than it looks in the movies.

:)
June 15, 2010 at 8:49 PM
Nicole said…
I get them from daydreams of things I want to do *grin* and from real dreams i have! Just not the one were I taught an elephant how to play pick-up sticks in our tiny cabin..
June 15, 2010 at 8:56 PM
Travener said…
The macro ideas pop into my head for a variety of reasons -- things I've read, movies, TV shows, events in the news, new interests of mine. It's the plots to go with them that I have to scratch up, usually unsuccessfully.

Novel idea: Single mother Kentucky blogger and jogger must decide what's more important, the "Run for the Roses" or being a good mom and blogpal.
June 15, 2010 at 9:40 PM
Travener said…
Dang, that was supposed to be "jockey," not "jogger."
June 15, 2010 at 11:02 PM
Ashley Stone said…
I've always wanted to write a story about my life, but I started it and it felt just way too personal. Haha.

I have no other ideas. :( Sorry. haha.
June 16, 2010 at 1:00 AM
B.E. Sanderson said…
I get my ideas from all over the place. My current WIP was born when I thought about what's out there in paranormal and tried to find something that hadn't been done to death. Others came about when I gave myself a 'what if' question - which is where my speculative stories come from. My first book I got from watching the movie Apocalypse. :shrug:

Here's an idea I have in my file that I'll probably never get around to writing: a story about a woman who starts out flipping a house and ends up remodeling her life. (If you're into those house renovation shows, that is.)
June 16, 2010 at 9:04 AM
Karen Jones Gowen said…
Who knows, you may go back to it! My ideas come from life and if I don't write them down I forget them. But that's ok too because the good ones stay and grow and won't let me forget.
June 16, 2010 at 9:29 AM
Melissa Hurst said…
I think some of your TMI posts could inspire a book. It would be a bestseller;)
June 16, 2010 at 11:19 AM
Anonymous said…
I wrote a novella once for a creative writing class that centered around a guy who tried to cast a wiccan spell on someone and accidentally cast it on himself...

I wish I knew where it went.
June 16, 2010 at 12:29 PM
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