When you can't wait around for inspiration to find you

How I came up with 63 story ideas in one month

It’s funny that it’s this particular post about not waiting for inspiration that has been the hardest one for me to start.

I’ve been sitting on it for weeks. I’d open it up, look at the title, change the title, stare at the two lines written for a few minutes, then go look up Kate Middleton news. (Be honest, we’ve all been there!)

What I think I was struggling with was not quite knowing what I was trying to say. Yeah I came up with a bunch of ideas (63 to be exact) in one month, but so what? Big whoop.

The point of it all, the thing I’m trying to convey is that with writing we can’t always wait around for ideas to come to us. Sometimes we have to go out looking for them.

In The Writing Book: A practical guide for fiction writers Kate Grenville said:

Few serious writers wait for inspiration to strike; they find it better to make regular work habits and stick to them, even if they’re not in the mood.

We can’t all sit around in our gardens staring at flowers until a spark of an idea magically forms. Okay, well maybe we can … while watching a flower blowing lightly in the wind I might think it looks like it’s waving at me, beckoning me to come closer where it will whisper the secrets of its world before pulling me down into a glorious universe of flowers and plants and insects that’s full of tales of survival and … A Bug’s Life … I’m heading towards A Bug’s Life … anyway, moving on.

Also, my best ideas often hit while I’m in the shower. But, when they don’t, or when I’m wanting to explore something fresh and new but my mind feels blank, I have brainstorming sessions.

That’s right. I spend time actively looking for ideas, which leaves me with pages and pages of thoughts and ideas in notebooks that I can open up and use when needed or wanted.

It makes me feel like I’ll never run out of ideas, and that is a very good feeling to have as a creative because if I want writing to be my forever profession then there will be times when I’m just not feeling it. And those are the times I’ll be most grateful for my notebook of ideas collected during brainstorming sessions.

I’d planned to rewrite and update an article I wrote over on Medium four years ago about how to generate story ideas (you can see that article here). But then I remembered how just one month of brainstorming every single day resulted in 63 new ideas, and I figured my other tips suck in comparison.

So here goes. Here’s the big tip:

STORYSTORM!

Some of you might already know about it, but for those who don’t, Storystorm is a brainstorming challenge created by Tara Lazar that takes place in January every year.

There are prizes if you register and daily blog posts to inspire you. But the best thing is that you can access the blog posts at any time even if you didn’t register.

So if you’re feeling a little low on ideas, you can pop on over to the blog posts for some inspiration and prompts to help generate new story ideas that will hopefully one day grow into manuscripts.

Basically, all you need is a little time put aside dedicated to brainstorming and some prompts. (Oh and a notebook or somewhere to write down your ideas and a pen or something like that would be good too.)

Another great resource with plenty of story prompts readily available is Furious Fiction run by the Australian Writers’ Centre. It’s a challenge that takes place on the first weekend of each month and you can sign up to be notified, but again, you can access past challenges at any time.

Those are two of my fave places for story prompts, but now it’s your turn.

Where or how do you go about finding story ideas when you’re actively looking?

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That’s all for today, friends.

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Yanu!

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I acknowledge the Darkinyung people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work, and I pay my respects to the Elders past and present.