E1: How to Come Up With a Story Idea
By: Ameila Arrows
Tags: Advice, Writing Tips, Writing, Novel

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This is episode one’s transcript, you can watch the video here or listen to it on Spodify!

Hi everyone! My name is Amelia Arrows and welcome to Ask Amelia! On this podcast, we talk about everything writing, from the formation of the idea to the publication process of your book. If that’s your cup of tea, feel free to stick around, give this episode a like and subscribe.

I upload an episode usually once a month on a Wednesday. If that seems like a very long time, don’t you worry! I have a lot of stuff for you to read, follow my Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram at Amelia’s and check out the first link in description for bonus content.

If you’re watching this podcast on YouTube and rather listen on the go check out the first link in the description for the podcast version. If you have a question about writing and would like me to answer, leave a comment down below and I’ll feature it in a future episode!

All right, let’s talk about idea creation!

Before you write a novel, a short story or a poem, you will need an idea, a concept to base your story around. Your idea can be either description of the main character, the fictional world, or even the theme of your story. To help you create ideas, here are seven ways I used to form ideas.

Note: These are not the only ways to come up with an idea for your story, but these are the ones that helped me when I want to come up with a story.

Number one: Genre and Audience

Each genre and audience have their own stories and tropes. For example, in fantasy a popular story trope is the chosen one. Most chosen one stories have an impending doom or form of magic or even a secret royal heritage. In addition to tropes, different genres have their own age range that have their own themes within them.

For instance, a story in middle grade would have themes such as growing up identity friendship crushes and family relationships. Knowing your genre and audience will guide you to the common tropes and themes found in that category, providing you with a template to work with.

For instance, if I were to come up with a middle grade fantasy story, I would look at the common themes and build a story from there. So taking the theme of family and this trope of the secret world heritage, my story would follow a poor girl who then discovered that she has magical ability, the same kind of abilities that the royal family has. This will kind of start this quest of her trying to discover her origin, trying to discover her family, things like that. It’s not perfect, but you get the idea. Looking at genre and audience will not really give you everything, but it will definitely give you the foundation that your story needs.

Number Two: Consume Books TVs and Film

There’s a saying that what you read is what you write. It’s the same thing with TV shows and films. Reading and watching shows can be a great way to get ideas for a story. Please note that I am not saying that you should copy the story beat by beat, instead you should only use it for inspiration. Perhaps you love the concept of animals being the main characters or that the world is not a sphere but a bunch of flying islands. Whatever you liked about the existing story, take it and then put your own spin on things to make it your own.

For example, for my first Wattpad story Alley cats Runway, I was inspired by the book series Warriors written by Erin Hunter. The series follow a bunch of cats living in the forest and I thought wow that’s cool! So I ended up writing my own novel that followed cats who lived in the city showcasing the gang life of those cats and showing how harsh life is for strays, and it ended up being one of my best work on Wattpad.

Number Three: Draw From Your Experience

If you are leaning towards a more original concept, I suggest that you look into your own life experience. You may think that your life is not that unique, but trust me, it is everyone has an individual experience to life. It does not need to be full of explosion and drama as long as you pick something that has a lot of emotion tied to it. Without that initial emotion, you as a writer will be bored with it, and if you’re bored your readers will be bored as well.

For instance, my book Fish Out of Water is a collection of stories that are based on my first year of university. How I got lost, How I managed a subway, and how I overcame loneliness. While that book is more of a non-fiction, this tip can work with fiction as well.

Number Four: Dreams

For some people writing a story based on a dream is something that happens only once but when it happens, it’s usually crazy and whimsical and kind of hard to use the thing is people dream all the time but it’s a matter of remembering that dream in order to use it. I suggest that you have a notebook or a phone nearby so when you wake up you can write it down. For those thrillers and horror writers out there, writing a story on a nightmare is also a great idea if you’re running out of ideas to use tip number five.

Number 5: Take a Walk or Shower

These two don’t work for everybody. I can’t think straight when there’s so much noise distracting me when I walk, but when I take a shower an idea doesn’t just come to me straight away. Normally, I have to draw it out. To do that I talk out loud, I remind myself of the story and eventually an idea pops in, usually to the question of what if. Playing the “what if game” really helps with brainstorming, which leads to number six.

Number 6: Share and Brainstorm

You can’t brainstorm with one brain, you need at least two. So grab a friend or family member, or at least someone who loves to read and write and pose your idea. Be flexible with the feedback because when it comes to idea creation all things are possible, you don’t want to settle on one idea at the beginning stages, when there’s a better one around the corner.

Number 7: Write What you are Passionate About

Finally number seven, write what you’re passionate about. It may not be much of a surprise, but writers who write about their passions will not only find it enjoyable, they will also find that they have a lot to say on the topic. For example, as someone who is familiar with the disabled community, writing stories about self-acceptance is a theme that I tend to return to.

So after forming your ideas, you need to put them somewhere. Nothing is worse than coming up with a cool idea if you’re going to forget it the next day. Trust me, you do not want that to happen! Have an open document, voice record them, or even have an idea box. Remember, there are so many ways to form an idea, it’s just a matter of finding what works for you. Let me know how you form ideas down below!

Next up I’ll be continuing our conversation on idea creation by answering the timely question of how to come up with a good story idea is there such a thing as a bad idea I’ll answer it in the next episode to subscribe that you’ll be the first one to know when it is up.

Thank you for tuning in to the first episode of the Ask Amelia podcast! This podcast has been on my mind for the last couple of months, and now I’m happy to be finally doing this! I promise to not disappoint, I’ll upload once a month on a Wednesday. If you have any questions about writing anything at all leave a comment down below and I’ll answer it in the next episode, this is the ask Amelia podcast, and I’ll see you soon!