Idea Generating

I'm occasionally asked where I get some of my story ideas.  As a writer of speculative fiction (read:  science fiction, fantasy, suspense, horror), I have to work my imagination muscle a tad bit more than would be necessary if writing in other genre's.  I know, I know, I am going to hear from the mainstream writers that romance stories or mystery/detective stories require just as much imagination muscle as speculative fiction, and they may be true to a point, but in speculative fiction a writer has to really take something that is clearly not real or clearly could not exist in the real universe, and make it appear real enough to suspend the disbelief of the reader.  Trust me, it takes a bit of creative elbow grease to make that happen.

Case in point:  I was once accused by a fellow writer (in a joking fashion, mind you) that I was apparently inhaling or otherwise ingesting illicit and/or psychedelic substances upon their reading the initial chapter of my latest novel, "One Second Before Awakening".  That first chapter described a scene where the main character was sucked into a painting rendered by Salvador Dali, and the character was immediately confronted by two ferocious tigers that had jumped out of the mouth of a giant goldfish and were about to attack a naked woman lying upon a rocky ocean islet.  It's not everyday that sort of thing really happens, and your typical "whodunit" mystery novel does not have this sort of scene.  As for where I came up with the idea, it was quite simple.

I had started with a premise:  What would happen to a person if they suddenly found themselves trapped within the world of a painted image.  I took this premise one step further by adding, "what if the painted image had a fantastic or surreal theme to it?"  From there the story took off when I decided I would choose an image rendered by the famous 20th Century master, Salvador Dali.  I found a book with several of his paintings in it, and from there let my imagination take over.

This is one of many ways to jump start your creativity.  Find an image, whether it is a photograph or a painting, and begin writing a draft of what is occurring in that image.  You may be surprised at what could come of it.  In the above case it led to a full length novel.

Another way to generate story ideas is to find an idea generator application.  These are apps that you can find (for free in most cases) where random plot and character elements are generated providing one with the initial spark for a possible story line.  One such idea generator is called "Writing Prompts", which can be found through the Google Play Store.

Here's a link to take you straight to it  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andromo.dev17163.app255216


It's a simple program, it's free, and it is a small example of the numerous idea generator apps that are currently available to writers.

In upcoming posts, I will share some other app links as well as some other methods for jump starting your creativity.  In the meantime, share any methods you use to come up with ideas for stories.  And don't forget -- write, write, write.