STUCK FOR AN IDEA?

If you’re stuck for an idea for a novel…especially your second or third or twentieth work of fiction, then the best place to find inspiration is in today’s edition of the newspaper.

When I’m giving a talk to a group of creative writing students in a university, it’s one of the most frequently asked questions….where do my ideas for book plots come from?

So I open up a copy of today’s newspaper, and write down five headlines; one from the front page; one from the sports pages; another from some court or crime story; then a human interest story. and finally a story from the finance pages.

I ask the students to tell me which headline they want to turn into a book. It’s almost certain they’ll choose the front page story, or the crime or court narrative.

So I deliberately choose a different one for them - the headline from the finance pages. And it’s usually as boring as watching paint dry. Something like “STOCK FUTURES DIP AFTER MAJOR AVERAGES TANK.”

The looks of disappointment on their faces are usually priceless.

Then I ask them to decide on a genre - romance, historical, sci-fi, thriller, family, young adult, fantasy, dystopian, mystery…….then whether they want to write it in first or third person.

Let’s say that they choose a thriller genre, written in the third person. It’s at this stage that we write the book.

Well, we don’t actually write the words, but we do write the synopsis of the book sufficiently well that a publisher will know whether or not it’s worth publishing. I use the Socratic method to elicit the critical thinking of the students, which excites their creativity. We begin to define what could be meant by the words in the heading. In this case, we examine what and why is a Stock; why futures were created and the mindset behind people who invest in them; then we find a man or woman who is, say, an inveterate gambler - perhaps the lazy third son of a industrious family, and whose siblings are successful in their professions, but this anti-hero third son fails in school and college, and just wants to make money in a get-rich-quick way. But why? Jealousy? To prove himself to his overbearing father? Or because of some other nefarious reason. Now the students start to get involved with the plot, and begin to come up with some outrageous ideas.

This initial plot development can lead to all sorts of different situations from which we begin to construct sub-plots, and red-herrings. Then new and exciting characters begin to emerge from these invented plots as the students become increasingly involved with the creativity. So they have to be reined in in order to ensure that the book’s structure doesn’t go off the rails. Perhaps the anti-hero has run up a massive debt and urgently needs cash to escape the money lenders? Does he defraud a friend in order to pay back the loans? Does his father come to his rescue, or throw him to the wolves?

By this stage, probably an hour into the masterclass, the excitement level in the student body is at shouting point. I’m busily writing down suggestions while small groups or individuals press their points home. The room has become electrified as people insist that their ideas have more excitement and literary merit than those of their colleagues.

And when the session is about to finish, I go over the outline of the plots and characters and landscapes which the students have created……and then remind them of the boring headline from the newspaper which began the whole process.

So what does this prove? It means that if you, as a writer, are stuck for inspiration, then you’ll find it everywhere. These days, with so many books being published, it’s close to impossible to find a totally original storyline. But what any writer can do is to take a theme and put a new slant on it, giving readers new and imaginative insights and understanding.

And there’s your next book!