Advice for writers?

[L]

Over the past few years, I've began writing a lot. My skill has improved greatly as time went on, but there was always one thing that I've had trouble with: I cannot get an original idea for a story. Ever. Ordinarily, I just write fanfiction or combine several preexisting concepts to make an abomination. While this does work most of the time, I sort of want to work on original plots. Is there anyone else here who writes that can help me out with this?

 

[Springhosen]

Mmm...I'd love to help out but, sadly, I write fanfic so I don't really have a lot of experience coming up with completely original ideas. My biggest advice is think about something that interests you - a specific genre, topic, etc - and once you figure out what you want to write for, then you can start creating a world. Draw, once again, from something that's going to interest you and keep your attention because, as amazing as it is to keep the attention of readers, it's even more important to keep your own attention. (If you're not interested, you're not going to want to keep writing.)

After you've got your genre and your generic topic and your world, then you can focus on characters. What kind of characters do you like? What kind of characters do you hate?

I guess my main advice is just to start brainstorming and always write down ideas, even if it's just a sentence or a word. You've gotta come up with something doing all that thinking. :wink:

Good luck.

 

[Jen]

I started out writing fanfiction too, but now I'm working on my own novel. Fanfiction is a great way of working on your writing craft.

When it comes to more original ideas, I think that creating the initial concept can often be the most difficult stage. I'm currently writing my own book, and I really struggled with that. You'll be surprised how the ideas can flow after that stage, though.

My advice to you would be to draw inspiration from the world around you - current affairs, the dramas of other people and sometimes mere conversations can be great starting points. The idea for my book came from my friend and I being a little bit silly, and I just expanded on it, using my imagination to get the cogs turning. Once you have this starting point, as Magnolia Grandiflora said, start brainstorming and writing down every single little idea as and when you think of it. There's nothing more annoying than thinking of an idea before you go to sleep, and waking up the next morning to find you've forgotten it.

However, what you have to remember is that these days it's very difficult to find an idea that is truly original. There are always going to be parallels between your book and others, because there are simply so many books in the world and there are always going to be similar events or concepts within them. This doesn't mean that you won't have your own unique aspects within your story. For example, Harry Potter had some very similar themes to The Lord Of The Rings. There are a lot of similarities between Divergent and The Hunger Games, or Twilight and Fifty Shades Of Grey (though I appreciate that Fifty Shades came from Twilight fanfiction). They do differ from each other as well though, and they've all had huge success. I'm not saying that you can use this to get away with directly copying events of other books, but you get the idea that it's very difficult to think of something that is entirely unique.

You can also very easily change your mind on ideas midway through. This happens so often, but writers don't automatically scrap the work they've done so far. It could easily fit in later on, or in a different book entirely. Sometimes it can form the basis of a short story. At the end of the day, it's all practice.

My final piece of advice would be that you should have fun with your writing, and to echo Magnolia Grandiflora again, make sure that you choose an idea that truly holds your interest. People produce their best work when they're enjoying themselves. Relax, let the ideas come to you and try not to get too frustrated. It can take a long time to find the right idea, but when you do find it, it's completely worth the wait. :happy:

 

[Rain611]

I started out writing fanfiction in 2006 and very quickly thereafter I began to write original short stories and eventually in 2009 began writing novels.

It is difficult coming up with original ideas, but there are some tips that I've picked up along the way, either by reading articles, taking enrichment classes, or just talking to readers. Here is what I would suggest:

1) If you're like me, then you have a certain genre to which you are drawn. When you initially write original fiction, stick with that which you know. For me it's zombies or some other kind of horror. This keeps you feeling comfortable while you venture into the world of original writing. When you begin to feel comfortable (for me I started feeling less and less like writing fan fiction because it felt less rewarding than writing something of my own), then you can start to explore new subgenres, like say, vampires rather than zombies, etc.

2) You can pull ideas from the world today, and many established writers do this. I do not, incidentally .

3) Ideas can also be looked at, not so much as 'This is what my story is about (plot)". You can do this, that's how I wrote my first zombie novel. However, it is not how I wrote most of my short stories. Most of my initial seeds for writing a story have more to do with a certain tone or emotion I want to convey in the story (this is good for short stories because you must pack a lot of emotion into very little writing, so I find that it makes most sense to write the story to establish strong emotion, fears, hatred, love, etc). Usually it is loss or longing- everyone knows these feelings very well and so they tend to be easy to write. Note: If you feel sad, remourseful or shocked during your story, so will your reader.

4) Another way to get your initial seed is by way of a specific character you want to write. These are good for all kinds of stories, but I find they are best for adventure and also emotionally driven stories. When you have your character you are driven to write, it should then be easy to develop an appropriate setting for a character, especially if following suggestion number 1, in which you go with which ever genre you are most comfortable.

5) Make a list of ideas; keep a notebook or piece of paper handy. Jot down and interesting looking stranger you saw on the way to work perhaps, or something you would like to see happen. Maybe an intriguing question you have, or a strong emotion you are feeling. Eventually you will be able to spill ideas onto paper without even thinking about it. After you have a list, set it aside for a week or so and then go back and see what still sounds good. This will generally be a good starting point.

Once you have a little piece of the puzzle, if should be relatively easy to build upon. If you'd like more tips on writing in general, I'd be more than happy to help.

 

[Hel]

I cannot get an original idea for a story. Ever.

You're not the only one. I've been writing novels for decades and one of the things I've learned is not to worry about that, simply because nothing is really original anymore, not even being a writer. There's thousands of people calling themselves writers nowadays, so there's also thousands of ideas and concepts that have already been used in one way or another. Even if you have an idea that you think is "yours", someone will come and tell you it has been there before. It happens to me all the time, even though I try my best not to copy ideas. Sometimes my novels are compared to TV shows or games or movies that I'm actually a fan of, such as Charmed or Tomb Raider or Pride and Prejudice, so it's entirely possible that I drew inspiration from them without noticing, other times they are compared to works I have never even heard of, so in those cases it's a coincidence, but my work will always be compared to something, and so will yours.

Bottom line: Don't worry about recycling already existing concepts, because everyone does it, knowingly or unknowingly. You say you can "combine several preexisting concepts to make an abomination", well, that's not a bad thing as long as you do it right. Sometimes even a fanfic can develop a life of its own and become successful, see Jenevieva's example Shades of Grey, which started out as a Twilight fanfic, and Twilight on the other hand was derived from Pride and Prejudice if the author is to be believed. Just don't let it be boring, add at least a few little things that you think are new or not typical for your genre (but don't overdo it either because mixing too many different things together might result in an utter chaos), and make sure it's not a direct copy of something else. This is the only useful advice I can give you, because every author is different and eventually you will find your own style.

 

[ChrisRedfield1994]

Over the past few years, I've began writing a lot. My skill has improved greatly as time went on, but there was always one thing that I've had trouble with: I cannot get an original idea for a story. Ever. Ordinarily, I just write fanfiction or combine several preexisting concepts to make an abomination. While this does work most of the time, I sort of want to work on original plots. Is there anyone else here who writes that can help me out with this?

I write both out of necessity (I want to study English Literature at university) and love of the art and the one way of getting original stories is actually simple: you should just read other books! It may same like shameless copying but how else do you think the likes of Stephen King or David Baldacci came up with their ideas? When you think a plot is original, do you mean a plot that features an idea never done before or a plot that features a unique twist to the structure and narrative? That's a key distinction you HAVE to make early on in the writing process. If you can't define ORIGINAL in the context of your plot, then you've already made a mistake.

Look at an event that happened to you recently, even the most minute of events and try and expand that. You can take a simple "I found £10 on the floor" to one involving the transmission of illnesses through this. You could look at the original event and observe any key details in it and you can turn those into symbolism, so the last can of coke in a shop can be representative of a consumerist culture on the brink of collapse; be as pretentious as you like!

You have to decide on a basic premise first. Is your work going to be allegorical or 'pop-literature' with little to no symbolism? Forming symbolism takes time but can be very, very rewarding. Take "Frankenstein" for example. If you remove the monster, you remove every Marxist reading, every reading regarding the treatment of lower classes and you remove a plot device. Symbols can be characters, objects, abstract thoughts that one of your characters notes. You probably already know that, but I see too many writers with such a great idea that they forget about the core themes of their works!

That brings me onto another big thing you have to set out regarding your plot: THEMES. Is your next work about social decay, a comment on the destruction of the environment or is it an exploration of love as a duty? 'Original' plots are only as original as the themes attached!

If I don't seem to be making sense, PM me! I come up with this stuff as I go along, something you shouldn't do with your plots!