How to Create New Stories
How do you come up with ideas for new fiction? Sometimes the
ideas just come to you, but what do you do if they don't? Try
a few of these ideas for a more systematic approach to creating
new stories.
What's in the news?
Ths source is mined by television shows all the time. For
a twist that will get the story read, though, take a real life
issue that is in the news and approach it from a different perspective.
Take the story of a businessman who profiteers after a hurricane,
for example, and find a way to make him the good guy.
What is important to you?
Take any principle that you consider to be important, and
find a story in it. If honesty is important, create a story populated
with characters that are defined by how honest or dishonest they
are, and show the consequences of this trait. If a political
principle is important to you, imagine new stories that show
what happens when this principle is followed, or when it isn't.
What stories do you like?
Take a story you really like, and think about how you would
have told it, or how it could be told. then do it. Romeo and
Juliet has been told a hundred ways, right? Why not find a formula
that has been proven to work and that you like, and do your own
updated version?
What do you understand?
More specifically, what do you understand that other people
don't seem to understand? What do you wish they knew? How can
you demonstrate this truth in a story? Wrap adventure, drama
and the elements they want in a story around a truth that is
important to you, and show why it is important. Showing
is always more powerful than just telling, and a fictional
story shows.
What poems do you like?
Many poems are written in such a way that they convey a feeling
or picture. Others, however, have a story to tell. But of course...
Continues here... Part Two
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