Tips for Creating Story Ideas!

Writing stories is incredibly fun but the most difficult part is trying to come up with an idea in the first place. Here are some tips that can hopefully help you come up with story ideas!

#1 Work with a friend!

It can be hard to come up with ideas on your own, so talking with a friend or two can be extremely helpful. Talking with your friend(s) over the phone or in person can generate topics from natural conversation, take inspiration from random topics or gossip that can be brought up in your conversation. After coming up with a few or just one idea, bring it up to your friends so that they can help build off of, improve, and clarify your idea. Even having them just ask questions about the specifics can further develop your story idea!

#2 Finding a Base

Finding an idea can become easier if you can determine your genre or general themes beforehand. Even something as vague as “I want it to have betrayal” can help you generate a bunch of ideas. For example, if I know I want to write a story about unicorns, I could write an article about unicorns and the mysteries surrounding them, or the story about a murderous unicorn. If you're struggling to find something to base your ideas off of, you could use a random generator (there's like a million on the internet) or think about some of your favorite things.

#3 Inspiration From Other Works!

It’s extremely difficult to come up with a completely original idea, however, taking inspiration from your favorite works can help you come up with ideas. Popular musicals such as Hamilton, Heathers, Hades Town, etc. are interesting concepts that could turn into interesting ideas. (Such as I Blame Society which is also located in the Ms158 website.)

#4 Learn about the past and present

The last method of coming up with ideas is watching news sites and taking inspiration from recent events. Not only that, but you could take inspiration from past events like tyrants, revolutions, even legends or myths. Human history is jam packed with interesting stories not to mention their being made currently! Some popular concepts include being in past medieval time periods or being in a technological future.

Good luck and happy writing!