Coming Up with Ideas by Allison Symes

 Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

How easy do you find coming up with ideas? I’m always on the lookout for new ones. I write flash fiction and blog for online magazines, so I always need a stock of ideas. 

 

As well as writing on topics of interest to me (and I hope other writers), I use random generators to trigger ideas. These work especially well for fiction but I have used things like a random question generator to give me a blog theme.

 

I also use prompt books and have contributed to a couple. I like the challenge of rising to a theme set by someone else and bringing my take to it. With the random generators, I can do this via variety of means.

 I have used the following:-

• Random word/object generators.
• Random noun/adjective/verb generators.
• Random name generators (a recent story of mine was accepted for an online magazine and the idea for it came from the generated name).
• Random question generators. (Great for use as a theme).
• Random number generators. I’ve used numbers as a countdown in a story or as part of an address where the action happens.
• Random picture generators. I use the picture as my setting and then work out who or what could be in it. My story then comes from that.
• Random Pictionary generator - really! This is a standard word one though the words that come up are something you can draw in the game.  
  

 

 

The great thing with the generators is you can set your own parameters. I generate two or three items at a time as by the time I’ve done that, I’ve got an idea I know I can work up. You can even choose starting letters and closing ones for the random word generators.

 

I find these things encourage me to think laterally which in turn leads to further ideas for stories and blog posts. Win-win there I think.

Naturally ideas come to me from the kinds of stories I like reading. I love flash, humour, fairytales, twist endings etc, so some of my tales at least will reflect that. I’ve also been inspired for story ideas by non-fiction books I’ve read. 

 

I just love the whole idea of having plenty of ways to trigger that crucial creative spark. Keeping your options open seems sensible to me. And I suspect these generators are the modern equivalent of story dice and the like.

What I’ve also been doing recently is taking whatever I’ve generated and using it for a 100-word story which I submit to a certain website and using the same idea in a different way to create another tale for my YouTube channel. Two ideas out of one generated item? Yes, I like that a lot!

 

I must admit though I think the biggest battle for authors is to persuade reluctant readers to pick up a book (any book!). The second biggest battle is to get reviews. 

But there are options for generating ideas for our next stories or blogs at least.