How do you come up with ideas for stories?

[moderntimes]

Well. of course we sow fertile ground in our minds. I'm a lifelong mystery fan and so I'm always reading that genre, so it's understandable that I think up a lot of mystery plots which originate perhaps from having read all those stories. Not that I'd plagiarize but the underlying themes are definitely there -- for example, a betrayal of friends, a turncoat bad cop, a syndicate plan to move heroin into schools, business partners who feud and one of them ends up dead, and so on.

[H0LD0Nthere]

They come to me, usually as a single, very vivid scene or three, and the scene(s) implies an entire story that had to happen for that scene to happen. And if I give it some attention, the scene will drag the rest of the story along with it, often very quickly. It won't stay forever, of course. If I don't write it down, it'll go.

My problem is that this process sometimes only gets me about half a good story. I'm stuck on one now.

[Alexandria88]

At first it starts from being in a place I love, then my mind goes towards personalities that I would love to meet. Then I try to put faces to them, next thing I know they have there own story and dislikes. Eventually the story evolves from wanting to know more about the personality and the places I could find them.

[moderntimes]

When I was writing short stories the ideas came from all sorts of avenues -- people whom I've known, situations i'd been in.

Now that the majority of my writing is on my detective novels, I already have the "universe" of the novels set out, and so I just toss my detective a new case and things fall into place.

The hardest thing to do -- other mystery writers may agree -- is the placement of clues. Anyone who's read a mystery, from a Holmesian who-dunnit to a lively crime action thriller, knows that clues arise during the story. As the inventor of such, it's incumbent on the author to plant good clues. Now the thing is this -- the clue has to be midway between easy to figure out (like most TV cop shows, easy to pick out the bad guy) or a clue so difficult that when it's revealed, the readers will feel cheated because it was hidden so deeply that nobody could figure it out and seems like a deus ex machina.

So what I have to do is figure out a "good" clue so that the mystery fan will think "aha!" and feel satisfied.

In my newest novel, Blood Vengeance, (coming out soon) I wanted to plant a keen clue which reveals where the bad guy is hiding so that the private eye knows but the cops don't. So I created a two-part clue. Everyone finds the first half of the clue because it's revealed during a murder investigation. But nobody knows what the clue means. Then, later, the second part is revealed to the private eye only, and he puts the two clues together. And when he finds the 2nd clue, he says this to himself:

"A message from the grave and it dealt with death most certain, most absolute."

However, for about 2 weeks, I didn't know how the 2nd part of the clue would be delivered to the private eye. So I just kept on writing "around" this critical element and then one day BANG! it came to me, and what made it particularly fine, was that the way the clue is delivered ties together the two principal story lines of the entire novel.

Friends have asked me "How the heck did you think that one up? It's terrific!" and I can only admit "I dunno. I just thought it up." Which is true. But how? I still don't know. It just came to me.

[Christine_B]

Most of my ideas come from dreams I have and then I embellish to make a story with the scene from my dream. The other way I get ideas is from my own life and things that have happened to me or people around me.

[moderntimes]

I once had a dream which I wrote into a horror story. That was fun.

But my private eye novels are carefully and consciously plotted out, and so dreams and such just don't have any input there. I spend hours just pondering and playing with plot sequences and story ideas, jotting down things as they come to me, most which will be useless, a few used.

But the very process of thinking up story themes and plot tweaks is constructive in itself. It stimulates the ol' grey matter.

[pokewheezy_2013]

Inspiration.

[moderntimes]

Yeah, but I think the general question might be "Where do you get your inspiration?"

[pokewheezy_2013]

Yeah, but I think the general question might be "Where do you get your inspiration?"

Good point. I get my inspiration anywhere and everywhere. In order to be a good writer, you have to be a good listener, and study your surroundings. Present emotions are great ideas for character development. Look at people. See what they're doing. They could be saying or doing something that you could put in a book some day.

[moderntimes]

I've often used real events and personal conversations and experiences in my books. I may tweak the story a bit but the basics are often based on real events.

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

It just comes. Out of nowhere. At various times of the day.

[CallMeMissEllis]

I find it pretty difficult to sit down and think, 'right I need an idea now!' And then come up with one, my ideas tend to be pretty natural, I have to carry a note book around so I can write down anything that comes to mind. IT can be kinda annoying sometimes though.

-- 12 Dec 2015, 11:09 --

I find it pretty difficult to sit down and think, 'right I need an idea now!' And then come up with one, my ideas tend to be pretty natural, I have to carry a note book around so I can write down anything that comes to mind. IT can be kinda annoying sometimes though.

[moderntimes]

Yeah Leon, my ideas pop into my fevered brain out of nowhere too. I'll be involved in a certain section of my novel, thinking "where do I go with this plot sequence?" or "how do I deal with this new character?" and the next day, suddenly I know how to make it work.

Of course the idea threads have been bubbling around in the preconscious or subconscious all the time, and they then bubble up to the surface.

[novelsarelife]

I usually read other books to get ideas, then I change the idea a little and write, and as I write, I incorporate my own voice so that my story is very different from the original book I started with.

[moderntimes]

I don't get ideas from other books so much as I glean the rhythm and techniques from famous mystery writers. I try to learn from the best, and see how they affect pacing and movement in the book.

Ideas per se come straight from between my ears, in the ol' grey matter.