When writing a story, regardless of its length, you need realistic events. Your reader needs to connect and believe in what happens. But how do you do this? How do you make your story really draw in your reader? Here are my top five places to go when I need inspiration.
5. Random Inspiration
Sometimes, inspiration just happens. You’re playing Zelda® and eating Oreos® when an amazing idea hits you, about space robots going on strike at the local car wash and thus causing crashes because people can’t see outside of their dirty car windows. It has nothing to do with Zelda® or Oreos®, but the idea materializes from thin air and you love it. This can and does sometimes happen, but make sure you write it down. The last thing you want is to have a great idea, and then twenty minutes later remember nothing about robots, car washes, or dirty windows.
4. Reading Books
While one should never plagiarize the work of others, reading great authors always fires the imagination. Reading popular stories from your particular genre tells you what works for author and reader alike. Maybe you read a story about a dog that goes to the junk yard and finds a bone, goes fishing with it, then catches a catfish. This story you love could then inspire you to write about personification of animals; perhaps a bird that flew into a park. Your imagination then takes off, and your bird gets lost in the city. Something you read inspired you, but the idea is your own. Reading not only spurs ideas but illustrates ways to make them work.
3. People Watching
I love to go to the mall, sit at a table with a Starbucks® coffee, and just watch people. You see all types of people. You have endless choices: a park bench, library, college common grounds—any public space. And as long as you’re not overly obvious about it, nobody would know. Watch those around you. How do they act? How do they dress? Pay attention to their walk, clothes, and facial expressions. What do these clues tell you about them? Imagine their private lives, their conversations. Why are they there? Where are they going? Take note of anything special or unique that captures your attention. Using these details will make your characters feel real.
2. Friends or Family Experience
Have you ever tuned out your friend’s story about how they almost missed the bus because their brother hogged the bathroom? Well, next time maybe you shouldn’t. Real-life experiences provide inspiration for your story and help it connect with the reader. Make use of this great tool. Listen to how the story makes your friend or family member feel, the way certain parts remain very clear to them, while other details have faded due to lack of focus. Don’t be afraid to engage your friend with their story. Ask them what happen next? What did you do? Or how did you manage to deal with that? Drawing them out provides mutual benefit: the attention you pay your friends boosts their self-esteem and strengthens your relationship, in addition to providing you rich fodder for a realistic story.
However, remember: your carefully cultivated friendships can crumble if you treat confidences lightly. Focus on the universality of the human condition when you glean information: emotional and physical responses, errors in judgment, misplaced priorities, funny or distressing circumstances or coincidences that your target audience can relate to. Make use of what you learn, but don’t abuse or betray the people around you.
1. Personal Experience
I believe adding your own experience to provides your Number One tool to create great stories. If you are writing about golfing but you’ve never been golfing or have never been friends with a golfer, you are not going to be able to write realistically the subject. How the characters feel about golfing? Being out on the course? What about their experience on the green? Could you more realistically create a swimmer or even a story about a chess club?
Use your firsthand experience. Conveying the feeling of your first kiss—your heart pounding in your ears, your inability to breathe—will grab your reader and keep them reading, rather than check out from boredom. Experience helps you add the right details at the right time to really get your readers to believe what you say.
These are just my top five favorite places to seek inspiration. Do you have one that isn’t on the list you think should be there? Leave a comment below. Tell us your top sources of ideas.
