Keeping a Creative Writing Idea File

For some writers, a creative writing idea hits them every few minutes. (Guilty!) For others, they can't see the forest of ideas for the trees of everyday life in their way.

If you have the second problem, take heart. There is a cure. (Or maybe it's worse than the disease...)


Finding Ideas

So where can you find a creative writing idea next time you're drawing a blank?

Everywhere. The trick is to train your mind to wander at will (but not if you're operating heavy machinery, please!). When you see someone scuttling down the sidewalk, half-blown by the winter gale, do you think: Brrr! It's cold out. I'm going home to have some hot chocolate..?

Or does your mind begin creating reasons why that man, dressed all in sinister black, hand over his face as if to shield his identity is out in this disgusting weather? Why is he out when it's so nasty outside? Who did he just meet? Or is he on his way to pick up a payment for his last "job"? What was that job? Who did he kill? Why is he looking at me that way!

Whew! See. You can escalate anything you see until it begins to scare the life out of you. Then use those fiction writing ideas in a book and pay it forward to your readers (by scaring the life from them). They'll thank your creativity.

Something as simple as a trip to the grocery store can generate a wealth of ideas for writing fiction. Or standing in line at the post office. Or driving down the road on a sunny day. Just let your mind have its own way, and you'll be surprised at the things that pop into your head.


Reaping What You Sow... I Mean See

So, you're watching like a hawk for people acting suspiciously, or ridiculously, or romantically (depending on what fiction genres you want to write in). How do you use these ideas to create an entire novel?

Start by choosing one of your newfound ideas that creates the most interest in your mind. Don't worry about your readers (or your mom reading what you wrote). Choose the creative writing idea you most want to play with.

Then play. Literally. Take that one person or one incident that triggered your idea and expand it. Create a whole cast of characters for your man in black to be after. Decide why that silver Mercedes wouldn't stop following you for two hours yesterday. What did they want? Why did they stop every time you did? What if they're the CIA and think you know something important about... you get the gist.

Then start plotting. What starts the whole ball rolling? What is the conflict and who's involved in it? Who's going to win at the end? Stick with it (or put your mind to it when you're doing mundane tasks), and soon you'll have an entire book planned out. Then write!


Be Prompt-ed

Another great source of ideas is writing prompts . These can be found in magazines, on websites and in your own head. Fiction writing prompts are best, if you're learning how to write a novel. They're also most common.

Though I have seen a few sources of prompts aimed more at poetry and other forms of writing. So next time you need a great creative writing idea, see if you can find or invent a fiction writing prompt. Then run with it. Just don't trip over reality in the meantime.


Don't Lose Your Mind, Or Your Ideas

Over the course of my life, I've probably had nearly a million ideas (or more) for stories and novels. Many of them are long gone. Even some of the gems, I'm sure.

So how do you keep from losing that great creative writing idea (and your mind full of ideas), once you've hatched it?

Write it down. Now. As I've said on other pages, keep a notebook with you everywhere (though it better be waterproof, and the ink waterproof too, if you're going to have ideas in the shower all the time). Because ideas will come to you at the least opportune moments.

Hands full of dirty diaper. Boss giving you your review. Spouse in an unusually amorous mood.

Give yourself permission to hold that thought long enough to get it down once the diaper's disposed of, the boss is done praising you, the spouse is snoring peacefully.

I say to give yourself permission, because many times, I've lost the idea before my hands were free to pick up the pen. Generally out of guilt for a wandering mind at an inappropriate time. Once I tried telling myself it was fine, I could jot it in one minute, I began to remember things long enough to record them.

Then, I go a step further. Since I tend to lose notebooks (and napkins I've jotted things on...) I collect all the ideas for the week into one spot and type them into my laptop in my "Ideas File". Before I lose that notebook or that scrap of paper towel I wrote the last idea on. I never lose my laptop!

So go ahead. Dream up a wildly creative writing idea. Or twenty. Then give one a spin and you're on your way to writing your next novel.

Here's to a fertile, twisted mind!