Where to Look For Ideas for Short Stories and Novels

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.  The newspaper and television are both good places to find mystery plots or those involving intrigue and scandal.  A real life story about a missing person or a famous figure involved in a love triangle can inspire an exciting work of fiction.  However, if you get ideas from a news source, it is best to use this only as a starting point for your work.  Never use real names and always slightly change the events and the setting. 

History and Nonfiction Books

 History books are also a good source for ideas.  Personal accounts and journals such as those of people traveling out west on a covered wagon will help provide a good general background for a certain time era and give you a "feeling" for the people who lived in that time.  Books about local legends and ghost stories can also inspire great ideas for fiction. 

Observation

While riding a bus late at night, I heard one drunk say sadly to another, “You know, you never forget your first love.” He was obviously thinking back to a happier time, a broken romance, filled with the bittersweet regret. What a great beginning  for a novel or short story!

Drawing from Your Own Past

In the words of Frank McCourt, “When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood; the happy childhood is hardly worth your while…” If you've made it to adulthood, you probably have enough material to write about for the rest of your life.

Start your own X-Files

Get in the habit of collecting notes and then putting them in a computer file. (There are a lot of interesting things in “Vickie’s X-Files” and Loretta's too, some which will be made into novels and short stories, others that probably never will.) This is the place where incomplete stories dwell. Thoughts incubate. Sometimes, years later, you may find the perfect ending to a story idea you had started years ago. When you feel depleted, you will always have a backlog of random thoughts, character sketches, and plot ideas for inspiration.

Check back next month for Tips on how to turn those great ideas you've found into stories.

Creative Writing Exercise to Build Scenes, Characters, Dialogue and Theme

Creative writing exercises are a good way to develop right brain activity and to stretch the imagination.

Practice in building scenes, characters, dialogue and theme can give a beginning writer experience in these techniques and can also help a veteran writer develop new ways to describe a scene or character or to deepen theme.

Creative Writing: Scene-Building Exercise

Being aware of your environment can help set scenes in a work of fiction.  For a skill-building journal exercise, take a walk and jot down what you see, feel, hear.  Concentrate on the senses.  Pay attention to small details, the falling of leaves, the buzz of insects, the scent of flowers.

Contrast the scene before you now with one of an opposite season.  If it is spring, describe how it will look in the fall.  If it is winter, describe summer.

Creative Writing: Character-Developing Exercise

Jotting down detailed character sketches is good practice for developing fictional characters.  Have you ever known an interesting “character”?  Describe him or her in detail.  What makes them unique?  How do they talk, act, dress?  What makes them different from other people?

Pick out three physical characteristics and describe them—the color of their eyes, the shape of their nose, their physical build.  Now pick out three non-physical characteristics such as their manner of dress, a habit such as tapping a pencil on the desk or scratching an ear, the way they walk. By mixing, matching, adding and deleting characteristics, a writer can create a backlog of unique and interesting characters.

Creative Writing: Dialogue-Building Exercise

Good writing dialogue often springs from an overheard or remembered conversation from long ago.  Being aware of conversations around you makes fictional conversation sound more real.

 

Recall an interesting conversation you have heard at a restaurant, bus stop, or any other place.  Make it more dramatic by turning it into an argument.  Now change the subject of the conversation.

Creative Writing: Theme-Building Exercises

Many writers struggle with theme. Theme is different from plot.  Plot is the action of the story.  Theme is the mental action–what the story is really about, the message the author is trying to convey and leave with the reader.  Most themes test courage or moral integrity.  An example of a common theme is “crime doesn’t pay” or “honesty is the best policy”.

Jot down a list of qualities such as honesty, loyalty, perseverance.  Now think of an instance where this quality might pay off.

Write down a list of old sayings and quotes from Ben Franklin and other sources.  Then think of a story to go along with them.  For instance, “the early bird gets the worm.”  Think of a time where the early bird came out ahead at work--by getting the account or the promotion.   What if the early bird did the right thing and didn’t get their reward?  Would they be bitter, revengeful, or take it in stride?  How the character reacts determines the theme.

Imagine a person caught in an unusual hypothetical situation that calls for a moral choice of some kind.  Stretch the imagination by wondering “what if”.  For example, what if you found out your best friend was embezzling from a company.  Would you tell?  Remain silent?  What if you came across a purse on a park bench with a winning lottery ticket inside  Will you redeem it or look for the owner?  What if you had the opportunity to steal a bag of diamonds and blame it on a known criminal?

Use these examples or make up your own exercises and practice daily to develop the habit of thinking creatively in terms of scene, character, dialogue and theme.

More Writing Tips:  Fiction:From Writing to Publication

 

Planting Clues and Red Herrings in a Mystery Novel

Mysteries are highly structured books. It is to the author’s advantage to know the outcome of the book by making a plot outline and sticking to it. It is much easier to plant clues and red herrings if the author knows ahead of time “whodunit”. If the writer doesn't know the outcome of the book, or changes his mind about the perpetrator of the crime, he will have to go back and plant or change the clues after the book is finished. This can be a very wearisome job. It is much better for a writer to know where the book is going from the start.

How to Plant Mystery Novel Clues

A medium-sized novel needs at least 3-4 real clues. At least two of the clues should be strong ones, and one should be very strong. A typical mystery should also contain about three red herrings. These clues should be distributed fairly evenly throughout the book. Clues should build up so that the strongest clue is toward the middle-end of the book.

The planting of clues requires skill and planning. Clues should never be too obvious. They should lead a subtle path to the villain, but be interspersed by red herrings so the reader will not easily guess the outcome.

How to Plant Red Herrings

Red herrings were used in 15th century England to train hunting dogs. A red herring (a very pungent fish) was drawn along the trail to distract the dog. The dog was trained to follow the original scent of fox or badger instead of the stronger scent of the fish. The term eventually came to be known as something that distracts attention from the real issue.

The red herring’s purpose in a mystery is to distract the reader from what is really going on by introducing false or misleading evidence. For example, a woman’s fingerprints might be found at a murder scene, causing her to be a suspect. A neighbor might have seen a suspicious car drive past. Neither of these events may have anything to do with the actual crime.

Tying Up The Ending

By the end of the book each red herrings should be adequately explained. Why were the woman’s fingerprints at the scene? Perhaps she had visited the murder victim shortly before the murder or had come in after the murder, left fingerprints on the scene, then ran away in fear. The car might have belonged to a neighbor who planned to drop by, then changed her mind, and didn’t know about the murder.

If the author has done his job right, the reader will not be able to guess the villain. But by the end of the book the clever reader should be able to go back and trace the clues that were provided, snap their fingers, and say, “I should have known all along!"