Writing Blog

20220114 Idea Formation

January 15, 2022, 10:00am

A question I get asked often (as do many writers) is where do ideas come from? As I write a lot and as I get older, I have begun writing across more and more different genres, so that means the ideas are coming out of me in many varied ways, and so I guess the question is a logical one to ask.

So... Where do ideas come from?

Most of my ideas come from a simple “What if…?” question. No, not the Marvel TV series, or the comics they were based on (though some of the comics were amazing!), but me looking at something and asking “What if…?”

Some examples would be I read a new version of the Zeus myth, based out of the Spartan tradition as opposed to the more common Athenian, and asked, “What if Zeus was around today?” I watched a snake attack a snake-catcher and asked, “What if the snake was larger and mythical?” That story is the book coming out in June. I re-read Haggard’s She (one of my favourite books) and asked, “What if this took place in Outback Australia?” And so on and so on. That is where my mind works best, I feel.

But while that is the dominant part of my writing journey, it is not the only one. A lot of my poetry is based on things that happened to me and me processing them, or (in the case of my comedy poetry) exaggerating the real-life events. Some real-life events also lead to fiction stories, through usually involving exaggeration or sometimes just characters based on people I knew years ago.

Then there is other media. I watched the 1962 film version of Wyndham’s Day Of The Triffids and decided I wanted to write a horror plant story. That book comes out on January 18, 2022. I often find myself listening to songs and getting ideas for stories from them. ‘This Ole House’ by Shakin’ Stevens inspired a zombie apocalypse story; ‘Here I Go Again’ by Whitesnake inspired a story of therianthropes hunting one another; ‘Secret Love Song’ by Little Mix with Jason Derulo inspired a story about a love triangle with human, vampire and werewolf, published in the anthology Fornever After last year.

Next, there are dreams. This is not something I have used in over 15 years, but I used to keep a dream diary, where I would wake up and write the dreams I could remember. Some were only a few words of memory, and some were pages of description, but most were a paragraph or so. I reckon I managed to get 7 out of 10 dreams down on paper. I often dream with all senses firing, which made them some interesting bases for stories. The problem was, the stories my dreams led to tended to be very ordinary, and I have not sold any of the dozens that came from sleeping.

So, finally, stories have come from listening to people. I have heard a lot of tales of people’s lives. Occasionally I’ll just write one of them down, change some details and then a story suggests itself. A relative, who is an avid yachtsperson, told me about how they found an overturned boat between Queensland’s northern point and Papua New Guinea, with the very ill crew huddled underneath it, out of the sun. I took that, changed the crew to one, and had them taking refuge on the hull of the boat. It became very dark, but all from a story told to me by a relative.

And that’s where my ideas have come from in the course of my writing journey. Do not discount anything. Story ideas can be found anywhere.

So… do we get a conversation started? Where do you get your ideas from? Does anything I said resonate, or does it not work for you? Everything is fine; we are all different. What might work for me might not work for you, and what works for you might not work for me.

Sorry this was such a long one. Thanks for reading.