The Idea's The Thing--Getting and Working with Novel Ideas
A third solution to the no ideas problem is to read for ideas. Pick up a book, any book, with the idea of getting ideas out of it. Read five or ten pages and identify at least one idea. Say you’re reading a mystery and the murder involves a knife. What ideas can you get from that? Use a gun, or a lead pipe, or a 1964 Mustang. Whatever’s going on in your reading, use it to generate ideas by working against it. Change it. Make it your own.
You can also use an actual idea generator or idea service—the post office box in Schenectady. Yes, they exist! One to try is Schenectady Steeple at http://www.lynnabbey.com/people/lynn.abb... This one actually has an idea generator that spits out random suggestions. For a list of topics and ideas, visit http://www.fsu.edu/~CandI/ENGLISH/writin... . Another excellent, but not free, service is at www.ideas4writers.co.uk. Tell them you were referred by 425 and get a free month. This site offers LOTS of ideas, and is an excellent resource. At 14.99 British pounds for six months, it’s a pretty good buy.
What do you do once you have an idea? How do you make sure it has legs? How do you turn it into a novel? This is the hard part; getting the idea in the first place was easy.
The first thing to do is sketch out what comes next. And next, and next. Then ruthlessly go through your outline and ask yourself, could this happen? Would it happen? Is this realistic? Why would this happen? Quiz yourself on each event until you’re sure each event could, and would, happen. This is hard work, but it’s essential to getting your novel right.
Once you’ve gone through the plot and are sure it works, start writing it. If things go smoothly and the plot falls into place easily, you’ve probably got a good idea. If you’re plagued by false starts and just can’t seem to get “this piece” to fit in with “that piece,” then odds are there’s something wrong with your idea.
Once you’ve got a good chunk of your novel written, get an outside opinion on the pages you’ve completed and the plot outline you’ve put together. Ideally this opinion will come from a mentor or critique group and not from friends or family members, whose job is to say your work is great. Find someone who knows writing, preferably the
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