On Writing: Creating Ideas

So, for part 2 of my On Writing Series, I thought I would share with you the things I do to try and generate ideas to write about. For me, I tend to use my Writers Notebook. If you look on writing websites, pretty much everyone is agreed that a writer should have a notebook to write down their ideas in. But, if you're anything like me, I have 50,000 gorgeous notebooks that I can write in - but they're so pretty that I don't want to ruin them with my scrawls! My solution? I made my own. My notebook is pretty messy. I've filled it with dialogue prompts, picture prompts, I have lists of possible title ideas that could spark a story idea, conversation that I've overheard, a list of my favourite books and movies, quotes on writing. I think there's a review that I got from a Fanfiction that I've written in there somewhere. Anything that will inspire an idea, or just get me writing is in the notebook.

I also have an envelope that contains a pile of one word writing prompts. With these, I like to play a game. I'll shake the envelope and then randomly pull four or five little slips of paper out. I then have to use these words somewhere in my piece. Doing this forces me to think outside of the box and be creative. Another thing that I use is paint cards. You know when you somewhere that sells paint, (supermarkets, home improvement warehouses) you have those racks of paint colour cards? If you're like me, you have an obsession with collecting these things. Why I do this, I have no idea, but I've been doing it since I was a kid. It wasn't until a writing activity that I did in college though, that I found a (kind of) useful thing to do with my collection. All of these paint cards have amazing, creative names and so I decided to use them to inspire a piece. If I'm stuck for something to write, or want to write something different, I simply close my eyes, and pick a paint card. Whatever that paint colour is called, inspires a piece in some way and it's amazing how many different ideas you can come up with, simply from a paint card.

My Writer's Notebook, Picture Prompts, Writing Prompt Envelope,
Paint Cards, My pile of one word prompts!

I have two plastic folders to keep all of these things in. One holds my notebook, the paint cards, the prompt envelope and some writing tips that I've found online and printed off for reference. The other, is substantially larger. This one holds a plastic wallet for my partial first draft (and by first draft I mean, less than a quarter of the book) as well as outlines, character arcs, world building - anything that I noted down on a scrap piece of paper when I was writing it, is in that wallet. In another, is some of my old college work and the subsequent marking that went with it. I love a lot of the ideas I came up with in those classes so most of the work is now in this folder and finally, there's another plastic wallet of newspaper clippings which could spark an idea. I have all sorts of articles in there - crimes committed in a way I've never heard of, new scientific discoveries, destination articles, funny articles (if you search hard enough, there are usually some in the paper!) all sorts.

My Writer's Notebook and my two folders - I think the pink
one is full to capacity right now!

Now, since this is a book review blog, I thought I would end with two of the writing books that I own and use a lot. The Writer's Digest: Guide to Good Writing, is full of articles from various authors with the earliest dating back to the 1920's! There are helpful hints and tips, and some ideas that you could use to generate your own writing ideas. It really is useful. The other book I use a lot is Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson. I have also had the Writing YA Fiction for Dummies book from the library, but I own the Writing Fiction for Dummies book and, although you can't really tell from the picture, it has seen a lot of love! Now I know people have mixed thoughts on the Dummy books but I think this one is great and has been really helpful to me. It walks you through everything, from preparation to writing to editing and revising the first draft.

The Writer's Digest: Guide to Good Writing
Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson

I hope you've enjoyed having a look into some of the ways I come up with and store ideas for my writing and let me know if you've enjoyed this post!