This may sound stupid, but I am quite earnest: how do you decide what to write?

[Flaxbee]

I don't think I'm a natural storyteller, but I have the ability to explain ideas well - or at least make them sound good.

I have an almost overpowering urge to write. But write what? That just stumps the hell out of me.

So - what inspires you? How you find what inspires you? I know there are some who just have stories bursting out of them -- that's not me.

Is this a totally ridiculous question? How do you start? Where does the idea come from?

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Everyone's different, of course, but for me the ideas are always there

They pop up from every moment of daydreaming or musing. The problem is deciding which ideas are worth spending time and effort on.

[Flaxbee]

2. I guess that's it.... there are always ideas, but sorting them out

and deciding what to focus on ends up short-circuiting my efforts. Sigh.

[valerief]

3. I'm about 50,000 words in my novel now. It's kind of an homage to Joan Crawford.

Just writing it for fun, as I do all my novels.

Last night I saw the start of a Robert Stack movie, the Lady and the Bullfighter. I needed a backstory sequence and decided, aha, I'll write about her fling with a bullfighter.

Of course, I've already mapped out my major plot points, but I like to allow lots of gaps where I can make creative decisions on the spot. This is one of them. I've incorporated backstory sections throughout the novel to break up the action.

Then again, I'm not a real published author. I just like to write, so my feedback can be taken with a grain of salt.

[HamdenRice]

4. Go out and get experience

I hope this doesn't sound judgmental, but if you don't know what to write, then you're probably not ready to write yet (I mean for others -- fine to write for yourself or in your diary).

If you haven't had an eventful life you can get ideas from strangers. Get one of those little steno pads/reporters pads, sit in a public place (bars are great) and listen to people's problems, jot down notes, describe characters.

There's more to write about than there is time to write it.

[sybylla]

5. Reading, and lots of it, especially in areas that interest you.

You read what interests you to begin writing about something that interests you, which makes the work so much more enjoyable. Additionally, if you read a lot you already know what's out there, how you might have done it better, taken a different angle on it or pursued it further. You also know what hasn't been done - at least not in awhile. When you read, look deeper than the subject presented. Look for structure, look for tone, look for voice.

I think this works whether you're writing fiction or non-fiction.

I write historical fiction, so besides reading in the genre, I read a lot of history books. I'm constantly recording snippets of things that actually happened either for use in a scene or to build an entire story around.

You want to become a writer, write about things that don't interest you.
You want to become a successful writer, find a way to write about things that interest you.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. Sit down and start writing.

At first it can be dificult, but with practice, it becomes an adiction.

Start with a journal, write down feelings, comments on events. Wright a charatcer description. Throw the character in a scene with someone else. Write out an argument between that character and his mother. Take another character. For practice, write a scene where Luke Skywalker asks his father, Darth Vader for an increase in his allowance. It sounds silly, but most writers know those characters and when you put them in an unfamiliar situation you can learn a lot about what to write.

Write what you read.

Don't be afraid to play with words.

Something will come.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. +20 and humans are actually natural story tellers

it is in the genes. Just that we no longer practice it as we used to before the rise of the modern age. We still do in simple things like the Joke.

So seat down and do it. You will find something to write about. Just write what you know.

[kestrel91316]

8. Well, my writing is nonfiction. I write about what I know about, or what interests me.

I'm utterly hopeless at fiction.

[AlienGirl]

9. By whatever thing in my head hurts the worst, yells the loudest, or wakes me up at night

I know too many horrible things, and sometimes one of them bugs me so badly that I have to secrete words around it, like an oyster secretes nacre around a sharp sand-grain. It's just that if I can make it so other people see it too, or feel it or hear it, then I'm not so alone with this stuff. That's where almost all my writing comes from.

I also know some wonderful things that I like trying to share, but the process for that doesn't seem as involuntary as the other, and I think the product of consciously trying to convey something like "the deep awe of looking into a parrot's eyes and knowing he's cladistically a dinosaur, ancient and profoundly different, and also seeing that he is a conscious being looking back and making opinions about me" isn't as compelling as the involuntary "squeeze a rat and he squeaks, squeeze me and I write" stuff.

Tucker

[NJCher]

10. just an idea

I have the ability to explain ideas well - or at least make them sound good.

You sound like you could do the kind of writing I do, which is persuasive writing:

--business proposals

--speeches for CEOs

--long sales letters

--stories for publicity purposes

Right now, for example, I am writing some long pieces on why students should consider a public administration major. The person who contracted me for this job is an officer in a professional society and he also heads up such a department at a university.

On the second one I list above, you would work (freelance) for the public affairs department of a large corporation.

These types of assignments pay very well and the competition isn't very intense. There aren't a lot of people who can do this, I find, and I'm in a very competitive part of the country.


Cher