Become an Idea Catcher

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." -- Orson Scott Card

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." -- Lord Byron

So you've decided you want to write, whether for yourself or for publishing. The next problem you might run into is what to write about. For some, ideas come easily and frequently. It's as if the creative muses love them and whisper constant inspiration in their ears. For others, sometimes me included, we have to work for the muse to talk to us. We have to search for inspiration.

Are there really ideas everywhere? It seems impossible, but it's not. We can find all sorts of stories if we pay attention to what's going on around us. If you are at a loss for what to write, here are some ideas to help you out:

Ask, "What if?" You will find "what if" is the greatest question a writer can ask. What if animals can really speak English, they just choose not to? What if there's a whole secret world underground? What if the Bermuda Triangle is really a door to an alternate universe? What if...?

The key to "what if" is to keep asking until you've got a full story plot.

The five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) play a major role in creating a story. Things that are apart of everyday living, like nature, are great for inspiring. When you walk past that creepy tree in your neighbor's yard, can you insert it in a story? A certain smell often brings up an image, like when you smell homemade bread do you think of your grandma's kitchen? The one I specifically love is listening to music. Music can give us hundreds of ideas if we sit back and let our mind go wherever it wants. And how often do you listen to music? If you don't very often, start. And don't just have one genre, like rock or metal. Listen to all kinds, even if you don't necessarily love it, just to see what kind of images come about.

"I keep little notepads all over the place to write down ideas as soon as they strike, but the ones that fill up the quickest are always the ones at my nightstand." -- Terri Guillemets

Dreams are another wonderful tool to the writer. Sometimes we can dream up the wildest things that could make a really good novel. That's why we should put a notebook on our nightstands just in case. When we wake up in the middle of the night, we can roll over and write just a summary of what we'd just seen. Who knows? Maybe the vision of one in the morning can be the next bestseller.

The last suggestion is to read, read, and read. Of course, no one is going to copy an exact idea. But there is no general NEW idea. What makes a book unique is being able to combine old ideas in new ways. Take that idea and make it your own. If you're reading Harry Potter, think, "What if---" See? There's the question again! "---instead of a wizards' school there's a school for spies? Or a school for evil geniuses? Or...?" If you're a Twilight fan, maybe you'll think, "What if it's a boy who falls in love with someone he's not supposed to? Is she a fallen angel? A magic creature? The daughter of an enemy?" You never know what ideas you can get by reading.

As writers, we are story detectives. The best way to find a great story is to hold up our magnifying glass and search for clues that will lead us to find that story. So go on out and round up those ideas! Good luck!

What Makes a Writer?

"Writers are just people who have a whole lot on the inside that they need to get to the outside, with pen and paper as their preferred method of transport." - Graycie Harmon

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." - Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

Some people assume to be a writer, you must have the desire to be published one day. Or maybe you have to be one of those people who spends all their time writing and re-writing, checking spelling and grammar and all that fun stuff. Not true. Anyone can be a writer, even those who didn't exactly get "A"s in English.

The purpose of writing isn't to use big words that most readers would need a dictionary to define or to even have readers. The purpose of writing is to take what you have in your mind or your heart and transfer it to paper. You don't need to be a word wizard. You don't need to be a great story teller. Just find a pen and notebook or open up Word on your computer and begin.

Now you must ask yourself: how?

I liked "Red" Smith's statement, "...open a vein". Everyone has a story they want to tell, whether it's to a massive audience or to the lines of their paper. Maybe you've had an idea for a while and you wish someone would take that idea from you and write a book. YOU can write that book. Give it a try. Or others maybe just had a crappy day and they don't feel like anyone is listening to them. Writing is like therapy...only free. Carve every emotion you have on paper, and you'll feel so much better.

Once you find what's inside of you, let it go. You're not allowed to keep secrets from the notebook. Slice that vein open and bleed all over the page. Put down your hopes, your dreams. Write about your fears, your confusion, your uncertainty. People are great listeners when they want to be, but pen and paper exist to hear you.

So what if you can't remember the difference between "to", "two", or "too"? Who cares if you misspell every word you write or forget to capitalize names? It doesn't matter in the beginning. Just write for the sake of putting down thoughts, experiences, and feelings.

Of course, if you want to be published, you have to be concerned with grammar. But the point of having a rough draft is to make it rough. The first time around, put everything down you can think of. When the next drafts come around, then you can smooth out the bumpy road.

Just remember, writing is supposed to be fun. No matter what you write or why, it needs to be enjoyable, or there's simply no point to it.

Happy writing!

Advice for Writers

After making this blog, I wasn't sure what to do with it exactly. I've decided to turn it into an advice blog for people like me who love writing.

I'm not exactly a published author yet, but I hope to be. I've got a lot of ideas for novels, and it'd be amazing to have those novels on the shelves of some of my favorite bookstores. I also decided I'd like to make a Writer's Club. If I ever succeed with that, I can post our discussions on the blog.

Every writer needs advice, and every writer has advice to give. So over the next few days, I'm going to plot out things I've learned and would like to write about. Maybe someone will read it and find it helpful, or maybe no one will read it at all. The important thing is that I'll have written it down just in case.