Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Coming up with Short Story Ideas
The first submission for my writing group is due on the last Tuesday of the month. The first meeting is the following Tuesday. This is going to be the pattern going forward with the group. That way everybody has a week to read all the submissions and prepare their comments. This is an important part of the writing group. In a previous writing group I was a part of there was one member who would not read the submissions before the meeting. This led to a lot of awkward moments where he expected us to simultaneously accept his excuses for not reading our work and provide comments on his material. This kind of thing can act as a poison to the writing group. People resent the member for not doing the same 'work' as the rest of them. This is why the deadline is set a week before the meeting for this group. There should be few excuses with a week and weekend to read the submissions. That's all that is really needed too. Read the submissions and comment on what feelings the story inspired in you, and what you liked or disliked.
Of course all of the above on being a good group member is useless if you don't have a submission to begin with. This month and most months my group will be working on short stories. When writing a short story the first step is coming up with the idea. The idea doesn't have to be a completely plotted ready to write story, it can just be a scene you wish to write, or a vision of some new technology, or magical wonder. The point of the idea is that it gives you a place to start (or finish) and the other stuff is just words on paper that will eventually be a story. I find many times that as I begin to write I really don't know what my story will be about or how it will end, but as long as I keep exploring the idea the story will reveal itself.
Where to get ideas? I have a few places I like to go for inspiration.
More Below...
First off by just paying attention to the news, any news, provides all sorts of fuel for the idea machine. I tend to mix my reading between technology news, political and legal news, and oddball stories - 'Man bites dog' sorta thing. Beyond the news there are some tried and true places for inspiration. One I particularly like, more so because it helps me refine ideas, rather than generate them is The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Cliches.
Some of my inspirational links:
Biology in Science Fiction
Daily Space
NewsNow Science
MIT Technology Review
*added May 15th 09
I also suggest browsing the articles on this blog tagged Story Ideas», they don't always explicitly spell out ideas, but can be great for inspiration.
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2 comments:
Hey there! This looks to be a cool blog! Thanks for posting these pieces. I chanced upon this post during my quest for fresh ideas about how to brainstorm SF short story kernels. I want to find reasonably ways to cast about and find something to write, even if nothing's flowing of its own volition. At any rate, I've seen the Grand List of Overused Cliches before, but now I'm curious about how you actually use it refine or work on your own ideas!
It's not such a big list, I'm sure that there are many more examples of clichés out there. I use it more of a guide of what not to do. Or more accurately where are the well travelled story paths and plot shortcuts that everybody has been using. Am I using that in my story today?
Take one of your stories, hold it in your mind, now try to apply those clichés to your story. If any stick, or match up, than that is where you need to refine your story. Either make sure it's a unique or good example of that cliché or find something better to put in that place.
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