Ideas and Inspiration
Before writing your story, you need ideas. What is the story about? Who are the main characters? If you can’t think of these then you need some inspiration.
Where do you get ideas from? I’ve got some ideas for stories after reading books that describe mysteries such as ghosts and remote viewing. I wrote a short story “Hollow” after reading an account of a hollow earth story that I read in a book on “the exploration of the unknown”. These type of books can provide interesting mysteries for your characters to discover and can be a starting point for a great adventure.
You can also find books about ghost stories that can provide a little background into how someone became a ghost. This can provide inspiration to write about someone in similar circumstances. Maybe in your story, the person who became a ghost didn’t die but exacted their revenge. Maybe they forgave and forgot, how different would the lives of the people involved be after this change?
Myths, legends and folklore can provide moral tales that you can modernise. Adapt the meaning and the message behind the story for your own purposes.
Read news stories and try to imagine you were a witness to the event described in the news item. Maybe there’s been a kidnapping or a mugging. How would a someone with a completely different personality and outlook on life react? Would they react the same way as you? Would a have-a-go hero have saved the day?
You can buy books about true crimes. Can you character re-enact the crime? Do they bungle the heist and get everything wrong? Will it make a comedy?
