How to idea
"Particles of raw inspiration sleet through the universe all the time. Every once in a while, one of them hits a receptive mind, which then invents DNA or the flute sonata form or a way of making light bulbs wear out in half the time. But most of them miss. Most people go through their lives without being hit by even one. Some people are even more unfortunate. They get them all."
- Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters
When setting out to write a story, your first challenge is to come up with an about. You have to aim your words at something after all. As I've been working on my writing and hanging out on adjacent forums, a question that often pops up is how to come up with such things. How do you find original ideas?
The answer differs per person and I always find these quite interesting. Other authors, be it of books or different types of media, are often high up on the mention list. Then there are other arts, like music or painting. But also things like daydreams, brisk walks and so on.
(I'm less a fan of the "just take two existing things and mash them together" approach, which feels very.. contemporary, but that too can be a start.)
The point is: you can find inspiration for ideas anywhere.
The next obstacle is identifying the good ones. Sadly, there are a lot fewer answers available there. Really, the only way to figure it out is to work on them. You can start with a list of two dozen or so ideas and whittle them down to begin with, but eventually you'll have to just write to see which resonate with you most. And then you'll drop some, put some in the fridge for later and, probably, since that's the writer's curse, come up with some more.
For the Remos saga, I actually came up with the middle part first. Tiger and Crane started as a Wuxia-style fantasy that I fleshed out over a couple of years (I hate to keep doing this, but more in a later post). It's self-contained, but with some questions left over. I started trying to answer those, but found myself pulled into other stories for a while. When I came back to it, I attempted mixing in several genres and themes. These ranged from a science fiction-y origins story to an only tangentially related thriller. It really wasn't until a few months ago that I came up with the "right" beginning and end.
And nobody knows where those'll be in another few.
The point is, the only way to find out if something's good to write about is by writing. It's not the most profound aphorism, but it's held true for me. Worst case, you get better at the work. Best case, the work transcends the idea state into something more.
Next week: The Curse of Worldbuilding. Perhaps a title better fitting other holidays, but I'll bring tinsel to even things out. See you then!