Transcripts
1. Welcome: Where do you get
your ideas from? It's a question that
most frightens drink. Generally it's made with
a shrug the shoulders, roll of the eyes,
or flip the reply. Because often riders
simply don't know. Most writers will tell you that Writing ideas come
from everywhere. As Stephen King said, I can tell you about
50% of the time where I got the idea and
the rest of it, like getting an idea in a dream. I can't really remember
where they came from. Carotid seeking out new ideas or feeling creatively blocked? That's a frustrating answer. Dig a little deeper
and you'll find that creativity has many
sources of inspiration. Knowing how to tap into
your creativity is one of the first and most
important steps in creating a story that moves the reader
and keeps your attention. As the author, Neil Gaiman says, you get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference
between writers and other people is that we
noticed when we're doing it. Hello and welcome. I'm bonnie Baguley and I'm very happy to have you join me. I'm an author and the founder Waldman credit site designed to help writers get inspired
and find NetFlow. In this class, we're going
to be digging deep into some practical tips for
generating unique story ideas. And all you need to get
started is a dash of car. We're going to begin by talking about the brightest prison. This is a term you
might not have heard before that refers to
the writers mindset. It means approaching
ideas with wonder and giving yourself a chance to
explore different options. We'll discuss how you can
follow your curiosity and silence your inner
critic will bring brainstorming ideas as we worked her range
of Fun Exercises designed to help you loosen up and get in touch with
your creative side. Remember that the
goal of this course is to find what works for you. Exercises will be a better
fit for you than others. This is all about
taking what you need and discarding
what she don't. Come to this course
with an open-mind. Be ready to let your
imagination run wild. Give yourself space to
play and experiment. You'll probably be surprise by the results. Let's get started.
2. Don't Overlook Daily Life: Let's begin with everyday life. Many writers think
that they have to seek out and exotic
setting or have some sort of
extraordinary experience for the story to be interesting. And yet often the best
subject matter is that, that your reader can relate to. It's right there in front of us. It's the daily routine that we very often take for granted. Begin by getting in touch with your sense of
curiosity and wonder. Tune into the world around you. Take note of what grabs your
attention during the day. Ask what if questions
that toy with reality. What if the lady next door
had a secret identity? What if I founded a coded
message in a bookstore? What if someone I loved
mysteriously vanished? If you're still having
trouble coming up with ideas, Here's an easy exercise
for you to try. This week. You're going to
set off for a walk alone. Now, don't forget to
take a notepad and pen and leave your phone
at home or on a line mode. Take a street that
you haven't been down before and her shop that
you've never been into. I want you to take a note of all the little details that
you see along the way. Be curious and ask yourself why things all the way they are and how could they be different? Embrace anything
unusual or unexpected. Watch people in the street, explore different
settings, and think deeply about random
conversations. You want to train yourself to seek out inspiration everywhere. So daydream, ponder, and question any commonly
held beliefs. Notice when you have
an idea and let your mind expand upon it. Allow your thoughts to take
on a life of their own
3. Delve Into the Past: History can provide a delightful smorgasbord
of story ideas. You can still see your
ideas from the news, historical events, documentaries
and history podcasts. Take for example, can fall it snowballed the
pillars of the Earth, which was inspired by his fascination with
medieval architecture. The Paris WAF, by
pulling the claim. A fictionalized account of N
is Hemingway's marriage to his first wife,
Water for Elephants, a story band and 1930s
traveling circus that grew out of the oath is interesting vintage
circus photography. Seek out stories that peak your curiosity and let your
imagination filling the gaps. You might want to tell an accurate or
fictionalized version of a true story. You might want to use a
historical event as a backdrop to the action or just give a completely different account. The key here is to use a real events as a
jumping off point. Take the most compelling
occurrences, relationships, or emotions within
a real-life story and use it to create
something new. Here's an exercise for
delving into the Past. I want you to think of a
time period and event, a setting or historical figure
that you're interested in. Now write down everything
you know about this topic and focus on
why it interests you. Research the event, the setting, the historical
character to build on your knowledge and extract
any further ideas. While it's important to get the facts correct at this point, you're really just
seeking inspiration. So look for those elements
that just spark your interest. Now you're going to take
these initial ideas that you had and blend it with
your historical research. Ask yourself at this point, is there a story here? What might've happened
behind the scenes? Consider what fictional
elements he could weaving to pull out something. Clarify your story question. What is the central
question that the reader wants answered as
they read the story? What question would keep
you turning the pages? And that's it. It's time to
start writing your outline. What a precaution here, it's really easy with
historical fiction to get bogged down into
too much research. History can be
absolutely fascinating, but ultimately, you
want to be riding. So give yourself a
set amount of time to research and then
just get down to work
4. Revisit Your Favourites: Revisit Your favorite stories. Is there a reason that these stories have
become your favorites? How do they keep you engaged
in turning the pages? Consider the works
that you admire. Whether this is one of
the first books you truly loved or something that really just caught your
attention recently. As you reconnect with the story, think about what makes
it so compelling. What are the elements within the story that really
spark your imagination? Fun Exercises to do here is
to take a scene or pace of dialogue from one of your
favorite Stories and work it. Consider how prequel or
a sequel would play out. Change the characters,
adding an unexpected twist, or use a fresh setting. Perhaps it's the
overarching theme that really makes
this story work. How could you take that theme
and use it for your own? Regardless of what
elements you take. This is all about giving
the story of fresh touch. So go beyond the
original work and see what new stories
you can pull from it.
5. Draw From Traditional Stories: A traditional story
is one that's been retold and repeated
for generations. It's the very towels, the myths, the urban legends that are
woven into our culture. There are countless reasons
that fairy tales and folklore have transcended
through multiple generations. They captivating
and they often hold the key to valuable lessons. Think back to all
the towels that you grew up with and try and uncover the story within
them that's never been told. As With Your favorite stories, consider changing the setting. Give them a modern
twist to fit into everyday society or place
them into a dystopian future. Or maybe you want
to tell the story from an ultimate point of view. Instead of having the
protagonist stake the stage, consider the Ark
of the antagonist or the supporting characters. How could you develop
the goals and their backstories to
bring the story to lie. Introduce some new elements. Think of plot twists,
alternate endings. Could you increase
the stakes and really make things harder
for your characters? Your characters
have to struggle. The greater the final
payoff and the most satisfying the story
will ultimately be. There's always more than
one way to tell a story. And the options for
adding a new spin to an existing story as
seemingly endless
6. Connect With Your Muse: Photos or music, or the perfect building blocks
for original Stories. Explore other forms of
artistic expression. Hit to an Art Gallery. Spend some time on Pinterest, look over a few
vintage photographs or listen to the songs you love. Pull apart the lyrics of
any songs and poetry, and imagine what
they might mean. As a storyteller, you
might find that a piece of Art or music evokes
a certain mood, a time or setting. Tap into these to
get in touch with your characters and what
they might be feeling. Here's an exercise
for you to try. I want you to select an image
that grabs your attention. You could check a
stock image sites such as Unsplash or Pixabay. Now write down the
first thing that comes into mind when
you see this image. What are your first impression? If there's figures in the image, consider what they're doing. What assumptions could you
make about this image? What does the setting tell you? What conversations could you
imagine taking place here? What's going on
behind the scenes? Based on your impressions? Write a one paragraph summary. Now using the Snowflake Method, you're going to expand this
paragraph at her page. You want to expand upon your initial ideas and really just flesh out your characters. Consider what their
daily lives look like. What do they struggle
with? What do they want? This should really just
give you the basis of an interesting
and unique story. Using visual prompt can be a really fantastic way to think outside of the box and open
yourself up to new ideas. Of course, you can always adapt this exercise for other materials
such as poems and songs
7. Use Your Life Experiences: Do you have an
interesting luck story? You don't need to be
famous or changed the world in order to
write a compelling story. In fact, it's often the
daily struggles and triumphs that readers
can really relate to. Think of all the moments
within your own life that have taught your lessons or change
to you are the struggles. These pivotal points
of change can really form the
backbone to a story. There are many different ways to use Life experience as a story. One of the first decisions
you need to make is whether you want your story to be
fiction or nonfiction. You going to try and
stick to the facts. You just use Your memories
as a jumping off point. Maybe you want to weave in some real life scenes
to your story, but change the overall outcome. The beauty of this is that
you really get to decide. Here's a little exercise
to get you started. Make sure you've got a
pen and paper on hand. Now I want you to
close your eyes and think back to an interesting
event in your life. Choose something at random, something that really
just stands app. You're going to
explore that memory. Where were you? Who's there? What happened? How did
this event make you feel? Now I want you to
dig a little deeper. What sensory feelings
do you recall? What tastes, sounds, and smells are associated
with this memory? How did the event change you? How did you live
altar as a result? Now, open your eyes, grab your pen and paper
and write everything down. You might want to do this
in the form of a mindmap, bullet points, or simple
stream of consciousness. He doesn't really matter what
form you use at this point. It's just about getting
the story down on paper. Once you've finished, put it to one side and give it
some time to marinate, and then returned to
what you've written. Now ask yourself, could you work this scene into the
outlines of a story? What are the underlying
things here? What are the struggles? By looking back over the Past
with a fresh perspective, you might find a story
that you've never noticed
8. Combine Two Concepts: This is a simple and
popular writing prompt using a magazine or newspaper. Take an interesting headline
from the front section that open to a random page and take the next headline that
captures your interest. Now I want you to combine these
two headlines and come up with as many one-sentence
story status as possible. You can do the same
thing using a book.
9. Start Small: Start with a short story. Novels and longer works
can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming even for
the most dedicated Rida. Starting with the short story, provides a framework
that you flesh out into something much more
larger and complex. And it isn't half of
scary. To get started. I want you to sit her writing prompts to come up with
a short story idea. We're just going to
use a writing prompt. There are plenty online. You can simply Google
writing prompt or search had a specific
property, new genre. For example, writing prompts, romance or writing
prompts. Thriller. Now set a timer for
2 min and come with, come up with as many
story ideas as possible. When that timer stops, I want you to look
at your list of story ideas and see if
anything stands out. Is there anything you really feel passionate
to write about? Then begin with a short story. You can also set
the timer for this, and you might want to
briefly outline it beforehand or just
dive straight in. The beauty of a short
story is that it forces you to be succinct. There's no room here for
unnecessary narratives. In a short story,
every word counts. This really forces you to
focus on the progression of the story and immediately
capture the rate is attention. So don't discredit
how beneficial is short story can be in jump
starting your creativity. Even if you're story doesn't
turn into something bigger, it might be just what
you need to start writing again and
gain that traction.
10. Shape It Around Character: Who said that plot
has to come first, many authors begin brainstorming
with the character. I want you to develop your
character as you would a story idea by asking
yourself questions. What drives this character? What obstacles are
standing in their way? How would they change
throughout the story? Give you a Character
compelling goal, and a well-developed
backstory to show why they act and think
the way that they do. As any Lamar advisors, find out what each character
cares about the most in the world because
then you would have discovered what's at stake. Find a way to express
this discovery in action. Then let your people said about finding are holding onto or
defending whatever it is. But something must be at
stake or you will have no tension and you read his
will not turn the pages. Above all, avoid making
your characters perfect. There's nothing more
boring and urine inducing the reading about a character
that can do no wrong. When you give you Character
strengths and weaknesses, you're really making them real. You're giving your reader a
reason to cheer for them. We can empathize with their struggles and we can
rejoice in their successes. It also allows the character to evolve and change as
the story progresses
11. Start At The End: You might find it easier to brainstorm your story
with the ending in mind by starting with a rough idea at the beginning
and a clear ending.
12. Final Thoughts: Thanks so much for joining
me for this course. I hope that you've learned
some Fun techniques for formulating story ideas. And you've now got a bunch of ideas that have ready to go. The next step is to
write your outline. And if you want help with this, I have another course plot your normal that
steps you through four very different
ways that you can easily lay out
your storyline. As you approach the first
step to create your story, There's one vital thing that
you need to keep in mind. No matter what the story
you plan on telling, make sure that it's
one that excites you. Choose the right idea
and you'll be stepping into a world that you're
passionate about. So ask yourself if the
story through OCI, it's essential that the idea you choose is one
that lie to up, so you can deliver those same
emotions to your reader. Think of yourself as capturing
some of the magic here, the magic that within an idea. And finally take heart
in the fact that good ideas are only
part of the equation. Planning is essential, but don't let it distract
you from writing. Began it now, while the story is still fresh in your mind, before you have a chance to overanalyze,
over-complicate the plot. It's likely that your first
draft will be terrible. So it should be at this stage. It's all just about
getting that story down as any rider will tell you. Writing is about perseverance. Writings about revising,
editing, rewriting, revising editing,
rewriting, so on and so on. Until you have a story
that you're happy with. Dream, break, and dive
on in these stories, limited only by
your imagination. Thanks again for joining me
and I'll see you next time. Until then. Happy writing
Bonnie Baguley, Author I Fiction & Creativity
