Find Your Next Story Idea: Creative Writing Mastery

1. Introduction: We have all heard the term brightest block. And chances are with pain in an argument or discussion about it. One bowl, say, writer's block doesn't exist while others are firm believers in it. Here's the thing. We can discuss, motivation, discipline, and productivity. All day long. There are many opportunities to muse about the inner workings of creativity, but this only takes us so far. Regardless of your retain, its vital to have a story ID you are passionate about. But hang on. How do you even find that? I Madeline rise giants? And I've written two novels, as well as countless short stories. None of this would've occurred if I didn't have an idea worth caring about, the best writing comes from passion or the heart. However, to find an idea that's right for you, I suggest following my method. This formula doesn't promise quick results. In fact, it's built on slow, careful growth. This seven proposed methods are not instant and you should view them as a long-term journey. Although this course is shaped around creative writing, there's an awesome focus on history, reading the online world. And more than that, you'll learn some of the best practices for note-taking an organization. We'll finish off with the class project. This is creative writing mastery, and let's get started. 2. What Is An Idea?: Wait a minute. What even is an ID? Am I referring to? A premise, a theme, a character, and events, or setting? Well, all of them. A full length novel usually requires multiple ideas. For example, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. You can break that novel down into various ideas and concepts that went gradually combined over time. Right now, in this course, we are focusing on just one ID. The first break of the house, My advice is to try not to force this process. There's nothing wrong with trying out ideas, but it's not wise to overdo it. You must let your process and engagement with ideas come naturally. There are two things you must know. First is that this will take time, sometimes months or years. This doesn't mean you can't write until you find the perfect idea. The second thing you must know that ideas will sometimes only really develop once the writing stops. For example, your idea may be a premise, but when you start writing, you begin to notice key nuances and ways to put your own twist. Some say ideas are useless on their own. And I never agreed with that. It's better to say an ID is not enough. You still need to focus on your craft and to creativity. 3. Having A Good Writing Habit: It's absolutely important that you write consistently. This doesn't mean every day as every writer differs, but you must incorporate writing into your life. And this means setting time aside to work on your craft. There's a good reason why. That's because your brain will know what to do with your ideas and determine the suitability. But this can only occur if you have the familiarity with creating pros. Another good reason to have a writing habit is that ideas, Aphasia, a Lacey my experience. But what should you write about? You can find writing prompts are mine from simple search. Or you can get a photograph tried to recreate a story out of it. Some get this started writing with fanfiction. And it's not for everyone, but it may be for you. But developing a good writing habit takes time. And honestly, there'll be instances when you struggle. A good way to overcome this is by considering your creative habits with a rating or variety. 4. Approaches To Finding Your Next Story: Welcome to the next stage. Before you become familiar with the seven methods, it's vital to understand the many approaches one can have in finding ideas. There are two, passive and active. Passive approach is letting ideas come to you as opposed to the active, which is taking them out. The problem with the passive approach is that ideas might never come and you'll be stuck with no inspiration. However, the active approach just feels forced and I'm creative for most. This is why you must find the sweet spot in the middle. You can find new ideas for stories by actively participating in certain activities and routines. But the ideas I find often come passively as a result of active behavior. Therefore, you must develop competence in managing both the passive and active aspects of idea generation. The next seven videos explained certain methods to find your next story ID. Let's get into it. 5. Method One: Literature & Cinema: To succeed as a writer, you must understand storytelling, including the elements of a narrative. The preferred way is through studying novels and films. However, this is not the only benefit of reading literature and watching movies. They can spot high days two, through engaging with fiction. You'll start to observe what you like and don't like about particular stories. Even better. You'll begin to understand what stories you want to tell. Those who are well-versed in literary and cinematic history can see the gaps, the stories that aren't being told. This is not about becoming an expert or a literary critic, but having awareness of where you can fit in a broader storytelling context. I also recommend considering other viewpoints on literature and cinema. Rave reviews and comments. You don't have to agree or disagree. But consider the variety of perspectives one can have on a piece of storytelling. The reason why I emphasize rating and watching films is because you must open your mind to many possibilities. Store I can go. Problem many writes his face is believing they must write under overbearing rules. There is no room for creativity. That's not true. And it's only through careful reading and viewing. Can the mind overcome such barriers? 6. Method Two: History: History is certainly packed with amazing individuals who do remarkable things. Best of all, this can be perfect inspiration for any writer. Those familiar with a Song of Ice and Fire or Game of Thrones can recall George RR Martin's references to the medieval or arthrosis between the English houses, York and Lancaster. Even the Red Wedding was inspired by history. Engaging with history on its own is fascinating and worthwhile. But it's great for writers who require passion, creativity, and ideas. There are many ways to study and incorporate history into your life. Rating historical non-fiction, traveling, watching documentaries, letting languages, visiting museums and galleries, and having discussions with those who lived through certain events. You can develop an interest in history through fiction to begin with. As there are many great films and novels depicting historical scenarios and events. But I must advise you this. Make sure you have your own interests. The greatest scholars of history follow their own heart and curiosities. While it's developing competence and critical thinking, there is much to say on learning history with advanced methods and skills and languages, manuscripts and more. But for now, keep it simple by finding ways to incorporate history into your life. 7. Method Three: Daily Life: Every day we engage with news and current events. Outliers, though they may not seem adventurous, are packed with mini stories and encounters. This is why it's great to take inspiration from your daily life and current affairs. You can take inspiration from politics, a variety of cultures, philosophies, industries, and communities. For example, novel and film. The Devil Wears Prada exists out of the cane interests in the fashion magazine industry. In New York City. The 2010 film, The Social Network, which tells the beginning of Facebook. The client and Noble Prize winning author, because there were comments on society and human relationships and never let me go. And Clara and The Sun, even if you write fantasy or a so-called escape a stronger, you can still take inspiration from daily life and current affairs. Favorite example is American Gods by Neil Gaiman, among many. But how do you translate contemporary affairs into captivating stories? One of my favorite methods is reading magazines. There are some bright ones in foreign affairs, beauty, science, health, fashion, politics, economics, religion and philosophy. The simple act of reading a magazine can spark ideas. I also find that writing about contemporary issues and concerns as valuable fuel to my writing practice. It's great motivation to know that what you write about matters. And you can create valuable connections with other human beings by taking an interest in the world around you, there's a greater chance of sparking your inner storyteller. 8. Method Four: Online: We truly live in a digital age. That means Rachel says Fulbrighters are available on our fingertips. You can access news, social media and blogs, which can help you find ideas for characters, themes, and storylines. But considering the amounts of content online, this can prove challenging. Remember what I said about passive results to an active habit. This supplies here. Just use the Internet however you want. And let's ideas come naturally. But whenever USA watching a YouTube video, you may want to read the comments and get other perspectives. This can be a great way to get the few points as well as ideas. Also, search engines such as being duckduckgo, Yandex, Google are fantastic. If you need to search for information. I also suggest image searches. As a single pitcher can spark a whole story. On sites such as Pinterest, you can create mood boards and combine multiple pitches and quite together. This is a great way to solidify your ideas even further. 9. Method Five: Art: A method I like. It's not for everyone, is to analyze art, whether illustrations, sculpture, paintings are ceramics. The visual arts on first glance, differ strongly to fiction. The forma is more sensory, whereas literature is intuitive. However, a writer needs both. You can use arts as a springboard for a story ID. I suggest, like I do with my previous suggestions, letting art come naturally to you. Sometimes taking something out can feel unnatural and anti creativity. But pay attention to artworks that you like or don't like. And consider why. It may help to use up theory, which the Internet offers many resources on. But develop a mindset of looking at a painting and seeing possible narratives. Great artists such as Peter Paul Rubens composed from mythology, for example. What's great about art is that it can flesh out your ideas even further. If you have a story IT, you can search for artworks that bear resemblance to Characters, Setting, themes, moods, and ideas. This will assist with description and immersing the reader within the story. I also suggest reading books about art history or contemporary design for further inspiration. 10. Method Six: The Lives of Others: Think of the people you've met who inspire, who linger in your mind because they have at fascinating their lives like yours, contain multiple stories, can be a terrific base for characters. Often, characters can seem static and unrealistic because their behaviors, mannerisms, alien to actual human behavior. Writers have the opportunity to study the decisions and rationales presence in everyone. Whether it's a family member, a stranger, someone you've just spent, consider Who in your life has made an impression on you. There's no reason why you can't use their personality and philosophy as inspiration. To conclude, I understand the concern rights as half of exploiting other slides without permission. That's a really valid concern that many writers have. However, I cannot make your creative decisions for you. However, I would say it's normal for the people you encounter to shape your writing. After all, this fact in every work of fiction. 11. Method Seven: Autobiography: Of course, you can draw on your own life for ideas. All authors where the conscious of this are not inject their personality, beliefs, ideas, and life into their stories. In many ways. Reading a book is getting to know the author on an intimate and symbolic level. That's why so many loved literature as it's about creating connections with someone, they may live quite a different life. This doesn't mean you must write self inserts or make characters identical TO life story or so. The reason why you're right is deeply personal and not everyone is the same. It's ultimately your choice. How you incorporate aspects of your life into creative pros. The freedom is all yours. However, a word of caution. It's easy to become so attached to a story that you can't make necessary edits or changes to improve it. This is why I suggest creating some distance between yourself and your characters. Of course, this will differ from writer to writer. That regardless, it is crucial. 12. Notetaking: Effective note-taking is crucial for all writers who wanted to develop and expand on exciting ideas. Now, you don't have to stop journaling or write anything down this moment. But have a place where they're on an app like Notion or a physical notebook where you can jot down ideas that come to you. There's something spellbinding about seeing an ID written down that makes it feel more real. This also frees up mental space to generate more ideas or to focus on something. It's whenever I write down an ID, I like to connect it with other ideas or flesh it out further. This is why note-taking is quite crucial to novel writing. I also suggest having an internal structure within the notes with headings, separators and more. The point of note-taking isn't just to remember what you've written, but to crystallize your perceptions and thoughts, feel free to use your own style as it can be really fun to have a personal aesthetic with note-taking. 13. Class Project: This class project is simple. Write down three habits, lifestyle changes you can develop to discover more ideas for fiction. It's up to you whether they are drastic or minor, but ensure they are feasible. For example, a habit could be to read our journals or to visit a local museum. Other ones might relate to learning languages or taking photographs while hiking. Use your imagination freely and make sure you post your work in the class project section. To make this project even more fun, I suggest using images such as illustrations to make your suggestions seem more vivid. 14. Conclusion: Again, I must stress patients and finding ideas for stories. It's hard to go from 0 IDs to instantly having the greatest idea ever. Rather, you must consider how your brain works and what stories interest to you. None of these seven methods will appeal equally to every writer. But I hope this course sets you on a fulfilling path of creating unique stories. Thank you very much for taking the Skillshare class. And you are most welcome to leave any questions or feedback in the discussion section below. Reviews and suggestions are always appreciate it. Don't forget your class project or whatever you do. Keep writing. I'll see you soon.