Have you written a book?

[CAJ1]

I would like to challenge myself and do something different. I was thinking about writing a book and came across www.lulu.com. Has anyone got any tips on coming up with ideas for stories and any other useful info which may help me?

TIA

[daniela31]

I think most writers' stories are based on past experience and most of their characters are based on people they know or have known. So compiling a list of possible characters for a story would be a good start, with a brief synopsis of their traits.
Likewise with different scenarios for a story.

I have heard that that's mainly what writers have on their study walls....lists, lists and more lists.

[CAJ1]

Thanks daniela31, I'll maybe start with my first list..

Have you ever thought about writing a book Zacsmaster? I think you'd do well!

[CAJ1]

You could give me the ideas and I would write them for you! lol :o)

[daniela31]

My late brother always wanted to write a book.
He even had his opening lines, but never got around to it.

'Hey up, yer silly bu8ger....what do yer think tha doing?'

[saxy_jag]

Zacsmaster's is good advice - write what you know. That doesn't have to mean, however, that your characters, places and stories have to be exact copies of what you know. Apart from leaving yourself open to possible libel, it tends to churn out very boring copy. I used to do this, but have been writing for five years now and my characters are developing into composite types, little bits of different people put into once character. For instance, I have character at the moment who's a successful football manager. He has all the glamour of David Beckham, and the ridicule of his intellect that goes with it, but he also has the astuteness and shrewdness of Martin O'Neill, a hero of mine.

I'd also advise you to read as much as you can, if you don't already. I was once told 'read what you want to write and write what you'd want to read', and that's a good maxim. Think about the genres and forms of your favourite reading - westerns, thrillers, poetry, short stories or whatever, and consider whether you'd like to try out something similar.

If you have a genre you'd like to write in, try to read as much of it as you can, to see how it is and is not done. Read other genres too. I write teen fic, which I read a lot of, but I'll also read grown up crime thrillers, biographies and a range of non-fiction, all of which just keeps on feeding my brain with ideas, techniques and useful facts.

Also, carry a notebook around with you. You can get ideas at any time, so it helps to have something to hand to jot them down on. I once knew a lady who wasn't averse to sitting in public toilets, writing out ideas on loo paper lest she forget them.

Finally, my favourite writers' website: http://www.writersdock.org

Lots of advice there.

[boogieboogie]

you can't ask for ideas for stories seriously. not becasue this is pilfering but because being a writer is about having a passion for storytelling. ie:
Caj decided to write a book, she/he sat and pondered for sometime about what to write a book about but nothing came to mind. She decided she'd ask others for ideas for stories and found people were only too keen to share. Some silly some strange some scarey and some sad. She had enjoyed listening and gathering ideas and had made notes along the way. While still wondering what to base the book on suddenly she realised she already had her book. A collection of short stories from the people she asked.
Stories are everywhere, I love them.

[Quizmonster]

A technique you may find helpful, as I did, using the idea of lists already suggested is to make a 4-column list. The headings are: Adjective, Character, Action, Theme. Here are a few of the opening ones I used...
a) Adjective: abrasive, affluent, ambitious, amorous, authoritarian
b) Character: actress, adolescent, anarchist, aristocrat, author
c) Action: adopts, admits, alleges, approves, answers
d) Theme: ambition, arrogance, betrayal, cunning, damnation.

Theoretically, you have 625 stories right there...
a) an ambitious actress alleges she was betrayed by her agent
b) an amorous aristocrat finally admits his arrogance...
and so on.

I had around 500 words in each of the first three columns and over 100 in the fourth and got great amusement from stitching them together, even though few of the potential stories ever got written. For example, an aggressive ballet-dancer assists in a tribal feud...or...a bashful barber reaches happiness etc.

[boogieboogie]

It's not necessary to overcomplicate things with lists. My first sucessful writing was at the age of 14. Without all the knowlege of protagonist, lists, heros, etc.. it's simply not necessary.
A beginning
A middle
An end
is all that's requried.
I have to laugh at your 625 stories quizmonster. Some people believe there are only 7 STORIES IN THE WORLD, these being:
Tradgedy
Commedy
Overcoming the monster
Voyage and return
Quest
Rags to riches
Rebirth.

I wouldn't even consider the above or anything on the subject, just write a sentence and let it take you to wherever it may lead.

[joggerjayne]

My pen name is J K Rowling

[Quizmonster]

There's nothing complicated about lists, BB; the ones I suggested are just a framework on which to hang your beginning, middle and end. In other words, they provide answers to: Who shall I write about?..What kind of person is he/she?..What sort of situation does he/she find him/herself in...What is the key thematic concept? I don't see how you can have any of your three essentials without at least some idea of the answers to my four. But what the hey...each to his/her own.

cont...

[Quizmonster]

...cont)
Re plots...
The idea that there are only seven basic plots in literature seems not to have existed in ancient times, where they applied different rules - such as �unities' of time and place - to writing forms. The 7-notion may have started with the French writer, G�rard de Nerval (1805 - 1855) who first associated each of the 7 deadly sins - Pride, Avarice, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lust - with a potential plot-line. The German poet, Goethe, also had the idea that plots were limited.
Various other ideas have been put forward more recently. William Foster-Harris suggested only 3; Ronald Tobias raised that to 20 and Georges Polti upped it to 36! Click here for more information on those ideas, which include an example - though not a very authoritative one - of the 7.
Here are another two possible 7-lists (Clearly, there will be some duplication):
a. Crime & punishment, Boy meets girl, The eternal triangle, The Quest, The worm turns, Slaying the dragon and Revenge
b. Virtue recognised, The eternal triangle, Fate catches up/A debt must be paid, Boy meets girl, The fatal flaw, The spider and the fly and The gift/prize lost/sought.
And here is a 9-plot list:
Virtue Recognised (Cinderella), The Fatal Flaw (Superman), The Debt Repaid (Faust), The Love Triangle (Casablanca), The Spider & the Fly (Othello), Boy meets Girl (Romeo & Juliet), The Treasure taken away (Orpheus), The Irrepressible Winner (Indiana Jones), The Homeless Loner (The Flying Dutchman).
Frankly, I believe the Polti 36 to be as good a list as you're likely to find.

[kjc]

Boogieboogie...
Everyone gives advice on what they think. If your opinion is different, then fine, but you must not deride anothers opinions....that's not nice.
If someone says....make lists....then it's not for you to say ....No don't make lists.
Each to their own.
:-)

[boogieboogie]

I read with interest your text Quizmonster as always, you're very knowledgeable.
I am a writer (we all work differently) but I find that even a 'framework' is a technical term that I would not employ in my creative process.
Lists, framework, adjectives, plot etc etc.. are not something I ever consider. I have a story to tell and that's all, it employs imagination and creativity, the rest just naturally falls into place because that's what a story is (quite simply).
I agree we all work differently and there is no right or wrong but I'm not technically minded and the adivce of lists and framework and sewing together just isn't something that would work for me. To me that is thinking about it and not doing it. Surprising how just doing it can be far more productive, more sponteneous and result in more interesting text. But each to their own.

[boogieboogie]

Kjc. You say nothing constructive on the subject of the thread, but comment only on my comment!!! As if it's something to do with you.. Who are you to sit in judgement of what I say?

The people giving advice of lists and framworks are at least giving advice, but I guess they are not experienced or professional writers. I gave my advcie because I am.. So stop interferring in other peoples threads with your judgemental comments.

[Quizmonster]

Are you saying, then, BB, that you have not the remotest concept of what you are about to write...that you just take a pen in hand or sit down to your typewriter/computer and start to 'scribble' in the hope that something meaningful will emerge?
I'm not decrying that, you understand...it's an approach, but not one shared by the majority of writers, I suspect.
By the way, I'm 70 and have been writing in one form or another throughout most of that time. Personally, I need a notion of who, what, where, when, why, at, least, before I begin and my 'list' approach provides that.

The questioner asked for "tips on coming up with ideas for stories" and I provided one such. I don't think your approach does. It may suggest a writing strategy but not a source of story-ideas. As I've already said, each to his own, however. I'll leave it at that.

[Lakitu]

I'm in the middle of writing a book, actually, it's a series of childrens books I'm writing.

The idea came to me when I was on a plane, and it grew arms and legs from there. Thankfully I always carry pen and paper with me when I'm travelling so I jotted all my thoughts down.

The subject is something I know abit about anyway, but I spent some time on the internet and the library brushing up on what I already knew.

My brother is a fantastic artist and I've asked him to do the illustrations for me, which he's started already after receiving the first installment.

Hopefully I will find an interested publisher :o)