Hey There Story Fiends, Alle here. Welcome to another episode of There's Stories Everywhere with Alledria Hurt. I hope you're having a good Winter. It hasn't decided whether it wants to be Winter or Spring here and the trees and flowers are so confused. This week we'll be tackling a question: How do I cultivate ideas.
I personally find ideas in three main ways: theft, mash up, and tropes.
Theft is exactly what it sounds like. I hear or see an idea that I like and I steal it for use in my own work. Now that doesn't mean filing the serial numbers off to use a gun metaphor and then using the idea. There is a certain amount of me that's involved in it. After all, one of things often said in the writing community is that there are no two people who are going to go at an idea the exact same way. Because we each bring a certain amount of ourselves to any idea, we can each steal the same idea and come up with something completely different. If you haven't heard it, go back and listen to episode 10 "Mr. Ammon's Shop" which is a part where I lifted an idea of a sentient cabinet and used it, I like to think, effectively as a piece of set dressing for Mr. Ammon and his alchemist shop.
Mash up is the process of taking more than one idea and tossing them together in a press and seeing what happens. No matter what, you're going to get something you didn't originally plan. I think my favorite mash up stories are the stories from Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern series. Those books are a mixture of science fiction and fantasy where you have genetically engineerred dragons. It was also one of the series which first kindled by love of the fire breathing lizard. If you haven't given it a shot, try out the Dragonriders of Pern.
Tropes is perhaps the best known way to get ideas. Before you get all huffy, remember there is a difference between tropes and stereotypes. Tropes come in many different flavors, but there are a few good ways to learn what they are in your genre. Firstly, read a lot. Read those who are writing in your genre and figure out what makes every book you're reading a little similar. Secondly, check out websites such as TVtropes.org. While nothing can be quite comprehensive, TV Tropes makes a good stab at it. Be sure to give them a quick look when you're looking for your next great idea.
Now that we've figured out how to get ideas, we should probably cultivate them into something, right? Right. Cultivating ideas is a lot like farming, you plant the thought in your subconscious and let it grow. It's Inception, except you're doing it to yourself. If the idea is ready, you can see a character or a situation around it which will give it more room to grow into something epic (even if it's nothing but flash fiction even that can be epic).
So in truth, getting ideas is more important than how you cultivate them since that's really a matter of time and thought process. Getting them is a different matter all together. So how do you get your ideas. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line at alledria@alledriahurt.com. You can tweet me on Twitter at ourladyofashes. Or find my author page on Facebook under Alledria E Hurt.
