Romance Story Idea Exercise – Where It All Begins
Time: 30-45 minutes
Action Step #1 – Often you wonder what sparked such a great idea after reading a book. It begins with the things around you. It could be a story someone else told that gives you the inspiration for a short story or a novel. When you hear something that sticks with you, your next question is “What if?”
Are you working on a story of some sort now? If so, where did the idea come from? If not, take a look around and see what inspires you in your everyday life. Does anything that you experience lead you to the “What if” moment?
Action Step #2 – It’s time to write down those ideas. Simply put pen to paper or hand to typewriter and see what happens. Carrying a small notebook with you all the time is the writer’s way of not losing any good story ideas. Don’t worry about punctuation or sentence fragments. The point of this exercise is to get those ideas down. Get in the habit of writing down at least one new idea each day.
Action Step #3 – Story ideas are really neither good nor bad. Some just don’t seem to end up working in your favor. Take one of the ideas that you wrote down in Action Step #2. Begin fleshing out the idea and see where it takes you.
What are your favorite genres? Write up the story idea as a romance, a mystery, a horror story and an adventure. You get the idea. Which one looks like the more promising story?
Try another one if you dare. Don’t get discouraged if you hit a wall. The world is filled with situations just waiting to be turned into story ideas.