Funny, I get a lot of my good ideas in the morning while I'm waking up and getting ready for work. (Yes, I have a day job.)
Since most of the people who have posted so far are "Non-Outline Plotters," I should recommend a book that helped my greatly on designing compelling plots: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. I can't recommend it highly enough.
That said, I usually start with a "What if?" For instance, what if Google made cars and gave them away for free? From there, I can start thinking about the implications -- who would drive them, how they would be paid for (by advertising that is broadcast over the radio as you drive past the businesses that pay for the ads), etc.
The most important thing to keep a story moving is "rising conflict." Put your main character through one challenge after another, starting with smaller things, and escalating to a final climax near the end of the story. Conflicts can be external, such as someone trying to insult/dump/kill your character, or internal, such as the character's own inability to overcome his fear and talk to the girl that he has been wanting to meet.
Some people actually look at all the characters in their story and figure out ways for more of them to bump into each other and experience conflict or cooperation. The love triangle is a classic story conflict. But you could also have people bound to each other through desired vengeance, or mimetic conflict.
Some best-selling writers recommend coming up with the ending first and working backward to how the story started. I usually have an idea of how things will end before I have gotten very far in the story, and that seems to help.
Hope some of these ideas will encourage your writing. The most important thing is to keep making up stories and writing them down. Once you have the basic story down, you can always change it if you don't think it is working.
posted 3 months ago. ( reply )