Writers face October with both anticipation and fear. Anticipation because you’re about to start NaNoWriMo, and this year you’re going to win. Fear, because most of us have no idea what to write.
This problem never goes away. Authors get stressed when they don’t have a backlog of story ideas, and need a guaranteed way to come up with winning ideas for NaNoWriMo immediately. This way is so simple, always produces results, and gets rid of author stress immediately.
The solution
Take a piece of legal paper, or any lined paper. Barring that, just make a numbered list, and start with plot ideas. The idea is to come up with thirty ideas. If you start today and write one or two NaNoWriMo novel ideas a day, you’ll have more than thirty by November 1. Use some of the idea generators below to get started!
Plot ideas
Is there a plot you’re dying to write? A situation? A genre? Crime? Detective? Psychological thriller? Action adventure? Western?
Theme ideas
What theme have you tried, and not tried? Which ideas and themes resonates with you? Betrayal? Revenge? Messing with absolutely the wrong person on earth? Right place right time? Freedom? Vengeance?
History Ideas
Is there a particular era your interested in? Feudal Japan? Imperial China? Tsarist Russia? Middle Ages? The UK in the days of Arthur? World War II?
Artifact ideas
Take an object, and think about a plot you can build around it. A particular knife, ring, sword, mask, coin… the possibilities are endless. You just have to think about the item, its function, and build a story around it. Or is it the key to survival, power, fame, life, immortality, wealth? Are you using it, trying to keep it, trying to keep it safe, destroy it, or take it to prevent someone else from using it? Is it a book? What secret does it contain, conceal, reveal?
Classic Story to rewrite
Is there a classic story you want to rewrite? Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Wizard of Oz? Can you recast the characters, alter the setting or history, combine two books? Retell it from another character’s POV?
Now get crazy
Here’s where the fun begins. Start combining them! I did this once in a screenwriting class, where I put Daimyo Tokugawa into the middle of Casablanca. Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings? Sherlock Holmes and the temple of doom? The crazier it is, the more ideas it generates!
Visit this page every day. Keep thinking about how you can combine ideas, and then adapt them to your own uses! If you just get one story idea a day, you’ll have more than enough to choose from!
