Suggestions in original ideas.

First, let me start by thanking everyone for all the good you are doing. Writing is an exciting, painful, and evolving process. I was asked for a suggestion coming up with original ideas in writing.

Starting I hope it helps. When I had written my first novel, I was extremely frustrated at the publishing process. I asked for advice and started to change my novel. I kept doing this for a long time until the suggestions led me to change my work and take it back to where it was before.

I do not believe that there is anyone right way to write your story that others can tell you. That can be kind of a groaner. You can change your story to fit other points of view but in the end, it is your story.

That is my first suggestion. It is your story. It is your idea.

Before covid, I was going to talk at a local high school. What I was going to do was ask for help from the theater kids to add us. What I was going to do was ask the kids for a story that they each like. I did this on a smaller scale and was told Avatar, The Walking Dead, ET, Jaws, and the Black Panther.

I asked what they liked about them and had a teacher write down what the kids said. This was a smaller audience, and the kids liked the suspense, the constant danger, questions, and personal journey.

I was going to ask for the theater children to join me and take on each character from those stories they mentioned. Take traits from characters you like and sit them down around you. For each character, what are their strengths and weakness? List them out and see what they are for you. Then change the characters up to make them new and for you. What do you want them to be?

Where do you see these characters in your story? Think of time, area, space, genre.

Now that you have the place and people, we need the problem. What is a problem that these people need to overcome together and individually? It is a good idea to have at least one major problem for all and then individual ones for each character to overcome at a time.

That brings us to the fun part. The villain. The better the villain the better the hero has to be. What are the motivation, strength, and weakness?

The last one is how do you see the hero overcome it. If you can picture a group of kids, each one of them playing a character from a story that you like, and in the place, you wish them to be in. They each have a new problem and one big problem to overcome. Add a touch of a villain who has the power to overcome them all. You got the outline of your own story. Add a twist that makes it only you. Take it to where you want it to go, through time, space, earth, nation, people, or beyond. The only thing that sets the limits is you.

If you ever feel you are stuck, let me know, and let's see what we can do.