Every writer has felt the dread of the blank page. You sit down ready to work, and the well is empty—no spark, no scene, nothing worth chasing. So where do story ideas come from when you’re stuck? In this video I’ll share how I find them, starting with a question that matters even more than where to look: what makes an idea big enough to carry a whole book. I’ll walk through the difference between a passing notion and a thematically significant idea, the two places I go hunting when I need one, and the questions that turn a glimmer into a story only you can tell. The well isn’t empty. You just need to know where to fish.
Hello. The question is, I can’t seem to come up with ideas. What do I do? That’s where it starts, right?
We have to have worthy ideas in order to have a chance of writing a novel that will attract people. And I want to take it a little deeper than that. You want to write a big book. You have to have big ideas.
And big ideas, it really refers to thematically significant ideas. In terms of where to find them, I have several ideas for you, and I’ll start with my book, *Beat the Bots*, which has a whole chapter introducing you to the Idea Fisher. It is a way of fishing for ideas and converting a glimmer of a glimpse of an idea into something that is robust. Broadly, you can look at outside information.
You can find ideas in newspaper headlines. You can look inside yourself and ask yourself, what are the burning questions I wish I knew the answers to? These may be secret, maybe private.
Unanswered questions can be great fodder for important ideas. Once you have that little bit of a glimmer, ask so what, ask what if questions, and try to merge several of them together. That’s how you come up with something that’s all yours, that’s unique. And don’t forget, layer it through and look at it through a sieve of that thematic importance.
Does it relate to good or evil, corruption or purity? What is it about? Remember that plot is the series of incidents that taken together tell the story.
When you’re first looking for ideas, you’re trying to come up with a worthy story. That’s the overarching tale you want to tell. Plot then derives from that. I bet you can do it, and I bet you’re going to come up with unique ones, big ones, important ones, stories that only you can tell.
And I do hope you’ll take a peek at *Beat the Bots*. I think it will help you. I know you can do it, and I look forward to hearing how it works out. If this tip had value for you, would you like it? Would you share it?
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