Spark Story Ideas With These 10 Easy Ways to Gather Inspiration
Lacking in writing inspiration? These tips could get you unstuck.
Ideas are everywhere. But in this information-flooded age, the world can be overwhelming. This overwhelmingness can easily cause you to feel stuck, uninspired, and uncreative.
Are you doing something wrong? Inspiration is all around you, isn’t it?
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
— Orson Scott Card
Don’t worry — everyone feels stuck sometimes, and it doesn’t make you any less of a writer.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to get unstuck, even if the world around you seems mundane and utterly uninspiring. Maybe it’s time to start looking in some different places to get those ideas flowing.
Here are ten simple ways that you can spark ideas for your next piece of writing.
1. Use a random word generator
If you’re truly stuck, a random word generator can provide something to start writing about. There are many handy generators available online, such as this one, that can generate a list of words or names.
Sometimes, if I’m feeling uninspired, I’ll generate three words and try to write something incorporating all of them. It may seem silly, but a few random words really could get you writing. In fact, one of my stories that began with three randomly generated words went on to win a national competition! If you’d like to learn how, I talked about the process in more detail here.
2. Be inspired by photos
Stock photo sites such as Unsplash can be an amazing resource for getting ideas for writing. Once you start scrolling through hundreds of creative photos, there’s bound to be something that catches your eye. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you can turn it into many more.
If you prefer, your own photos can serve as inspiration, too. Looking through them can bring back forgotten or cherished memories, which will often inspire new stories.
3. Go outside
The simple experience of being outside can boost your creativity and spark ideas. Getting out of the house can help motivate you to write, especially if you take the time to observe what’s going on around you.
If you live in a busy city, take note of the people hurrying along, the graffiti on the buildings, the vehicles speeding past, and all the little interactions that you might normally miss. How many of them could you turn into a piece of writing?
If you prefer to spend time in a park or somewhere less crowded, this can also be helpful for thinking of ideas. While there might be less obvious inspiration, giving yourself time to observe the world around you will help get yourself feeling creative again.
4. Browse news articles
Often, life really can be stranger than fiction, and real events can be very handy when you’re stuck for ideas. They can provide inspiration for characters, plots, and more. If you’re writing fiction, they don’t even have to be current — anything can become a story!
Whether it’s a well-known event that impacted the entire world or some obscure story about a bizarre crime that occurred years ago, news articles can turn into all sorts of stories.
5. Listen to music
Music can evoke powerful emotions in us, and it can be a great source of inspiration. You might choose to base your writing on some particular lyrics, or you could write something that’s inspired by the overall mood of the song. Either way, listening to music both familiar and new can provide ideas for you to write about.
There’s an abundance of music available through platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, with something to suit everyone’s music taste. However, you may even find it helpful to listen to a genre of music that you don’t typically enjoy, because this could give you a different perspective and spark some much-needed inspiration. But don’t stress too much about finding the perfect song — any one can reignite your creativity.
6. Read a book
You could choose to revisit an old favorite, or dive into something new. Whatever you decide to pick up, reading a book can get you thinking about words and writing, which can in turn lead to plenty of new ideas.
While you should never blatantly copy someone else’s work, being inspired by elements of what you read and using them to create your own writing can be very helpful. Reading books is essential if you’re feeling uninspired.
7. Brainstorm a list of ideas
I know, I know. How are you supposed to write a list of ideas when you think you don’t have any? Don’t stress about it — just get pen and paper and write down whatever words come to mind. Yes, even if they seem silly or boring. The act of writing something down should help the ideas start to flow.
If you stop worrying about whether your ideas are any good and simply get your thoughts down on paper, it might get you unstuck. It’s important to brainstorm as many ideas as possible, because then, once you’ve finished, you can look over them and start to develop them more. Does anything you’ve written down remind you of something else? Make connections, add to what you’ve written, and you might just find yourself with a brilliant idea that you didn’t realise you had all along.
8. Ask questions
Be inquisitive! Be curious! Question the world around you. Most questions, especially “what if…” ones, can lead your mind in fascinating directions and spark some interesting writing ideas. There’s no need for them to be grand questions about the nature of reality — start small, and build your way up to a fully-fledged idea.
Wondering about the world around you and imagining different possibilities is a vital part of being a writer, and it should get those creative juices flowing.
9. Look to your everyday life
If you’re still completely stuck, think about your day. What happened? Who did you talk to? How did you feel? Taking ideas from real life can be a great starting point. Even if your day seemed monotonous and unremarkable, use that to your advantage. How could that monotony be disrupted? Write about that.
You may not have the exciting life of the protagonist of a novel, but nobody does — that’s why it’s called fiction. But you can be inspired by your day-to-day life and use it as a place to start when writing.
10. Use writing prompts
No, writing prompts aren’t just for beginners. Prompts are a seriously underrated way to find ideas for your next piece of writing, and there are thousands available online. They can be as vague or as specific as you like, and they provide a clear starting point or overarching concept for your writing. To get the most out of a writing prompt, it’s helpful to remember that there’s no pressure to strictly adhere to it. You can take it in any direction you like!
Writing prompts are a brilliant way of providing ideas and getting you to start writing — in fact, that’s precisely what they’re designed for. So, don’t shy away from lists of prompts. They may seem like they’re stifling your creativity, but if you take one, adapt it, be creative, and make it yours, it can turn into an amazing story.
Recap
- Use a random word generator
- Be inspired by photos
- Go outside
- Browse news articles
- Listen to music
- Read a book
- Brainstorm a list of ideas
- Ask questions
- Look to your everyday life
- Use writing prompts
If you’re at a loss for what to write about, why not give one of these techniques a go? Who knows, one small idea could be the beginnings of your next bestselling novel, prizewinning story, or viral article!
Ideas really are everywhere, but there’s no use waiting for a good one to come along. Go in search of them yourself, and you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.
