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Advice for Finding Your Story

A How To for Finding Your Story:  Inspiration Reflection & Guidance

Finding Your StoryFinding your story inspiration begins with looking at what matters to you.  In my interviews with William Whitecloud and Robin Hutton have some very interesting ideas about how we find our inspiration.  It’s not so much writing what you know, but what you are being called to write.  Start with what matters to you and something that evokes your emotions.  Here is a reflective exercise I use in my workshops that helps you begin to connect with the ‘germ’ of an idea.

  1. What is one thing you might be interested in exploring and writing about that has continually fascinated you?
  2. What is ONE thing that brings you joy in your life?
  3. Write about something that makes you sad?
  4. What if anything is missing from your life?
  5. What is one thing that pisses you off?
  6. Write about one thing you don’t currently have in your life that is very meaningful to you?
  7. What do you most fear something you most wish would never happen to you?
  8. If you met a magician and could have one wish fulfilled what would it be?
  9. Write down an injustice that you experienced or something you read or imagine.

Then you move on to finding your story idea

William Faulkner said his novel The Sound and the Fury began with an image: a young girl with muddy drawers up in a tree, peering through a window at a family gathering.

Faulkner had no idea who the girl was or what she was watching.  That germ, however, was intriguing enough to draw him an image and cause him to create the novel.

So here are some steps:

  1. Recognize the germ.  Nearly all fiction starts with some memory, a character, a problem, tension, fear, or conflict that resonates and grows in the writer’s mind.  We call that spark of an idea the germ, which becomes the premise for your story. This correlates to the germination stage of creativity.

The first task is to recognize those germs as they emerge, and to nourish and develop them.  Personally, I know a novel idea has legs when it excites me and stays with and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Finding your story through a journal

  1. Start a novel journal.  If a story idea is working on you, scribble notes or do some free writing with no attempt to make grammatical sense or even fashion complete thoughts.  (In fact, until you complete your first draft, turn off your critical inner editor.  Just get it down.) You can also journal your journey, what are your thoughts and feelings as you begin to gestate on your idea.

Novelist Oakley Hall explains it this way:

“The first insight, the germ, the prod of the feeler, is unconscious, even though it may stem from something as actual as a newspaper headline or the sight of a child’s sneaker beside a skid-mark in the street.  Something has stirred in the perceptual domain, an image flashing to mind that sets up intriguing questions.  The conscious mind now ponders these, making lists, setting up a system of file cards for research, formulating computer entries in its left brain with its linear, analytic mode, saturating it with relevant information.”

  1. Carry a journal.  I like the famous Moleskine™ notebook you see writers carry, and for good reason.  Ideas come from every angle of life and can introduce themselves at any moment
    Record…

    • A) character thoughts;
    • B) setting ideas, personalities, behaviors in others that might inform a character;
    • C) epiphanies;
    • D) plot twists sparked by the news or your friends;
    • E) sayings, jokes, or dreams.  Keep your journal with you—especially by your bed.

Finding your story characters and action

  1. Identify your characters.  Two failsafe ways to build great characters: A) People you’ve met or know; B) Your imagination.  Don’t underestimate the characters who live inside of you.  Brainstorm a list of interesting, quirky, inspiring, influential people you’ve met and write a two-line description for each.
  1. Move into action.  The note-taking, list making, and research has to end at some point and lead to your story idea and plot.  Your plot comes one of two ways: from outlining or from diving directly into the writing and engaging in a process of discovery.  Either way, you’ve got to start getting words onto the page.  So why not get started? If you are interested in exploring this in a workshop we offer in LA, email me at Skyler@skylermadison.com and let’s set up a time to talk.