Ways to Inspire Stories

There are so many possible ideas for stories and so many ways to come up with them. Here are a few different ways to come up with your own story... Most people has specific ways of doing things, and that is true for writing as well. When coming up with ideas, a writer should try all of these strategies to find out which one they like best.
 * 1) Random Words/Images
 * 2) Listing Ideas
 * 3) Make Your Own Original Characters
 * 4) Create an Imaginary World

Here are some more in depth explanations of each style of story inspiration.

Random Words/Images

This is a fun and interesting way to come up with a funny story, but is not as great for writing a chapter book. If someone wanted to use this style, they would have to either choose a bunch of random word (example: dinner, puppy, wrench) or some completely random pictures, and then base a story off of what comes to mind when they see/read the images/words. If someone wishes to write a short story, but they aren't sure what to write about, this is a good way to do that. Someone could take any photos or drawings and invent an idea that they never would have thought of otherwise.

Listing Ideas

Listing is an quick way to brainstorm many interesting ideas that can be later built off of. The List of Ideas page on this wiki is an example of a list of story ideas. It also has many ideas that could be added on to if an author cannot come up with any ideas that they want to write about.

Original Characters

Original Characters (or OCs) are another great way to start a story. If you have an imaginary friend (or a character you pretend exists in any way) then maybe you already have a great story just waiting to happen. A character who came completely from your mind might just develop a backstory which could become an amazing story later on. If you have an OC that you would like others to write about, please add it to the Original Characters page.