Creating Story Ideas

Collect - Get background information before you start (People, places, situations).

Collate - Put it in categories with the people who know each other, situations that link up.

Analyse - See what the people involved want to do and how they want to do it.

Synthesise - Start building sequences from the blocks of information.

You do not have to start at page one and work through. Though some stories may flow naturally, you can start at any point, even the end, and create a series of situations, which can then be put together. Take an event like someone finding a wallet with a large sum of money in it, and also the details of the owner. Here are a few possibilities for development:

The finding of the wallet provides a dramatic situation that can be used in different places, and exploited in various ways.

		Write three possibilities of finding the wallet that lead to: Crime Love Solving a puzzle

Sources of inspiration

Sherlock Holmes was based on a doctor who used deductive reasoning as part of his methods. Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, and James Bond, can all be traced back to real people and events.

Take Moby Dick as an example. The true story was of a whale that attacked and sank a ship. That idea has been developed with many variations of giant fish, animals, aliens, and people.

		Write down four examples of giant hostile creatures that might have been inspired by the Moby Dick story.

Analysing existing stories is a good way to find structures and ideas for new stories.