How to come up with NEW and UNIQUE story ideas

what's up my friend Abby here and welcome back to writer's life Wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dreams come true are you bored with the book you're writing and you don't even know why it's just missing that magic spark that makes you addicted to writing it if so don't worry you're not alone lots of writers feel this way this lack of inspiration even if they have all the juicy internal conflicts all the flawed characters and a great strong story structure you can get everything right and

still be bored you're not even sure why you just don't feel like writing it when you sit down to write you make time you you have discipline and you still just don't feel like writing it over the course of the last few weeks we've been exploring writing struggles so in this video video here I talked about making time to write when you feel like your schedule is constantly getting in your way and then in this video I talked about finding the motivation to write when you feel like procrastination and distractions are getting in your way

but there's more to writing than just discipline and time management you have to love it you have to be so excited to do it there's nothing else you'd rather do and if you're not feeling that excitement for your story right now it's time for some new ideas it's time to brainstorm to tap into that inner creative genius and look at your story with a fresh perspective that's what I do every time I'm feeling bored or unenthused about the story I'm writing and it works every time in this video I'm going to share with you all

of my favorite prompts questions that I ask myself to get the creative juices flowing and Trigger new ideas new possibilities new ways to look at my story and get excited about it I highly recommend grabbing a notebook for this one or your scrivener project because you're going to want to write down your brilliant ideas as they come to you let's get started why does your story matter good question what if I told you that there's a science behind every great story I don't just teach you how to write I teach you how to change the

world with your story and make your author dreams come true before we get started with our brainstorming session I want to tell you to do something that might sound kind of strange think like a five-year-old yes I'm serious this is key when it comes to unleashing your creative genius and inviting new ideas into your imagination I recently stumbled across a fascinating study on creativity in children the study was conducted by Professor George land in 1968. he tested the creativity of 1600 children using the same creativity test he devised for NASA to help select Innovative engineers

and scientists the assignment was to look at a problem and come up with new different innovative ideas Dr land retested the same children at 10 years old and again at 15 years old look at this the percentage of children who scored at the genius level were amongst five-year-olds 98 amongst 10 year olds 30 percent amongst 15 year olds 12 and then the same test was given to 280 000 adults with the average age of 31 and the percentage who scored at genius level were two percent Dr land's research concluded in the idea that there are

two kinds of creative thinking convergent thinking and Divergent thinking convergent thinking is when you judge ideas criticize them weigh them against ideas that have already been tried and tested all of which happens in your conscious thought Divergent thinking is when you imagine new original ideas that are different from anything that has been done before and which may be messy to start with but this kind of thought originates in your subconscious mind the younger you are the more likely you are to think divergently and as a result the more original and genius your ideas will be

fascinating stuff but I'm not going to ramble too much about psychology here I just want to show you this to prove that you are a creative genius at least you were when you were five years old and that means you still have that creative genius in your subconscious mind you just have to pull it out dust It Off and use it so all throughout this video as I prompt you with these brainstorming questions I want you to think with your Divergent creative genius five-year-old brain don't worry about whether this idea has been done before or

whether it will be criticized or disliked let this be play time let your brainstorm session be fun and imaginative not a method of torture okay let's get into the what if brainstorming questions that I ask myself all the time when I'm trying to come up with new ideas feel free to pause the video after each prompt and write down your answers or any new ideas that come to you remember don't self-judge just play what if I add a Trope that I know I'm a sucker for we all have tropes that we love more than life

tropes that make us immediately want to read a book when we find out that this Trope is included in the book so everyone's tastes are different on this obvious sleep but you should write the book that you want to read so what are those attractive addictive qualities that you find in your favorite stories is there a pattern is there a Trope that you always come back to that makes you immediately want to engage with a story I would recommend making a list of your favorite tropes or story elements things that make you Swoon or laugh

or annotate or stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading for me that list looks something like this sassy witty banter enemies to lovers romance enemies to friends relationship arcs brothers who are best friends protagonists who are also the comic relief Heist plots Sunshine one Grumpy One happily ever after endings anti-hero MC with a tragic past and found families who passive aggressively love each other but never get along I could go on and on but that's my short list and as you can see it's all over the place very Niche your list will

look totally different and that's okay there's no right or wrong way to do this the point is just to write down everything that you absolutely love in fiction and you love again and again no matter what story it appears in then once you have this list ask yourself is there a way to include one or two or all of these things in my story seriously think about it you're on a mission to make your book the most exciting and addictive thing to write writing it has to feel like eating comfort food okay I'm I'm telling

you this is going to show through when you publish this book and other people read it they are going to see your love in the pages it's going to change the whole reading experience because you actually had fun you genuinely enjoyed the process of writing it so if you need to pause the video here and make that list go ahead and do that right now [Music] question what if I change or add a point of view sometimes you're not bored with the story you're bored with the character whose point of view you're writing what would

happen if you told the story through a different character's perspective or what if you just added a point of view and switch back and forth or what if you wrote it from the villain's point of view this has saved my writing life so many times I don't think I ever even told anyone this but when I was first outlining 100 days of sunlight I was originally going to have it all be from Tessa's point of view literally Weston was not going to get a point of view can you even imagine can you imagine how tragic

that would have been so this is a question worth thinking about [Music] what if I made it a sequel or a spin-off for a different book even if this different book wasn't going to have a sequel or a spin-off maybe the plot and the story structure and the theme is all great very solid but you're just not clicking with the characters well what if you borrowed some characters that you've already created and written and love and made them a part of this story or what if it follows a side character from a book that you've

already written and love or what if you made it a Next Generation story that takes place 20 years after the events of that other book and it's about those characters children all grown up or what if you made it a previous generation story that takes place 20 years before the other book and it's about those characters parents so many possibilities foreign [Music] what if I turn it upside down I'm not talking about literally turning your laptop upside down I'm talking about looking at your story from a totally different perspective what happens if you rearrange events

what happens if you change the whole starting point of your story what happens if you take the end of your story and put it at the beginning or what if you made the game changing midpoint or the disaster point the inciting incident instead maybe you're writing a dark fantasy romance where the female MC is forced into an arranged marriage with the evil King and that's the game-changing midpoint well what if you moved that point to the inciting incident or the hook and we start page one on her dreaded wedding day or maybe you're writing a

survival sci-fi where the main character is trapped on a hostile planet with their ex-lover who happens to be stuck on the mission with them but we don't start at the starting point of the Blast Off from Earth we start in the middle of a banter-filled shootout against an alien Army and then we rewind to see how we got here the point of this exercise is to color Outside the Lines enthusiastically Break The Rules you can always revise and edit and rearrange your ideas later right now it is time to let your imagination run wild and

brainstorm [Music] I make it a retelling this is one of my favorite what-if questions maybe you want to write a Sci-Fi Adventure but it's just feeling Bland to you well what if you made it a retelling of Around the World in 80 Days with time travel instead of a geographical race or what if your dark Academia magical realism was actually a retelling of The Secret Garden with evil magical plants and mystical portals to other dimensions or what if your thought-provoking contemporary coming-of-age story was actually a retelling of Black Beauty with people instead of horses I

know it might sound kind of crazy but this is the kind of five-year-old genius that you need to start exploring bring all your ideas to the table even your bad ones don't be afraid to explore push the boundaries think outside the box the point here is to come up with something original something unique something that you haven't necessarily seen done before so don't compare or criticize yourself just have fun [Music] what if I change the genre maybe you're writing a genre that is just let's face it not your cup of tea maybe you just need

to go back to that comfort food genre the one that feels like home or maybe you've been writing in the same genre for too long and it's time to change things up try something new try something you've never done before try something you think you're not good at don't let that hold you back come on with the five-year-old you say I can't write that genre I shouldn't do that I'm not any good at that I know that it will turn out bad try [Music] what if I combine this story idea with another story idea if

you've had this problem once you've probably had it twice maybe you have two problem stories simmering on the back burner maybe you should combine those stories into the same pot and cook them on the same burner even if one story doesn't have the same genre or setting or time period would that be a problem or would it just make the story more unique unlikely combinations are so cool because they force you to put 2 and 57 together when you were just stuck trying to put two and two together maybe 59 is the perfect answer that

you're looking for so give it a try what do you have to lose write down all of your story ideas in fragments on sticky notes and put them all over the floor and rearrange them to see which ones might work together there are no rules in this brainstorming process have fun be creative try new things [Music] theme is the backbone of a good book and in order to write a compelling theme it has to mean something personally to you so perhaps the question you should ask yourself is what do I care deeply about right now

what is the truth I want to scream from the rooftops what is it I catch myself crusading about at the dinner table until my family is like okay okay you're preaching to the choir stop it's also important to remember that the answer to this question is always in flux and that's 100 okay what you are passionate moved and driven about right now could be different than what your passionate moved and driven about next month that's why certain stories need to be written when you feel that burning desire to write them follow that creative impulse that

energy trust it to guide you and it will lead you great places okay boom that's it my creative Rocket Fuel that I use to get my imagination fired up I hope these prompts have helped to spark some ideas and get you excited about trying something new with your story if you're still stuck don't worry brilliant ideas cannot be forced they just have to strike you like a bolt from the blue that's how great ideas happen for a lot of writers myself included also it might help to talk to someone else about your story whether that

person is your critique partner they could be your sibling your mom or your kids if you have little creative Geniuses running around your house what are you waiting for exploit their brilliant imaginations remember good things take time if nothing is striking your fancy right now just meditate on these ideas these prompts these questions and see what happens trust that your next brilliant idea is coming to you in perfect Divine timing if you want to grab all of these prompts that I shared with you today you can download a handy printable for free that is linked

below this video something to drop in your scrivener project for future brainstorming sessions comment below and tell me what is your favorite way to brainstorm new ideas let's just like load up the comment section with all kinds of amazing brainstorming methods and make this page like the most brilliant resource for writers to come up with new innovative ideas smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community

also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take storytelling to the Next Level the patreon community is not only the best way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube but it's also the only way to connect deeper with the writer's life Wednesday community Through Discord through the Inner Circle Facebook group and get access to my monthly live training sessions all of that and more can be found at patreon.com Abby Emmons I hope to see you over there and thank you again for watching thank you for being

here until next week my friend rock on it's that I feel like I'm reading the author's notes on just like every idea they had for this world and they just start laying it all out and it's so much information it's just information overload and I can't grasp it because I'm taken out of the mind of the character that I'm supposed to care about and I'm shown so much that I can't