WRITING GUIDE: How to choose your next story idea

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The inspiration for a new story idea can hit you everywhere. You can be in the shower, on a walk or in the middle of a conversation with someone. What is hardest is to choose, which of your ideas you actually dedicate the time to turn it into a story. In this part of the writing guide, we talk about how you find out, which idea is the right one to focus on.

Create a List of Ideas

When inspiration hits you, the first thing to do, is writing it down as soon as possible. This can be in your phone, a notebook or even just some random papers. Make sure you take a note somewhere, so you don´t forget your brilliant idea. When you collected a couple of different ideas, it can be helpful to create an idea list.

Outline Your Ideas

Now that you got a list of ideas, I recommend you outline your idea. If you are a plotter this will be easy for you. Don´t worry if you are a pantser like me, you don´t need to outline your whole book idea! It´s enough to write down some basics and create a short story pitch.

Write A Scene

Even if you haven´t figured out the main characters or the storyline yet, it can help to write down a scene that you have in your head. This gives you an idea of the tone and mood of the story. It doesn’t need to be the first chapter, nor does the scene actually have to end up in your manuscript later. It´s just a tool to understand your story idea. It might be a conflict, a dialogue or a love scene whatever inspires you and feels right to the story idea. For me personally, those little scenes often turn into major key chapters. If your fingers are literally tingling and you don’t want to stop writing, it´s a good sign that you’ve found an idea that interests you enough to turn it into a story. At this point, you might already realize, that you sit longer on one of the ideas as it interests you the most.

Rank Your Ideas

Once you defined your ideas, created a pitch and maybe even written some short scenes, but still don’t know, which story you want to write next, it´s time for a ranking. You could rank the ideas with stars. Think about some critics by which you want to evaluate the ideas. Write down the reasons, why you want to write each of the story ideas. Is it a special topic, that you feel personally attached to? Is the genre you want to write in a mix of two existing ones and do you feel like you could create a new trend? Or can you just not stop thinking about this idea? All these and more can be indicators, that you have your special idea right in front of you. Even though in the beginning you might find all your ideas interesting, there will be one, your gut feeling leads you to.

Choose Fun Over Trends

Go for the idea that excites you the most, not the one you think you will find the most readers for. You will sit a month or maybe even yours on a writing project. You don´t want to waste your time over an idea you might lose interest in halfway through. Only when you are really enthusiastic about your idea, you will make it to the end.

Enjoy The Flow

Getting into the writing flow is the best feeling. Don´t worry, if you don´t get that feeling right away. Sometimes you will need time to get to that point. When inspiration hits you and you suddenly have a scene in front of your eye, want to write down quotes or create a storyboard and really want to start writing – then it´s a good sign that you’ve found the right idea.

Learn more about writing methods: Plotting vs. Pantsing

Check this post out: How to write a novel in 30 days

I wish you all the best with your ideas! What helps you to choose between your idea? If you have tips for the other readers, feel free to write them in the comments,

Tiziana

Tiziana

Hi I´m glad you are here. I am Tiziana and share on this blog my travel adventures, talk about my love for novel writing and encourage you to go after your dream life.

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97 comments

  3. I think this works for anything, not just writing, when you have too many ideas! it’s always good to write them all down so you can look at them critically and pick the best one 🙂

    Hope that you are having a good weekend 🙂 Thankfully it hasn’t rained as much as predicted this weekend so we have been able to enjoy time outdoors.

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  10. Liebe Tiziana, obwohl ich selbst ja keine Bücher schreibe, finde ich diese Einblicke in das Autorenleben immer ganz besonders interessant. Es freut mich daher, dass du so detailliert darüber schreibst. Vieles davon kann ich absolut sofort nachvollziehen und manches wende ich – natürlich im kleinen Ausmaß – auch beim Schreiben meiner Blogbeiträge an. Ideen für einen Beitrag finde ich gerne im Alltag, bei einer ungewohnten Situation, einem besonderen Erlebnis und es ist dann auch so, dass manchmal die Finger nur so über die Tasten fliegen und manche Themen sich einfach nicht entwickeln wollen. Dann breche ich auch schon mal ab und widme mich einem anderen Punkt.
    Hab einen ganz wunderbaren Abend und alles Liebe Gesa

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  20. What a beautiful post. Just today I was talking to a friend that one of my biggest dreams is to write a book. Reading your post tonight was like an epiphany, and I really think I’ll start doing it. You have given some super useful and very concrete advices. So often we use to think that to write a book you have to have in mind almost the entire story, but it’s true that it’s enough to start with a small step, even just a scene. And slowly everything flows naturally. Thanks for your words, they inspired me!

    xx Dasynka

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    1. Oh wow that is incredible!! Please go for it! I´m sure you will write an amazing book. When I start a new book I never have the full story in mind! Often I just start with an idea and then page by page it grows 🙂

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    1. Oh thank you Margot! Yes writing can be very tough, but I hope I inspire some people with my posts to give it a try and follow their inspirations 🙂

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  27. Hey Tiziana, so happy to see new content over here! Hope you’re doing good!

    Oooh these great tips, and not only for storytellers but also for writers that work on articles, chronicles, essays or other kind of written information. I am not a professional writer, but I love to write so these are really useful recommendations that I can apply in my daily life.

    I totally agree with you in all these tips, specially in appreciate the flow. I feel that sometimes we just want the idea to pop out perfectly and we spend so much time trying to find the right words, but lately I am writing the words as they come to my mind and then I polish the text. Also letting the work rest for a little while could help.

    Oooh and thats why I always carry a small notebook with me, as you mentioned inspiration can pop up everywhere! And if not I use my cellphone and I send myself a message with the words as they come to my mind haha.

    Stay safe and keep creating 🙂

    PS: lovely photo to illustrate the article by the way!

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  30. Hi Tiziana,
    danke für diesen schönen und inspirierenden Beitrag! Ich habe zwar eine Idee, da ich ja aktuell (mehr oder weniger, haha) an meinem Buchprojekt arbeite, aber ich finde, die Tipps können auch beim Plotten oder bestimmten Szenen/Kapitel total helfen, wie ich gerade feststelle 🙂 Wenn da bestimmte Dinge im Brainstormen auffallen, könnten das ja auch Aspekte sein, die der Story nochmal eine besondere Richtung geben.
    Liebe Grüße!

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  37. These are great tips. I remember writing short stories when I was younger, but haven’t written anything for a while. Maybe this is a sign to write down some ideas! I do write out different project/blog post ideas, so not too far away from writing.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Aimsy xoxo
    Aimsy’s Antics

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    1. Hey Aimsy, thanks so much for your kind words. Would be amazing if this little post got you back into writing stories again 🙂
      Would mean so much to me!

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  45. In den Flow zu kommen ist beim Schreiben – oder bei anderen kreativen Tätigkeiten – echt immer das beste Gefühl! Aber manchmal dauert’s ganz schön, bis man dahin kommt… 😉

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    1. Oh ja das stimmt! Habe mir eben deine neue Bilderserie angesehen und bei denen spürt man richtig, dass du beim fotografieren im Flow warst! Fantastische Arbeit!! 🙂

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  47. I chose this post to read because I always wondered ever since on Twitter that how people come up with stories. It was a nice and easy read and to the point. The scene to define the mood and tone, liked that point. Xx
    Isa A. Blogger
    https://bit.ly/39f9FN0

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