Story Starters

[jacks girl]

Is there any place out there that buys story Ideas. i just have so many that i wonder if I could sale some of them to people that are having a writers block. I come up with them all the time and just make little notes or oulines so i don't forget how the idea went. They keep taking me away from my WIP.

How many of you out there have this problem. The ideas keep coming do you keep these ideas in a small book. Ignore them because you have enough people moving around in your head. LOL. What do you do.

jacks

[Timber Wolf]

Sorry Jacks - Publishers buy finished, saleable stories. In their eye's an idea is a dime a dozen (or maybe a penny a hundred), everyone has plenty of ideas, it's the sticktoitiveness that gets them turned into stories, and sold. (Hey it's been 25 yrs for me to get 5 chpts written in the novel I've been running from working on.)

Maybe you can sit down and see what it is that appeals to you and develop one story. Since you have (25?) yrs driving w/ your hubby in the truck, maybe you can make your romances different by setting them on the road w/ the truckers - I don't read romances, but to me that seems like it would be new, and different.

Let your new ideas come, record them, maybe even use them in your WIP, I do that. I have to write down the ideas as I get them, then they get set aside until whenever. The new ideas may be for a totally different book other than my WIP (I've also got a fantasy bouncing around in me head, besides the thriller), I jot down the ideas and continue on on the WIP. Sometimes the new ideas are for the WIP, but not for where I am currently working, so it too gets recorded and then when I am stuck on a chptr, or on getting from one chptr to another, I go back and read all the ideas I've garnered over the years and see where I want to go next.

I am working on a timeline for the story line (2 timelines actually, one for the backstory), so I will know in generall where I am going, but it is this collection of ideas that help propel me along in the specifics. And it is the second backstory timeline that helps me keep all the ideas straight, keeps me from coming up w/ conflicting times of when things happen, etc. And yeah, sometimes when I am writing I come up w/ a scene or whatever thqat makes me go back and look at the timelines and see if the timeline is working as is, or needs to be re-worked, and if so how much is it going to affect other parts of the story already developed. For instance my timeline starts the story in APR in NE WA, I have guys in deep snow hiding, I don't know if there is still enough snow, even on the other side of the mts for this scene to work. I have to go back to the timeline and see why I picked APR to begin w/, can I move it back to JAN/FEB in order to use the scene w/ the attackers in the deep snow? If yes, what else is it going to affect? If no, then how do I re-work this scene. (I can call the weather bureau and check, that might solve the prblm.)

This is how I keep track of the ideas banging around in my head fighting w/ one another, and me, to get out into the world of man. Sorry for the treatise.

TW

[Tarin]

In our Reading Club's current selection The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, one character (an author) made this rather applicable speech:

"People wonder what makes me so prolific...."

"My study throngs with characters waiting to be written. Imaginary people, anxious for a life, who tug at my sleeve, crying, 'Me next! Go on! My turn!' I have to select. And once I have chosen, the others lie quiet for ten months or a year, until I come to the end of the story, and the clamor starts up again."

Boy, do I relate. :rolleyes:

[jacks girl]

Thanks guys. I know publishers wanted finished ideas and stories but I've often wondered if there isn't a place out there for a business called Story Starters. I can dream LOL.

I know the problem with writers is that they all have their own ideas and most of them have the same problem as I . Too many stories to little time.

This saying reminds me of my cousin his last name was Clay. He was at least 6 ft red hair good looks and the tough Harley looking type. He wore a shirt to church once that said So many women such little time. I don't guess i will forget that one. Years later he got saved and I hope and pray he's still on the right track. Sorry but I just had to add that story.

Jacks

[Timber Wolf]

sounds like an idea for a story

[jacks girl]

LoL. Clay would love that...

[Angelsunaware]

Sometimes I get writer's block and would LOVE to have those story starters, but for the most part, I'm just like you... except mine keep leading me to Series' because I keep getting more ideas with the same characters... I might actually try that, haha.
But yeah, to tell you the truth, that does sound like a good story idea, with a guy's life before and after he got saved like that... ooh.... i like it....!!
Byee
~Angelsunaware

[jacks girl]

LoL I'm sure cusion Grady had an interesting past. i know he even shaved his head once. not sure why he did that. He doesn't live very closet to me or I would know more about him.

[melw]

I sometimes like to do short stories with story starters. Espcially while editing. It keeps me writing while i am editing my WIP.

MEL

[michaelsnyder]

Man, what a great 'problem' to have. I've always envied writers with lost of story ideas banging around their heads.

For most of my writing life I've EXACTLY ONE story idea at a time...the one I'm working on. Thankfully, right now I'm editing my second novel and have two more ideas brewing (and my editor really likes one of them!!!).

I think the larger problem with 'sharing' ideas (and I do think your Story Starter is a cool idea) is that writers typically have to feel immersed, married, engrossed, engulfed, lost, smitten, fill-in-the-blank with whatever they're working on. So it would take some time (for me, anyway) to digest an idea that didn't well up from inside me and be able to do it justice.

But I'll keep this thread handy in case some publisher offers me a ten book deal and wants all ten ideas at once!. Then...we might be in business!!!

Mike

[jacks girl]

Cool Mike you do that... i have 10 easy.. LOL but most of them are Romance with a mystery twist.


Jacks

[michaelsnyder]

Hey, that works. My first novel has been called a romantic comedy with a twist of mystery.

I call it Neurotica.