Where to find ideas for a side story for your novel

So you have come up with a wonderful idea for a novel. You have it all planned out. You know every detail of what is going to happen with your main characters. You know what plot twists are going to throw your reader for a loop. You're set! Then you start writing and find a huge problem. It isn't enough. Your plans for a novel have resulted in a short story with dreams of growing up into a novel. You add more details to your characters, embellish a little on the story, and even get creative with your spacing. Still not enough. You need a side story. Where are you going to come up with a side story? You fried out all of the creative circuits in your brain imagining the main plot. It's all over! The book is ruined! Time to go back to watching Star Wars way to much and living off of popcorn! (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Before you format your hard drive and burn your printed copies, you should realize that a side story isn't that difficult to create, and it can make a world of difference in your characters realism. Think about it. Do you do only one thing all of the time? Even people who are obsessed with something take a break from it now and again. Your characters should, too. That is where a good side story comes in. It transforms your characters from characters into people. So where do you find a good side story? My suggestion for that would be the same suggestion that I give for most things. Open your eyes! The perfect side stories are all around you or have already been a part of you and your life.

One of the favorite approaches I have seen some authors use is to make the setting of the book a side story. That is a tried and true technique. It's especially useful if you are very familiar with the setting yourself. When this happens, the setting becomes a character all its own. Could Batman take place anywhere other than Gotham City? I really enjoy the Dresden Files series. In it, Jim Butcher often uses the setting of Chicago as a source for side stories. He takes common sites in the city and twists them to fit into his paranormal world. You can certainly do the same.

Of course, everyone doesn't want to use the same formula for creating side stories. That would make for boring literature. So what else can you look to for side stories. Think of your own life. I don't mean that you should make every story a biography. I mean that everyone can look back on an event in their life and imagine how it could have been different. You can positively or negatively change how things are handled by your characters in the same situation and create a good side story that will be very believable. After all, the situation did occur in real life, right? You can also look to your own activities. Why not incorporate some of your own hobbies, your job, or some of your interpersonal interactions into side stories. Once again, reality creeps into fiction, and it makes for a better story.

So, if it is big cities or family reunions, career moves or airsoft games, you can find lots of ideas for side stories for almost any book. Just look around, remember, go through a photo album, or talk to a friend. Personally, I am using airsoft in the book I am working on now. It gives me a good side story and an excuse to go and play!

The ultimate character...

This is going to sound odd. Okay, it may sound more than odd. However, when you think about it for a while it will make a crazy sort of sense. I was speaking with my students today about story flow, characters, and sprinkling in a little storytelling when I realized after one of my stories that I had a wonderful challenge for them to undertake. This challenge would test whatever writing skills they have absorbed and push them to their limits. I told them that they had to write a story that covers the content of a single, normal day. It would be written in first person. The only problem was, it had to be written from the point of view of a cat. Think about it for a moment. If you ever want to challenge your ability to create a character, you have to delve outside of your comfort zone. Sure, its easy to create a main character that has a lot of yourself in it, but it can be so much more satisfying to write a story with a character that you have very little in common with and nail it. I think that cats are the ultimate "other" character to try to create. I love dogs. I've had a dog of one sort or another since I was young. However, their thought processes are usually pretty easy to figure out. Writing a story from a dog's perspective would center entirely around getting fed and being scratched behind the ear. Cats are a mystery. Humans have been trying to understand cats for thousands of years. We are no closer to it now than we were when we first took them as pets. They always know where you want to sit and take that spot. They randomly chase things that either do or do not exist. They have an unspoken way of ordering their humans around. If you ever wanted a challenge to creating a character that is sure to stretch your abilities, there it is. I'm not saying that it is necessarily a publishable story, but it could certainly be an entertaining exercise!

5 ways of ending an idea drought

Nothing is more devastating than running into a complete roadblock when you are trying to think of good ideas for a story or book. Humans are storytellers. We love to spin a yarn about all kinds of things. Sometimes we want to be scared, other times amazed, and still others we like to be reminded. Some of us, though, like to do the scaring, the amazing, and the reminding. For some of us, it is almost like a high when you are sure your audience is reacting to your words. It is also an unbelievable low whenever you can't find the words to say. I'm probably not the best person to be creating this short list of place to look for ideas since I'm not a best-selling writer or anything, but I firmly believe that all of these things can work, and work well.

#1 Read, read, and then read some more!

Never steal another writer's ideas. There is nothing more low among writers than the pilfering of another's thoughts. However, reading someone else's work provides you with some great new perspectives. The style of writing may help push you towards a new approach. One of the characters may mention something that you are unfamiliar with, and in researching what it is, you may find something that spurs a storyline. You may find a concept that you think needs more exploration. You may even come up with a completely spontaneous storyline that you had never considered before and may never have thought of if you hadn't taken your mind off of things by writing. In the end, there is very little downside to this suggestion.

#2 Talk, listen, then talk some more!

As I have already mentioned, people are storytellers. We spend all day telling stories of some kind or another. That is the nature of being social animals. If you can't seem to find a story to tell in your writing, it is time to get around some other people and start telling stories. Once again, I am not suggesting that you try to steal some of their ideas. You are looking for inspiration. So many things in our regular interactions can inspire. Just remember that as often as you speak, you also need to listen. Get out of your isolation and interact.

#3 Open your eyes, you fool!

Look at the world around you. I mean really look. There are things that happen all of the time, right under our noses, that are remarkable. Sometimes you don't even need to move in order to see them. Have you ever watched a speck of dust floating in the air? Have you thought about where it came from and how it came to be in the middle of your living room? How does it get where it is going? What has it seen? Is it watching you, too? Just think, you may have found the inspiration for a unique story all because you forgot to buy Pledge at the store. Just think of what you might find if you venture out of your house!

#4 Turn up the radio!

Very little spurs emotions among humans more than music. Why else would the various MP3 players be so remarkably successful? Why not sit down, turn off the computer, and just listen to the radio for a while. Let the songs take you away from the stress of writer's block and everyday life for a few minutes. Come back to your writing quest refreshed, ina different mood, and with a different outlook. Even if you are like me and usually listen to NPR, the stories you hear can really get your mind working and put you back on track to starting, continuing, or completing that story you are looking for.

#5 Write something!

"If I could write something, Slater, I wouldn't be reading this stupid list now would I?" I said something, as in "anything." Write a limerick. Write a short story. Write a blog. Change your Facebook status. Write a chronological list of your day's activities. Whatever it is, just write it down! If you crumble it up and throw it away afterwards, that is still one thing that you have written. You have broken the drought. The only thing that overcomes defeat is success, no matter how minor that success is.

An idea drought can be devastating to anyone that considers themselves a writer. Don't let it wipe out your hopes or plans. There are always methods to dealing with an obstacle. You can go around it. You can go over it. With appropriate application of force, you can go through it! What you can't do is sit down in front of it and declare "You win."