Ideas for stories are all around you, all the time. What story writers do is to look around us and use our imagination.
All you have to do is to say “What if…”
What if my sister could fly…?
What if I found a million dollar note…?
What if my dog started talking to me…?
What if my best friend moved to Alaska…?
What if the sun went out…?
If you want an idea for a story, and you are really stuck, you could try my random story idea generator.
This week’s writing tip comes from Derek Landy, creator of Skulduggery Pleasant, Valkyrie Cain, and many other unpleasant characters. We asked Derek if he could give one piece of advice to budding writers what would it be?
“You have to have fun. When I wrote the first Skulduggery book I didn’t have a clue whether or not it would be published or if anybody would like it, so I concentrated on having fun. I packed it full of things that I adore; fight scenes, jokes, horror, adventure, magic. Fun is contagious and if you have fun writing it, the reader will have fun reading it. “
Visit Derek Landy’s website for more information about the author and his books, and to test your knowledge of the Skulduggery books.
Our writing tip this week is once again from Margaret Mahy, who will be at the Storylines Free Family Day next Sunday, 15 August at the Christchurch Town Hall. Come along and listen to Margaret talk about her writing and read some of her books.
“I think writers ought to read a lot, and it is often good to be working on more one story. If your first story does not work out it is comforting to have another story to fall back on. Most writers have to work hard – to write and re-write their stories.”
This week’s writing tip comes from one of New Zealand’s greatest writers, Margaret Mahy, who will be appearing at the Storylines Free Family Day in Christchurch on Sunday 15 August. Margaret Mahy has written so many books that it’s impossible to name them all. She writes picture books, like Down the Back of the Chair, as well as novels, like Kaitangata Twitch, Maddigan’s Fantasia, Memory, and Portable Ghosts. We’ll be posting some other great writing tips from Margaret Mahy over the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to Storylines. This week, she talks about the story ideas that come to her.
“My ideas mostly come from things that happen to me, but of course they are changed a great deal by the time the story is finished. The ideas begin with real things but I invent all sorts of things to add to them, or I change them in some way before the story is finished.”
This week’s writing tip comes from Joseph Delaney, author of the spine-tingling Spook’s Apprentice and other books in the Wardstone Chronicles including his latest book, The Spook’s Nightmare. Joseph tells us the inspirations for his books and where ideas come from.
The ideas for my books come from nightmares, dreams and day-dreams which I always jot down lest I forget them. Sometimes I’m inspired by the things that people say or do or a piece of town or countryside I see whilst out walking. I do more ‘writing’ in my head than I ever do on paper or type into my computer.
“I love playing games with words. I try to make the names sound like the person they are describing. ‘Snotlout’ is called Snotlout because he has a large nose, and ‘snotty’ can also mean ‘superior and thinking you’re a bit above everybody else’. A ‘lout’ is a brutish, brainless sort of person.
I make up the Dragonese in the same way. Therefore a ‘bird’ in Dragonese is a ‘song-munch’, because they sing and the dragons regard them as food.”
A lot of kids ask me where I get my story ideas.
