{"id":6717,"date":"2010-02-08T14:44:47","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T19:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=6717"},"modified":"2010-02-08T14:44:47","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T19:44:47","slug":"writers-idea-bank-pictorial-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/writers-idea-bank-pictorial-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer’s Idea Bank (Pictorial Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many writers hate the question from non-writers, “Where do you get your ideas?” I suspect one reason they hate it* is that they themselves don’t really know, but wish they did — so they could return to the well again, and again, and again…<\/p>\n

No such luck in the real world, of course. Some story ideas do come directly from identifiable triggers — we see a mother slapping a child’s face, say, and suddenly we start to wonder what led up the moment of unhinging, or what will follow it. But I believe most stories just sort of emerge half-formed (if that much), from the mind’s restless sifting through and folding together of the everyday, long after we can attribute the ideas to something specific.<\/p>\n

Still, explicit sources of inspiration aren’t to be sniffed at. When you’ve just gotta get moving at the keyboard, but have nothing to move you, you can turn for instance to automated brainstorming aids<\/a>. You might play with reCaptcha word pairs (like here<\/a> or here<\/a>), or take a handful of simple emotions<\/a> and toss them into the subconscious’s blender.<\/p>\n

Here’s one more source for you: the Portrait of Words<\/em> blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Welcome to our bi-monthly writing challenge known as a “Portrait of Words”.<\/p>\n

In a nut shell here’s how it works. Every other week we will give you a set of categories along with photographs to use as inspiration for your story. Look at each of the pictures and interpret them, then create a story based on what you see and feel. It’s really that simple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(For more detailed guidelines, click the above link. The “set of categories” guideline seems to have been dropped, though.)<\/p>\n

As an example, see Portrait of Words #22<\/em><\/a>, from November. It includes four pictures, including these two:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Do those two photos, taken together, suggest a story to you?** If so, you might want to hang onto a Portrait of Words<\/em> bookmark.<\/p>\n

[Hat tip to Susan Carleton’s excellent <\/em>Stony River blog for the link<\/a> to <\/em>Portrait of Words. I found Susan’s blog by way of the Write Your A** Off map<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

* The main reason for hating the “Where do you get your ideas?” question may be the suggestion that ideas come to us from the outside, rather than from within.<\/p>\n

** This probably indicates some deep-seated mental imbalance, but all I can think of — now that I’ve thought of it once — involves the pigeons getting mangled in the Ferris wheel’s machinery. And yes, I know: sick, sick, sick<\/em>. But art isn’t always pretty. :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many writers hate the question from non-writers, “Where do you get your ideas?” I suspect one reason they hate it* is that they themselves don’t really know, but wish they did — so they could return to the well again, and again, and again… No such luck in the real world, of course. Some story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,324,372],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-06_writing","7":"category-researchresources","8":"category-style-and-craft","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1Kl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6717"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6755,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6717\/revisions\/6755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}