How do I Come up With a Story
A Look Inside the Inner Workings of My Mind
“How do you come up with your ideas?”
“You have such a great imagination; how do you do it?”
“Your story goes with your picture so well. How’d you find a picture to match it so well?”
These are all questions I’ve been asked by several of my readers, and being bored and in between writings, I thought I would answer the questions. The answers are pretty straightforward and may or may not surprise some of you.
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The first thing I do when writing a story is look through pictures. I look till I find one that inspires me, and then I decide if I can make a story or poem out of it. Sometimes, a picture inspires the words, but I must find an image differently.
The story or poem seldom comes to me before I find a picture, but I can generally find a satisfactory image when it does.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** The places I look for inspiration are:
- Pixabay
- Unsplash
- Pexels
- Domain Free Images
- Copyright Free Images
- Facebook Vocal group challenge posts
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Or I create what I want:
- Nightcafe creations
- Free Word Cloud Generator
- Goggle Edit / Text Tool
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When I find a picture that inspires me, I immediately save it to the draft page on Vocal. Then, I wait for a story to come to me. Usually, I have a general idea of how I want a story to go from what is in the pictures. Once that general idea is hammered out, the rest of a fiction story or a poem is easy. It’s taken me anywhere from thirty minutes to three weeks to fine-tune a tale or poem to the point where I am happy enough to submit it on Vocal.
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If the picture just inspires a story but is not worthy of having a narrative made of it OR if I come up with a story before I even look for a picture, that’s when I create my own. Out of all the AI-generated art, Nightcafe Creation is my favorite to use. It’s easier, and I can get what I want with just a few tweaks of the wording. I created what I wanted with the Free Word Cloud in a few instances or edited a background photo from Pixabay with text.
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That’s it. That’s all I do– a straightforward process. My creativity depends on what is in a picture—nothing to it. Anyone can tell a story this way.
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Stories lined all up in a row
Stacked two to three high
All waiting to be told
All waiting to be read
Words gathered in groups
Piled into paragraphs
And stanzas
All vying to be written
All wanting out of my imagination
Just these old tales in my head
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Comments (6)
My Monthly stories are loosely based on the picture prompt from WritersUnited! FB group which I'm a part of. If you've read any of my stories, you know I can go pretty much anyplace from there. Generally speaking, I have no clear idea of what the story is when I start. I take either the picture as a whole or most of the time, an element of it and work it into a story. Sometimes it's a brief mention of an element or the subject of the picture. Just barely enough to tie the story to the picture. Sometimes I build a whole story around the picture as a whole. Oftentimes, I've worked a mention of the picture or an element of it in as an afterthought just to make it work with the picture. As for the story itself, I keep a file cabinet full of ideas hidden away and pull from them as needed. THats BS. There is no file cabinet. Sometimes I wish there was. I build my stories one paragraph after another each building on the ones before it. I have a name for my process, It is called "The Next Logical Scene." In other words, what is the next logical thing the characters should do after the events in a scene? Most of the time, write what should happen, But once in a while have them exactly the opposite of what they should, and keep building from that as you go.
Stories often come from images for me, but not pictures I've gone looking for. Ones that jump out at me and bite me. Could be a snatch of something I see or hear anywhere. Usually visual though. Actually finding the picture to go with the story for Vocal is normally the last step.
That's so interesting, that you start with a picture! That's usually the last bit for me!
I'm the complete opposite. I always write the story first and then find the picture. Also, I have never been inspired by any picture before. Like I'm not someone who can be inspired visually. In fact, nothing inspires me. It's just me and Mr Brain, lol. I'm so amazed at how pictures inspire your stories and poems. You're so brilliant!
I wish I could write like that.
Cool process. I’m usually the opposite: a story comes to me first and then I create a picture for it.