How can I come up with an original story idea?

[Noogah]

I wanted to write a book over the summer. Turns out I was a tad too ambitious. Being the overall nerd that I am, it would be a fantasy. I have what I feel are good characters in an interesting world. However, I don't have a good story to put them to use. The old quest to find/destroy/save the whatchamacallit whilst fighting the dark lord whats-his-face's evil minions does not work, and I don't want anything generic anyways. What is a good way/method of coming up with original stories/plots? Does anyone have any experience? I would be most appreciative of your advice.

[reci]

Make a metaphor of something in reality. That's what many writers do to prove a point.

[JessieTea]

I have been trying to write a book all summer too, and I'm having the exact same problem as you. I can come up with various worlds right away but I can never actually think of a plot. One of my problems is that I read so much and I always feel so connected to the characters and I never want anything bad to happen to them. When I'm making my own characters it is even worse and I can't even imagine anything bad happening to them.

[Xei]

Watch some good movies, read some good books. The key to creating original work is learning to hide your sources.

[slash112]

Sometimes dreams can have good plot lines. Or at least give a good outline for one. I like what PROG and Xei said too.

[Cosmix]

Turn the story of your life into a parody of a tragedy. Insert the characters you have as people in your life Reverse the script, chop it up. In the end it was just a heavy 4 day Datura trip. #1 New York Times best seller.

[Creation X]

what slash said. That's how twilight got created! I too have been trying to think of a good plot. I (like you've said) don't want a crappy, generic story, but something different. Books don't always need happy endings! Some of the best books out their end horribly. Just because your book is fiction, doesn't mean it can't have the cruel facts of non-fiction polymerized into it.

[JessieTea]

I already get most of my inspiration from dreams, my dreams just never really have definite plots either. They're just random events.

[ooflendoodle]

Go look up John Campbells hero story archetype a crap load of people have used like star wars, lord of the rings (<- I think) and many other good books read it through and then sort of build a plot around that with deviation or at least look at for some kind of idea. That's all I got but with about around six billion people before it might be hard to make a plot that's TOTALLY original. Just another idea.

[Lseadragon]

The books I have most enjoyed are ones that don't strictly feel like they have a plot - things just happen, and they progress logically. If you can't come up with a plot in this way then you need more details. What's in your character's past? What's in the land's past? Where is the land going now? Will people be affected by a generational change? Most importantly, you must be trying to say something. If you've nothing to say with your book, it's just lies placed together in a logical manner. You might be trying to say something about feminism, individuality, prejudice, or merely "DRAGONS ARE COOL" but figure out what you want to say, and write to that.

[Alric]

A good story is all about the conflict. You say you have characters, well is there any conflict between them? If not, think of ways to cause tension and conflict between them. You have a setting, is there any conflict in the setting? Well there should be. Think of ways to build the conflict in your world, even if it doesn't directly effect the story. You need to look at everything as a potential problem. If you have city, there should be gangs running around it, thugs beating people up, corrupt politicians, rival factions competing with each other, the city is cut off from others, supplies are low, there is a war, criminals are executed in public. Just start thinking of ways to cause conflict. Then pick the biggest conflict, and that is the one your character should overcome, at the same time he overcomes the smaller minor conflicts. As for JessieTea, you need to learn to abuse your characters. You should really care about them, care about them a lot, then crush them like a bug. If you feel emotional pain of a characters suffering, then it will come across in your writing. The goal is to share that pain with the readers, so they love the characters and they feel all the pains you do. You need to be twisted and messed up, think of the worst possible thing you can do, then do it. Also, all plots suck at first. You need to take your little plot seed and grow it, and as you do introduce twists and turns to make it more original and creative. If you can't think of something original, think of something unoriginal then figure out a way to turn it into something completely new. Just tweaking the idea a little, can turn it into something great.

[plamadude30k]

I'm just an amateur author, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I really enjoy writing fiction and have been doing it for quite a while. When I'm writing a story, there are always several things I have to consider: setting, characters, and plot. For the longest time I treated these separately, but I noticed that they're all interlinked. The best stories (in my humble opinion) have fully-fleshed-out worlds behind them, and all of the elements seem to grow from a common seed. You really have to spend some time thinking and writing background materials. For example, for the story I'm currently writing (as currently planned more than 1200 pages) I've actually spent the last two years devising a cosmogony, theogony, complete geography, and many cultures with which to populate my world. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to write before I started, but nothing solid. I found that as I filled in the background, a good plot seemed to spring right out of it (actually, several plots in different time periods). Bringing this rambling back to something dream related, I frequently use imagery from dreams, including characters and settings, for things I write. It's much more rare (but not unheard of) for me to use a dream as the basis of a plot.

[Siиdяed]

Give the characters lots of quirks. People like that. And have little to no action at all. And minimal dialogue. Claim the 900 page book to be pogniant and contemplative.

[PXUmais]

This is probably going to sound far fetched but.. Read a poem.. Poems contain so many different layers: Metaphorically, Literal.. But once you unpick the insides of a poem, you'll appreciate the author.. Or if you can't be asked for that, read an Analysis of a Poem written by someone else..

[greenhavoc]

walk into a walmart with a voice recorder and read aloud the title of every dvd you think is rubbish , then explain why