Having fertile ideas for the creation of stories is one of the most difficult things in the writer’s life. An idea can be BOTH powerful or dull at the same time and the reasons will not be linked with the idea itself but with the approach or the author’s perspective. Ideas are like fish and surround writers, their perception and sensitivity are the rod. In this article, I will explain where is this lake full of fish:

The main thing you need to know is that there is no lake but an ocean and you are in the middle. I mean: everything is a topic to write about. Do a test - choose a word, a random word that may be an object you have in front of you (a computer, for example) and count ten minutes. Now write. Write about it. Write and write about the computer in the centre of the story or as a contextual item. 

Clichés are also an interesting cave to dig new ideas. Usually, clichés don’t offer anything new, actually the idea of cliché is the gathering of a cultural vision for something. However, I find clichés ideas a very interesting topic to explore, why did they become a cliché? What do they try to prefix in culture? How could we transform the cliché into an anti-cliché with an opposite approach? Analyzing this last question, if we have a happy family of two with a dog as a cliché, an opposite approach is an unhappy family of two kids with an octopus. Play with the unexpected. Install your stories in a Lovely dark and cold night on the beach instead of the stereotypical beach day.

To end up, I will share my secret about my favorite field of ideas: my obsessive thoughts about the world. I am sure you have opinions to make about almost everything (otherwise you wouldn’t be an author!). My top ones are about why society behaves in a way that may not be natural for an animal as the human or family relationships and obligations. I also love metalingüistics and metastories. So, I really have a big bunch of ideas and formats already established in my mindset. Imagine I have a love story where I don’t feel comfortable being non-monogamous, maybe I want to work on a story about non monogamies using anti-clichés and a traditionally dull story of two lovers. Maybe I want to add an octopus as now I only can think of why a family would not be happy having an octopus as a pet.