jml297

Have you ever wondered where writers find the seeds of their stories? It’s the question that lingers in every interview, whispered by readers and aspiring authors alike. The truth is, ideas rarely arrive from a single source—they emerge unexpectedly, from overheard conversations, fleeting images, or the quiet moments when curiosity takes hold. The real magic lies in recognising and gathering these sparks, wherever and whenever they appear.

A fellow writer recently shared that she’s compiling a list of 50 ideas to test the viability of a larger project—a reminder that fleshing out concepts is essential before committing to a major work.

In Write for Life: A Toolkit for Writers, Julia Cameron notes that a belief in authenticity leads to inspiration, and ideas follow. Ideas can be found in the Morning Pages; the practice of writing three pages of everything and anything that comes to mind. Often, the first idea that comes to mind is the best —though trusting it can be a challenge.

Capturing these ideas is essential, even if they aren’t quite right for the current moment or project that you’re working on. A writing notebook or an online notes app can be a gathering space for these thoughts. Writing notebooks are a safe place for experimenting and playing with these ideas to see if they may live up to their initial potential.

Ideas come from a myriad of sources. They can emerge from anecdotes that friends and family share; they can come from a simple question such as how, why or when. Occasionally an idea comes from an image, or it can begin as a fact and then be transformed into fiction. Ideas can take considerable time to develop and evolve: think of those little nuggets of gold that we all carry around, waiting for the right moment to excavate and polish to a shine.

There are few things more frustrating than a blank page for a writer. Some suggestions for ways to gather ideas include:

• Making a list — brainstorming
• Making a cluster diagram or mind map — helpful for visual writers
• Research or independent investigation
• Freewriting — non-stop writing on the page

These approaches are outlined in more detail in Writing from Start to Finish by Kate Grenville. Once you’ve gathered ideas, Grenville suggests putting them to three tests:

1. The feeling test — will it engage the reader’s feelings?
2. The story test — could the idea be used as part of an ongoing story, would something have happened before or after it?
3. The description test — could the idea describe a person, place, or thing in the story; could it be used to create a mood or atmosphere, or to help a reader see what’s happening?

The source of inspiration is tackled in Dear Writer Revisited by Carmel Bird: “… the fiction writer has so many ideas, so much inspiration, that the problem is one of choice. Which ideas are you going to choose to talk about?” As Bird notes, the quest for the source of a writer’s ideas can be a search for the secret to writing stories. However, there is no secret or magic pill.

Inside every writer, inside every human being, there’s a wealth of ideas and inspiration. New ideas are forever being added to the store, and the writer can go idea-shopping and decide which ones to buy. But how to decide? Some ideas insist on being used. So there’s no problem in that case. But sometimes the writer has trouble choosing, and even imagines there are no ideas at all.

I keep a writing notebook handy and jot down thoughts and story starters when they occur. After reading Antony Johnston’s book on being An Organised Writer, I have a dedicated note app that I’m using to capture ideas on the go. And for years, dreams have been a great storehouse of ideas and solutions to different challenges in my writing life.

Ultimately, the journey of idea generation is as individual as the writer themselves. Whether your inspiration arrives in a rush or emerges slowly from observation and reflection, the key is to remain open, curious, and persistent. By nurturing your ideas—capturing them, testing them, and allowing them to evolve—you build a creative reservoir that will sustain your writing practice. So, embrace the uncertainty, trust your instincts, and let your curiosity lead you. The next great idea may be waiting just beyond the blank page, ready to be discovered and transformed into something uniquely yours.

Make it a daily habit to capture every spark of inspiration—your next story could begin with the note you record today. What’s your favourite method for collecting and developing writing ideas?

Photo: candlelight

Writing resources:

1. Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas From? is an article by Julienne Van Loon. It outlines sources of ideas for writers, and includes anecdotes gathered from years of teaching creative writing in a wide range of settings and locations. One of the sources of ideas is curiosity, and she also outlines the importance of being brave enough to interrogate unfinished thinking.
2. For a deep dive on how a series of seemingly unconnected ideas and images were transformed and developed into a novel called Rapture, listen to Emily Maguire talk about the importance of paying attention. The 2025 Colin Roderick Memorial Lecture recording can be found here. There is a short video outlining the book’s motivation here.
3. Most writers seem to find their ideas through a mixture of observation, experience and thought. There is an excellent article by Tony Bradman exploring this in more detail. Being receptive to ideas, gathering ideas as they appear, and paying particular attention to ideas that won’t go away are important parts of the idea generation and development process.