Part of a writer’s job is the ability to come up with good story ideas. An idea that is new. Fresh. A new slant that turns a common narrative arc into something unexpected. But how do you do that when it seems everything has been done before?
All writers live by the power of their story ideas. How are yours? Do you struggle to come up with ideas? Or do you hit a wall when you try to develop them into something useable?
Don’t worry. This series will help.
Not All New Ideas
Not every story begins life as a new idea. There are many stories derived or inspired from others. For example, 10 Things I Hate About You founds its origins in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The 1990s classic, Clueless, started as an update of Jane Austen’s Emma. And Disney’s Lion King is nothing more than a Hamlet retelling. There are also a host of myths and fairy tales reimagined for the page and screen. There’s nothing wrong with using an existing idea or trope as a springboard to something new from the familiar.
But there are stories that spring forth from a spark of genius. Aliens destroying the entire planet save on ordinary person in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a great example of this. There are many. Stories that stand out as entirely new or surprising. Sometimes it takes the form of how the stories are written, such as Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which embraces poetic language and beauty for a tale full of heartache.
What all of these stories have in common is that they began with an idea, no matter how fresh or refreshed. But how do writers get story ideas? The answer to that question lies deep in our brains.
The Brain & Ideas
The brain has two systems that govern our minds and ideas. They are:
The Controlled System
The Controlled System concerns the conscious mind. This part of the brain governs how we take in information through our senses and then combines that data with knowledge we’ve gained along the way. This mixture informs our decisions and interactions in the world. Our conscious mind determines our experiences, but it does not operate alone. We have another system called…
The Automatic System
This is the unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind is powerful and tracks everything around us. It’s the reason you hear what matters and can filter out the miscellaneous. When you’re working in a coffeehouse, it’s why you hear them call your name, but don’t necessarily hear the other patrons talking, unless they are being exceptionally loud or saying something outrageous that snags your attention.
Both of these systems work together. But the second system, the unconscious mind, works harder when it comes to imagination and ideas. That happens because during the day we feed this part of our brain with everything we’ve read, seen, heard, tasted, touched, smelled, considered, and encountered. That input pays off later.
The subconscious brain takes everything we give it and lets it marinate, combining the conscious observations with the unconscious material we’ve collected along the way. These elements mix with our creativity to result in dreams, ideas, and creative sparks that can turn into stories.
We need both systems. It is essential to feed the first and give time to the second because they work in combination.
There are three other systems involved in the process. They include the:
- The Attentional Control Network that focuses our attention on a single task at a time. This is the system that helps us ignore everything else and do deep work. This is what you need to sit down and write.
- The Imagination Network helps us free up our imagination and let the ideas flow. It’s the part of the brain that can access memories and dream up future scenarios, and even imaginary events. This is where the internal writer lives.
- The Attentional Flexibility Network is the executive of the three. It decides how and when to switch from deep focus to free association to being wide open to stimuli. Think of it as the director who decides where to look and what to notice. It houses the internal editor, but also the observer.
These three systems work in combination with the two systems above to create the right environment to come up with ideas. And it all happens within your brain without much conscious effort.
Have you ever noticed that you get great ideas in the shower or on a walk or when you’re driving? That’s because your conscious mind is distracted leaving you open to input from your subconscious mind. It is in these moments of distraction the automatic system pushes into the forefront enough to connect with the conscious mind. That’s why many articles on how to get ideas suggest taking a walk. It’s a way to tap into the subconscious easily. Driving sometimes works too. Anything that allows you to move into an automatic mode so the subconscious mind can feed ideas to your conscious brain.
This short series on getting ideas relies on acknowledging how the brain works, from the reality of the controlled and automatic systems to the three focus systems. It offers exercises that will help you tap into the automatic system after feeding the controlled system.
The next two blogs will break down a series of methods you can use to tap into your creativity and generate more ideas. Some are habits to form, while others are exercises to try when brainstorming new ideas.