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DEAR CITIZEN MONKEY
I have terrible writers block and have not written for months now. I write short pschological thrillers. About eight in all so far. I'm out of material though now. To be frank I cruise book shops for ideas but it all seems to have been done before. Once I think I have an idea I switch on the TV or pick up a magazine and they’ve already snapped up my 'original' idea. How can I get fresh fodder for my next story?
Tony from Soham
Citizen Monkey comments
Capturing ideas that are unique is a challenge for any writer. Don't be overwhelmed by this. Your inspiration will come. A good trick to 'jump-start' the old grey matter is to write down ten things that really piss you off, and then, imagine, if you ruled the universe what outlandish measures would you take to smash this evil? Plan and calculate each step.
For instance if you hate fast food. How would you stop people eating it?
Shoot pizza boys? Start a rodent infestation in McDonalds? Be as wicked as you like. Then find someone in your imagination that would do such a thing.
If you write romance. Think of the best thing a lover can do and worst thing that a lover could do and weave that into a story with some added outside interference from saboteurs!
All stories are read well if they relate to us. Make it so 'impossible' it is real. The more unpredictable the better. So don't be afraid to take some reckless risks with the story line. But don't be stereotypical with your characters. The whore that sees the error of her ways. The priest who is a hopeless drunk. The chain smoking Private eye.
Keep away from religion, social and political arguments. They just don't work. If they have your book on a beach are they going to care about 'soapbox' issues?
 But an errant verger who goes 'cottaging' and is recognised by the postman or village paperboy may start a good blackmail scenario. Better still what if he 'pulls' a fellow priest in some stinking public toilet and they 'come out' to wage war against a whole calvinist community?
Yes, of course your story will resemble something. The knack is for the reader not to know exactly what it resembles. Look how movies reinvent the wheel? You just have to paint the wheel a different colour and change the hubcaps (sorry, 'wheel-trims' these days!)
There is much to be harvested in your imagination. Don't dwell so hard.
Unless it Sci-Fi horror/fantasy it has to be real to life but slightly implausible. A fine balance is needed. The difference between fantasy and being far fetched needs a blurred line. Believable but bonkers!
You could read any paper or magazine to build a good story.
I once took four headlines from a local paper and wrote a story that included an arson attack, a mugging and a car chase purely from details I stole from my local rag.
Another one of my favourite methods is to trawl a graveyard and steal some interesting names for characters from gravestones. You can meditate on what type of people these once living people were like and build actual relationships in your head with them. This is a little macabre but what a way to honour the dead by including them in your story! There is a certain amount of discretion that must be observed of course. Don't scribble notes at others funerals or take pictures of people crying.
By all means take photographs of people and places (discreetly) to help you to be more descriptive.
Stories are about conflict.
The ending of a story is your payment of how good you tell it.
Remember the thirty point system. Start out with the characters. Not more than five.
Look at people on public transport or in shops and parks and try to imagine what secret lives they lead. (Don't get arrested for stalking) Take a ‘Dictaphone’ or small note pad to find your characters and describe them.
Now pick up an atlas and pick a country or part of the country to find the setting. Do a little research on the area via the web or library. Note the most powerful, landmarks, points of history. Environment and customs.
Get your time dimension or 'window' era. If you want your story to be set in the swinging sixties get information on the media interest of the time. Woodstock, Profumo affair? Note the fashion... the music. Paint the picture. Put the reader in that passage of time.
Now start your thirty point system. Plan your story. Any good story starts out with a 'dilemma' and write the first ten points on that. The middle segment is about the 'conflict' or how good and evil 'battle it out ' and the last ten points deal with the 'twist' or the resolve.
'Thirty points' is the best kept secret.
Renoir probably stared at a blank canvas before he found a subject too. Go with it. Writing is about what you write and not when you write it. Don't be distracted by anything. Set aside the time you want to write without any interference. Writing is an intimate experience. Treasure that time. If you write ten words or ten thousand words in one sitting it does not matter, but don't be disturbed when you do.
Short stories are at their best under 8000 words. So write 16000 and ruthlessly edit to make it punchy.
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