For the month of October we will start a New video series to help you prep for NaNoWriMo coming up in November.

NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month” and it happens every year in November. It’s where writers are encouraged to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s meant to inspire and motivate writers to finish their novels.

So, I thought for this month we would focus on getting prepped for the start of November and NaNoWriMo.

And if it doesn’t work for you to participate in NaNoWriMo — no worries. I hope these videos will still help you to understand the process of figuring out your novel.

For today we’ll start at the very beginning and chat about: How to Uncover and Brainstorm a New Story Idea.

Listen to the video below or scroll down to read this blogpost…

How to Uncover and Brainstorm a New Story Idea…

Most writers who are in the beginning stages of writing, aren’t sure where to find story ideas and how to brainstorm those ideas.

I used to be one of those writers. I would have a small-ish idea and then I wasn’t sure where to go from there.

For some books I’ve written, I didn’t even have a real story idea — only a setting of where I wanted to write the story. That’s what I had for my first historical romance series. I basically just knew I wanted it to be set in Russia during the time of WWI — but at the very beginning, I had no ideas on characters or any of the other details.

It all seemed so confusing as I didn’t understand what to do with my story idea.
So if you are feeling like you need some help uncovering a story idea and brainstorming it… that’s what I want to help you with today.

How do how to go from have an idea into having a much more detailed and bigger vision of the story idea.

Today we will start at the beginning: How do you find your amazing story idea — an idea that sparks your interest and that are passionate about?

 

STEP 1: Figure out your genre.

There are a few different ways that will help you figure out what genre you are genuinely interested in writing a story in.

Have you always been interested in History and how it helps us today — and do you love to watch historical movies. If so, your interests might lead you to write Historical Fiction.

Ask Yourself: What are movies you love to watch? Or what novels do you love to read?

For example, if you love watching the hunger games or Divergent — perhaps Dystopian science fiction is a genre you would love to write.

Or if you love reading novels like C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” that might be a sign you are interested in writing a novel in the fantasy genre.

If you’re like me and you love all sorts of genres in movies or novels, it might take a little more fleshing out to uncover a more detailed description of the genre in which you would love to write your novel.

To help narrow it down, ask yourself what novels you most enjoy reading?

When you have a couple hours free time, do you pick up a romance novel to read — or do you gravitate towards mystery?

Sometimes as writers, it’s helpful to ask ourselves specific questions. This will really help to narrow down the genre you’d like to write your story.

For example, if you know you really like to write fantasy, then you can already weed out a psychological thriller, or contemporary romance…. and visa versa.

Or ask yourself what setting really interests you? If you are excited about writing science fiction for example, then you know that your setting will be somewhere in outer space — in a fictional location. Which is quite fun and interesting.

You can also find inspiration by searching through Pinterest or finding documentaries or other videos on YouTube. Sometimes these visual prompts can be helpful to inspire your creativity and give you wonderful story ideas.

Or perhaps, story tropes help you get inspired.
For Example: Maybe you’ve always liked Science Fiction movies with the middle-aged maverick captain and the raggedy crew who take back freedom from the overlords.
This is similar to the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy”starring Chris Pratt. This science fiction movie definitely has those elements.
If you wanted to write a science fiction novel with a maverick captain and his raggedy crew — the genre would be called a space opera science fiction.

That’s an example of searching for the setting that inspires you.

When you have the genre narrowed down — it’s time to go to the next step.

 

STEP 2: Dig deeper to Uncover your story’s theme.

I like how KM Weiland defines theme as: “a unifying idea or subject, explored via recurring patterns and expanded through comparisons and contrasts.”

Theme is important. Theme can help you figure out where the story is going.

Story is ultimately an expression of theme. Plot and characters are just window dressing to the deeper meaning of theme. So if the ideas in your story fill the reader’s mind and emotions with a universal truth, it will be because of theme — more so than the plot or characters — theme will be what resonates with readers.

I like how Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) described theme.
“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea though man there be that have tried it.”

So if you are interested in writing a story — I believe you want to connect with readers on a deeper level — to connect with their heart.

This is really accomplished by your story’s theme.

The truth is, sometimes the theme of your novel isn’t that easy to spot right away. At least that’s been my experience.

Sometimes you don’t figure out your theme — until you’re halfway through writing the story.

That’s what happened for me as I wrote in my latest cowboy sweet romance(written under a pen name). It wasn’t until I was writing the mid-point of the novel, where I realized that my heroine’s abuse she experienced her stepfather… and the fact that the Heroine was willing to listen to her grandmother’s advice to forgive her stepfather… that I realized the theme was forgiveness and redemption.

This was quite difficult to write, because in some ways it reminded me of my own childhood… and needing to forgive some tough situations I faced then.

Being a storyteller, as I’ve learned will often mean that you must be willing to write from your heart… and sometimes that means writing from deeper places of pain, trauma, and forgiveness and redemption that you’ve gone through personally.

But, it’s okay. This genuine and honest writing, is what stirs and connects with the human heart.

So ask yourself: What is that truth that your Hero is going to learn over the course of your novel.

What is their inner transformation that your Hero will need to go through — that inner transformation — your character arc — is where you will discover the theme of your story.

 

STEP 3: Get to know your Hero.

To get to know your hero, means a real understanding of what your Hero wants. This means doing a deep dive into all their flaws, fears and wounds.

And this also means understanding their false beliefs — the untruths that your main characters tell themselves (which usually stems from the all the bad things they’ve experienced so far in their life).

Story is about how what happens in the storytelling that transforms the characters.

Characters are the main event (so to speak) in your story. Readers will resonate deeply with your characters… almost like they will become like a close friend to your readers — if you take the time to dig deeply into your character’s backstory — which includes their wounds and fears and limiting beliefs.

The character transformation is really what your reader is subconsciously looking for as they read your book. They want to know how is this main character (with all their flaws, fears and limiting beliefs) going to go through this big change from the ordinary world and into the new world — and face off with their fears — and come to the other side at the end of the story letting go of those limited beliefs and embracing the truth of who they really are?

This transformation is what your reader is searching for — even if they might not be able to put it into words.

So it’s up to us as storytellers to really dig deep into who our main characters are… and bring those characters into an amazing transformation that really resonates with our readers.

And for some further thoughts on storytelling… write down how you want your readers to feel when they read your story.

Some examples are: suspenseful, mysterious, heartbreaking, tear-jerking, heartwarming, thrilling, etc.

What is the mood and emotion you want readers to feel and resonate with in your story. Which means, you will have those emotions too as you write the story.

Dwight V. Swain in his book “Techniques of the Selling Writer” says: When asked what should you as a fiction writer communicate to your readers? Feelings.”

Feelings.

Readers want to feel something when they read your story. Whether it’s happiness, pain, heartbreak, fear, a mysterious feeling or even a thrill… readers want to feel deep emotions.

So those are three steps to help you uncover and brainstorm your new story idea.

Just a quick note: if you can only figure out 2 out of the 3 steps… you’re still good to go.

What I’ve noticed — if you’re anything like me when I write — sometimes the theme won’t come to me until I’m halfway through writing the book.

So for me — I might not be able to figure out STEP #2 until I get to the mid-point of writing the story, but it’s okay.

It’s all good.

If you can figure out the other two steps you’re good to go and ready for the next step in this series.

One important point: If you can only takeaway one thing to remember from this video, then ask yourself this question:

What is the story that you really want to read?— Go write that story.

Join me for the next blogpost or video in this series as we prep for NaNoWriMo. Next week we’ll chat about: How to figure out the plot for your novel.

Have a wonderful writing week! 🙂