How To Create A Story Idea

Have you ever wondered if there was a science to creating compelling story ideas? What if I told you, this secret recipe for creating amazing ideas will help you craft a story that reads like a movie! 

Creating a story idea is the first thing you do before writing. Just like how film producers and screenwriters need to come up with an idea for a movie. 

Here’s the secret science method for crafting your book to read like a movie: 

#1: Concept 

#2: Characters 

#3: Inciting Incident 

#4: Twist

#1: Concept 

What is a concept? A concept is an idea premise for your story. For example, two sisters go on a road trip to their family lake house, but turns out that the house is occupied by stranger who refuses to leave, so the sisters have to figure out how to take their house back, but the stranger is a serial killer who has been killing their family for a very long time. 

Another example could be, a group of best friends from high school reunite at a conference in Seattle, although when an important corporate leader is murdered, a detective is called who happens to be the brother of one of the friends and has reason to believe one of the group of friends is the killer. 

Basically, the concept is: 

• Characters 
• Conflict 
• Twist 

#2: Characters 

Who are your characters? What is their names, occupation, and what role of the story do they play in? 

Creating characters can be extremely simple. I don’t need to develop characters by knowing everything about how they look and their background. I’ve developed characters for a very long time in the past, that I don’t need to develop characters that way anymore. 

This is all you need on how to create characters: 

• Character name 
• Cast character as an actor to visualize what they look like 
• Internal conflict and misbelief 

That’s it. It’s that simple. I advise you not to take too much time creating characters. The reason for this, is because throughout the story you’ll get to know them, and their past. This will also make your character feel real to you as the author. 

#3: Inciting Incident 

The inciting incident is when the character is pushed out of their comfort zone into a conflict. 

Such as, the corporate leader being murdered, or a stranger in your family lake house who refuses to leave. 

A inciting incident is would include: 

• Main character pushed out of comfort zone 
• The conflicting challenge of the conflict 
• How the main character reacts
• What the character decides to do whether it’s for worse or better 

#4: Twist

Finally, the twist. The twist in the tale that will change everything about the story. The twist is when the main character learns about the hidden truth, and is beside themselves. For example, learning that the main character’s mother has another family from another country, learning that the main character’s real father is a villain, learning that the main character’s sister who was claimed murdered is actually alive, and she faked her death. 

Here’s how you can create a twist: 

• A conflict that has a hidden truth that the reader won’t expect 
• Mislead your reader to believing something else 
• Create a set up for your character how they learn the truth 
• Shock your readers with a bigger picture 
• Raise the stakes 

I hope these tips were helpful. 

Thank for reading, and see you in the next post.