Creativity and Novel Writing: Exercises to Get Ideas and Energy Flowing

Writing novels is part art, part science. No matter what the proportions of those two you think apply, writing is hard work. Often, writing novels can take months or years - some can even take that long just for their idea to fully develop. This isn't a flaw in the writer, by any means; some people may find it easier to create stories than others, but everyone can do it. Creativity, like everything else, has to be developed in order to be used. No one can reach into your brain and write a novel from unformed thought alone. Here are several things I've tried out in the past that were quite helpful in writing novels (in addition to a few story ideas.)

Firstly, be observant. Novel ideas are all around, easily seen by paying attention. (Although, note this doesn't mean to deliberately eavesdrop on others' conversations.) A lot of beginning authors, myself included, have made the mistake of thinking that stories have to be based on uber-dramatic, once-in-a-lifetime events. This isn't so - after all, how many steamy romance novels are on bookshelves? Anything observable by the five senses, or sixth to go into the fantasy genre, is fodder for a potential novel. Anything unusual in a certain person's attire? Hell, I'm willing to wager that any potential writers who see me walking down the street would have plenty to write about - I wear a houserobe over my normal clothing.

Carry a small notepad around to write novel or story ideas down. J.K Rowling started the Harry Potter novels with nothing more than notes written on the back of a napkin. Anything experienced that seems like a good idea, write it down. No matter how stupid you may think it is, it just very well may blossom into a first, or next, novel. Also, ideas can come from dreams, so keep that notepad around (maybe not in your sleep, but immediately after waking up.) Could write a story about dreaming, or where it all takes place as a lucid dream and it's slowly tearing at the protagonist's sanity.

Try to schedule a time for free-writing. One form of free-writing is an exercise in which you simply write stream-of-consciousness, whatever comes to mind. It's surprising some of the things that the mind comes up with. Write about a person sat nearby, or write about the room you're in. Write from different perspectives or different ages. Sometimes it's possible to be more creative by thinking in more childlike ways. It's pretty much accepted that children have certain creativity that gets ground out of them by the time they hit adulthood (or sooner, Heaven forbid)

Write what's known. Common sense here - you can write best about what you know and can put the voice of experience to. What are you good at? In my experience, some of what I'm good at (or at least knowledgeable about) is Oriental history, spirituality of various regions, magick/occult practices, and martial arts. All these can lend help to writing historical fantasy novels. I have a few....gender issues sometimes, and currently have an idea about writing a novel in which a teenage boy gets genetically altered by nuclear fallout so his Y-chromosome changes to X.

There's nothing new under the sun; when writing a novel, ask yourself "Okay, this happens, but what if...?". Every basic idea has been done before. What CAN be done is to bring a new little twist to it. I play the online RPG Urban Dead. Players there write novels about Malton as it undergoes the zombie apocalypse. I thought, "What if?" and came up with an idea to add vampires into the mix and answer the question "What if a zombie and a vampire bit each other at once?" The zombies would be overtaking the humans as per usual, and not knowing how to fight back, would genetically create vampires meant to do the fighting for them. The vampires and humans would make a pact of protection for the humans against zombies in exchange for the humans acting as vampires' periodic food supply. I could write several novels on this premise alone.

Immerse yourself in other media. Every author, when writing his or her novel, has some inspiration from other written work. Like fantasy novels? Go read A Song of Ice and Fire or His Dark Materials. Or Kushiel's Dart (if you're into that sort of thing *smirk*). Like sci-fi novels? Look up Ender's Game. History novels? Shogun. The list goes on - this doesn't just apply to novels. It can be from films or video games, and yes, that last is read correctly.

When writing novels, there are plenty of things to do to get your creative juices flowing, with the ideas listed here. They may not flow easily at first, but it's like a waterfall: once it gets started, the novel writing becomes smoother. Anyway, here's to your creativity flourishing, and if you get any story ideas, do send them my way.