What to do when you have 'no idea'?

[Ghost]

Hello,

This doesn't involve such much as a 'world' matter but rather something of a more personal matter, in my case the problem that I can not come up with an original idea for stories and settings.

This is really starting to frustrate me, I have already been trying to expand my knowledge with reading books, going through the internet but I simply can't find the spark of inspiration I am looking so hard for.

Does any of you have any suggestions that could help?

Perhaps this is the wrong topic but it deals with the subject

[AlexJ]

In my opinion there's no such thing as a truely original idea. You have to take an event,place,another story or something and build upon it/modify it.

You've got to use something as a starting point, you can't just make it up off the top of your head.

[Submeg]

Otherwise you'll end up with some strange stuff that no one can visualise

[Stephen Coates]

I am currently working on a project which involves coming up with some ideas and I had trouble thinking of stuff as well, so I just based them on other stories and things which had happened in my life.

[Ghost]

I am really trying my best, I sometimes see ideas from others which make me think "Hey I could have come up with that too." (not that I am saying that I am more creative).

But now that the push comes to call I am 'stunned', my imagination and creativity refuse to play along.

[Submeg]

I find the easiest way to get ideas flowing again, is to either:
1) sit outside where it is quiet and just try and think of nothing for a while. Soon ideas come flooding into your head.
2) Sit in a busy foodcourt with some music on, and usually it sparks ideas

[Harrison]

It all depends what the ideas are going to be used for. I tend to always visualise ideas rather than as a story due to being artistic rather than a writer.

What are you looking to do with the stories or ideas you come up with? Write a short story, write a novel, paint a picture...?

It is near impossible to try and come up with any ideas or concepts from nothing. A good way to conceive ideas for anything is to brainstorm. Spider diagrams are a good way to do this. Start by just randomly writing down a list of anything that comes into your head, no matter have random or strange they may be. The write down the ones that interest you the most on a big piece of paper and then try to link these words to other related ideas and words using a spider diagram. Many ideas can come from this.

Another thing that can work is photography. Take a camera with you and go for a walk somewhere and just take pictures of anything and everything you see. Later when you get back home and look at the images, ideas will start to appear relating to some of them, or you may become interested in something contained in one of the pictures you didn't notice originally when you took it. Often some great ideas can come from random images.

Hope that helps in some way.

Other ideas might be to visit the library and instead of looking at novels and fiction, go to the non fiction area and start randomly looking at some of the books from any section. Non fiction contains everything in life and will spark many ideas.

Alternatively go to a comic book store and look through some graphic novels.

Or even just go to the park and sit on a bench for a while near a busy area. There are bound to be people around you can observe that may spark some ideas.

[Submeg]

Start by just randomly writing down a list of anything that comes into your head, no matter have random or strange they may be.

Lol, if I did that, there would be no logical sequence...

Antelope

Cheeseburger

Washing Machine....

[Harrison]

That is the whole idea. Even those three words you listed could then be used to create some great spider diagrams and in turn some ideas.

For example, Antelope could lead to hunting, big game hunting, on safari, hunting creatures in another galaxy, a bounty hunter searching for an alien on earth, etc...

Or a Cheeseburger could lead to fast food, junk food, the destruction of rain forests for the growing of grass to graze herds of cattle for the burgers, money from fast food chains going to fund terrorism, etc...

See, it does work.

[Submeg]

And washing machine?

Man you're weirder than I thought!