Helena Fairfax

It’s another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. And this month the topic is…

Where do your ideas come from?

This question reminds me of a wonderful quote I read by playwright Dennis Potter:

Stories to me are a sort of magic, and ideas can appear out of what seems like a puff of smoke. Most writers I know are constantly receptive to ideas, and the problem for many is just finding the time to write them up.

If you’re in the business of writing for a living, though, sometimes you can’t afford to wait until magic happens. You have to go and look for it.

Here are some tips I’ve learned for writer inspiration…

Tip 1: Take advantage of being bored

These days it’s easy to pick up your phone for distraction. Not so long ago, though, if you were stuck on a bus or waiting at a train station, you had nothing to do but let your mind wander. I think it’s great to embrace being bored. Being bored leads to daydreaming, and daydreaming leads to ideas.

Tip 2: Be receptive to new things

Most writers I know are curious. (My husband might say ‘nosy’!) I’m genuinely interested in other people’s lives, no matter who they are. I find it easy to strike up a conversation with strangers. Listening to other people opens up a whole world of stories, and I’ve found most people enjoy having someone listen to them. I’ve even heard that chatting to strangers is a positive step for mental health.

Tip 3: ‘Steal’ ideas

David Bowie famously stole ideas like a magpie, but he used them to create something new and made them unique. In the past I’ve seen minor characters in films or books, and wondered what happened to them once the story is over? Where did they go? At first these are idle questions in my head (my nosiness again!) but new characters and whole new stories have come from wondering about a bit-player in someone else’s narrative.

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When I last wrote about finding inspiration, ChatGPT hadn’t been invented. How the world has changed! Now AI is a massive topic of conversation among writers, with concerns around copyright and loss of jobs.

But there are also authors who are experimenting with AI as a tool.

Using AI to generate ideas

I’ve written previously about what happened when I prompted ChatGPT to write a romance novel. Its attempts were stilted and – well – robotic. At the moment, anyway, it seems AI can only rehash and mangle other people’s words.

I do think, though, that writers can use AI to generate new ideas. I wrote above about being receptive to new things. AI is a new thing in the world of writing and editing.

So I asked ChatGPT the very question on how writers could use it as a tool.

Here are some of ChatGPT’s suggestions…

Chat GPT and brainstorming plot ideas

ChatGPT’s answer to my prompt on how to use it as a tool:

Start with a basic idea or theme, and ask ChatGPT to expand on it. For example: “Generate a plot idea for a mystery novel set in a small coastal town.”

OK, so then I did what ChatGPT suggested and I asked it to ‘generate a plot idea for a mystery novel’.

It came back with a plot in a bit of a cliché-ed setting – a quaint seaside town (called, uninspiringly, Seaside), with a standard ‘close-knit community’ and a ‘decades-old secret’. The full plot was detailed but seemed to me a bit banal and unrealistic. One thing I did really like. The town of ‘Seaside’ has a ‘charming old lighthouse’. The lighthouse doesn’t then feature in the plot, but I thought on its own maybe this could provide a great idea for a mystery. What if someone was kidnapped and locked away alone in this lighthouse? Why are they there? How would they escape?

I ignored ChatGPT’s plot, but a mystery writer might be able to do something by chasing this spark of an idea.

ChatGPT and character development

ChatGPT’s next suggestion was:

Ask ChatGPT to help create detailed character profiles, including backgrounds, motivations, and unique traits. For example: “What are some unique personality traits for a villain in a fantasy story?”

I wasn’t sure how a machine that’s learned from reading other writers’ characters could come up with ‘unique traits’, but I asked ChatGPT to create a unique villain and it produced a list of 12 villain types. I won’t list them all, but there’s the villain with a sympathetic backstory, for example: ‘A tragic past or a series of unfortunate events that led them to become a villain.’

I recognised all 12 villain types from books or films, but if a writer was planning a bad guy, the suggestions could at least give some food for thought.

ChatGPT and romance

I particularly liked ChatGPT’s suggestion to ask it to ‘give some classic tropes for a romance novel and how to subvert them’. When I did ask it this question, again it came up with a list of well-used ideas, but one or two did make me think about how they could actually be turned into real characters – for example its suggestion of subverting the ‘bad boy who needs rescuing’ trope, so it turns out the heroine is the one who has a lot to learn. I began to wonder what the heroine could be getting wrong in her life that a ‘bad boy’ has to rescue her. I would happily pursuing this train of thought till a story emerged.

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The question ‘where do your ideas come from?’ is one writers are asked a lot. Whoever created ChatGPT is a tech person who came up with an idea for it, just like writers come up with ideas for stories. I come back to Dennis Potter’s quote about ‘the most beautiful part of being alive’, and humans’ capacity for stories. The world is changing all the time, and like the playwright I love how writers adapt and are constantly turning ideas into stories.

Are you a writer or an artist? Where do your ideas come from? Has a book or film ever sparked an idea for you? Have you ever used AI to generate ideas? If you have any comments at all, I’d love to hear from you!

And if you’d like to find out where the other authors in our Round Robin get their ideas from, please click on the links below…

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com

Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.wordpress.com/

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3ef

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea