A good idea doesn’t guarantee a good book. But without a good idea, you certainly can’t write a good book. If you want to become an author, start by learning how to generate strong ideas.
So how do you come up with ideas for books and novels?
Here are some of my methods:
1. Inversion
Take stories from the mainstream and flip them. Swap protagonists and antagonists. Instead of the usual villains, try different perspectives. Ask yourself: What happens if the roles are reversed? This approach creates fresh perspectives because mainstream storytelling rarely explores them.
2. Scale and Variation
Make everything bigger or smaller. Exaggerate or minimize.
For example:
- An intimate relationship saves the world (two people must fall in love or the world ends).
- A nuclear apocalypse is about to happen, but the protagonist is too busy trying to return an old video to the last remaining Blockbuster store because he refuses to pay the late fees.
Playing with scale often produces unexpected and interesting ideas.
3. Write What You Know — But Also What You Want to Know
Start with what you know, such as personal experiences.
But don’t stop there. Explore things you’re curious about. If something feels new and exciting to you, it might feel fresh to readers as well.
4. Create Unique Characters First, Then the Story
James Bond movies follow a very predictable formula. Yet audiences still look forward to the next one. Why? Because the character is compelling.
Create a character people love, and you can build stories around that character for decades.
5. Think About Jobs and Hobbies
What we do makes us interesting. When generating ideas, start by thinking about interesting occupations or hobbies your character might have.
Examples:
- An undertaker who brings widows together so they can fall in love again.
- A priest who believes God commands him to fight crime — using a “holy gun.”
The more unusual the activity, the more interesting the story potential.
6. Make Bad Ideas Better
Sometimes the best ideas come from improving things that didn’t work.
For example, recent entries in big franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek disappointed me. That’s why I started taking notes for my own sci-fi/fantasy epic.
Another example is the wave of “badass female spy” movies, often starring Charlize Theron. Many of these films simply try to make women behave like male action heroes which renders the stories unbelievable.
Instead of copying that formula, I asked myself: How could I write an action story with a female lead that feels believable and has its own tone?
This idea now sits in my idea bank under the title Suburban Housewives, and I plan to turn it into a full novel soon.
7. Freewriting and Mind Mapping
Set a timer for 10 minutes and write down everything that comes to mind. Don’t censor yourself. Don’t judge the ideas. The goal is simply to brainstorm freely and let your mind explore possibilities.
8. Use the News
We live in extremely crazy times. Watch 15 minutes of the daily news and you’ll often find story ideas hiding in real-world events. Reality is frequently stranger than fiction.
9. Use Writing Prompts
Websites like Reedsy offer large collections of writing prompts. There are many other sources as well.
Today you can also use AI tools. Just ask an AI to generate five writing prompts. You can make the prompts more specific by adding a genre or mood.
Examples:
- “Give me five horror story ideas in the style of Stephen King involving everyday objects that come to life.”
- “Generate five novel ideas inspired by the movie Interstellar: science fiction with time travel and family drama.”
- “Five book ideas inspired by The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand: philosophical stories about strong individualists in modern society.”
- “Take a classic fairy tale and invert it: villains become heroes. Give me five variations.”
- “Combine two genres — fantasy and thriller — and generate five ideas with exaggerated elements (for example, magic on a global scale).”
Have your favorite AI model generate five new ideas every day. Eventually you’ll encounter one that feels strong enough to turn into a book.
Storing Ideas
In the beginning, collect everything — even bad ideas. The goal is to build the habit of writing ideas down. There’s nothing worse than having a great idea, failing to record it, and then forgetting it later. You’ll remember that it was a good idea, but you won’t remember what it actually was.
So write it down immediately. Always.
I use digital tools like Notion (the basic version is free).
I created a simple table that includes:
- Working title
- Short description
- Genre
- Status
- Rating (added later so it doesn’t interfere with brainstorming)
When you finish a book project, go back to your idea bank and choose the next concept to develop.
How to Rate Your Ideas
Separate the evaluation process from idea generation. As mentioned earlier, write down every idea — even if it initially seems bad. If you evaluate ideas immediately, you may stop writing them down, and that destroys the brainstorming habit.
Once a week, review your ideas and rate them based on four criteria:
- Passion — How much do you want to write this story?
- Originality — Has someone already done something similar?
- Marketability — Would people want to read it?
- Doability — Can you realistically write it?
Getting Feedback
After rating your ideas, you can also seek feedback:
- Friends and family
- Writing communities (forums or local groups)
- The internet (Reddit, blogs, X)
- AI tools (ask Grok whether the idea works and why)
- Your own instinct (write 1,000 words and see if the idea still excites you)
Conclusion
This is my current approach to generating story ideas. It has already produced far more ideas than I could ever realistically write. The interesting part is that once you train your brain to think creatively, new ideas start appearing almost automatically — often while you’re working on another project.
Try this guide, keep what works for you, and discard what doesn’t. Over time, you’ll develop your own reliable system for generating story ideas.
