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Where do YOU get your ideas? Pt. 2

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I think most writers know there are millions of generators out there. Name generators, setting generators, plot generators… I’m going to talk about the plot generator.

More power to you if you like these things and great if they help, but I personally hate plot generators. I partially feel like I’m cheating as a writer. Sort of… not living up to what a writer is supposed to be. I mean, if I can’t come up with even the beginning, how am I supposed to write an entire book?

Call me spoiled, but I want to be inspired by something in my life, and that has never once come off “Bobby’s List of 4,000 ways to start your novel!” (My apologies if there is actually a site out there with that header…)

There are some great ideas on those lists, (I check thing out before I argue about them) but please. In a previous post I said that no, it’s not all writing what you know, but at least the beginning, the seed, should come from you. Whether you use Miracle Grow or Miracle Whip on that seed to make it grow is your choice, but at least have that little seed come from you.

Go through the plot ideas list if you must, but I’d think you’d spend your time better writing something, anything, than spend your time reading through 1,000 things you don’t want to write about.

You’re a fiction writer, which means you have an imagination. You’re also human, which means you have experiences. Combine them and use them. You don’t need a generator to get you started.


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