Foster curiosity to generate more writing ideas.
Today’s post is an excerpt from my book, Ready, Set, Write: A Guide to Creative Writing, which takes you on a tour through the world of creative writing while offering writing ideas and inspiration. This is from chapter thirty-one, “Curiosity and Creativity.” Let’s find out how fostering curiosity can increase your creativity as a writer. Enjoy!
Curiosity and Creativity
Even though inspiration abounds all around us, we writers sometimes get stumped. We search for essay topics, plot ideas, and interesting language for our poems. Unfortunately, our searches don’t always yield desirable results.
But by fostering curiosity, we can ensure a constant stream of creativity. Some of the best writing ideas come from asking simple questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Most writers are curious by nature. We look at the world around us and wonder at it. Who are these people? What are we all doing here? Where are we heading? Why do we do the things we do? How will we move forward?
Remember how curious you were as a child? Everything you encountered spawned a series of questions because you were trying to learn and understand the world around you. Bring that childlike curiosity back, and you’ll always have a full supply of inspiration.
It doesn’t matter what form your writing takes or what genre you’re writing in. By fostering curiosity, you can create a fountain of ideas.
Below are some questions you can use to get inspired. Mix them up, change them around, and come up with your own list of questions:
Who
- Who is this about?
- Who can help?
- Who is standing in the way?
- Who am I?
What
- What is the goal?
- What are the stakes?
- What is the underlying message?
- What if…?
Where
- Where did it all begin?
- Where have we been?
- Where should we go?
- Where does it end?
When
- When did it start?
- When did things change?
- When will things improve?
- When will it be too late?
Why
- Why did they do it?
- Why does it matter?
- Why take a risk?
- Why are we here?
How
- How did this happen?
- How does this make people feel?
- How does this sound?
- How will this get resolved?
If you can keep your curiosity on fire and continue coming up with new questions, you’ll find that you can write your way into answers and constantly discover new writing ideas along the way.
As you work through your writing projects, you can also use questions to help you overcome hurdles that are preventing you from crossing the finish line. Not sure how to move a plot forward? Start asking questions. Don’t know how to begin your next poem? Ask questions. Want to write a piece that is informative and entertaining? Ask away.
Throughout time, many great thinkers have used questions to prompt creative and critical thinking. Sometimes, one question will lead to the next, and you’ll end up with more ideas than you thought possible. As long as you keep your curiosity well oiled and let those questions flow, you’ll never be at a loss for inspiration.
Activity
Open one of your writing projects, and make a list of at least twenty questions that get to the heart of your project. Be sure to include a mix of who, what, where, when, why, and how.
As an alternative, try using any of the questions from this chapter as writing prompts. Simply place a question at the top of a page, and then start writing in response to the question.
Do you have any favorite techniques for developing new writing ideas? Are there any questions you ask to get through a project or to come up with new project ideas? What are you curious about? Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment, and pick up your copy of Ready, Set Write today:
Well put Melissa. Curiosity is definitely food for writers. Unfortunately it’s not so good for our cats 😉
The question I like to ask most often is “What if…”
There’s a whole book of fiction writing exercises called “What If?” It’s excellent!
This is the advice Dave would give as well (of course having come from a journalist’s background) and exactly the type of thing I need to improve in. My natural curiosity of course will drive my fingers on the key, but I’m far too focused on instinct to STOP and ask myself some necessary questions. This is exactly what leads me to write long rambling asides like the one I talked about cutting the other day in the first place.
That’s what revisions are for! I like to go through each piece a few times. I write the first draft, then I read it. That’s about when I start asking questions, such as “Am I missing anything?” I usually revise for content first, then for language, and finally for grammar. It’s a process.
I was reading a writer’s blog. He was poor when he was little, had no money for books, and did a lot of his readings in bookstores and libraries. However, some stories span several different books and he didn’t always get the one he wanted. (Say a story span 5 books, and he finished 1 and 2, but someone else has book 3 so he had to read book 4 instead.) He would read that book and wonder what happened in between books. He would make up his own stories to explain those things. To this day, he still often starts reading a book or watching a movie in the middle, and jump to different parts. The habit is a little odd by most people’s standards, but look, he’s constantly wondering things and answering these questions and I am sure it helped greatly in coming up with new stories of his own!
Kelvin, that’s quite interesting. It just goes to show that each writer needs to develop his or her own techniques and methods. I always say there are only two things every writer must do: read and write. Everything else depends on what works for each individual.
Curiosity has definitely saved me many times! Great article Melissa.
Curiosity is definitely a writer’s friend!
Questions makes the world go round.
Really they do! I lead a question-driven life. I find that if I’m not getting good answers, I’m not asking good questions … or I’m not asking the right sources.
I like the idea that thinking is just asking and answering questions so if you want better answers, ask better questions. It’s a cycle.
Yep, questions are essential to critical thinking and writing. They also come in handy when you’re putting together an outline.
Thanks for this post. This will probably sound a little new-agey, but one thing I’d add is that I’ve found that, when I’m feeling creatively empty, getting curious about that emptiness is a great way to start the ideas flowing again. Just ask yourself what that mental blankness has to offer you, and you may find it dissolving.
That’s a great idea, and it doesn’t sound new agey to me at all.
Great piece! Many times I get stumped with writer’s block. I’ll definitely take your advice!
It sounds a little crazy, but I’m afraid of the question “What if…?” because of all the endless possibilities it creates. The difficult part would be to choose the best one for the scenerio. I was asked that once in a writing class and I froze more or less for what felt like hours (probably just a few minutes) but I eventually picked something and went with it. I think the what if question comes in most handy if you are a writer for a popular TV show…
Me too! Every time I start down the what-if road, I think I’m going to get lost in a jumble of ideas. I think that with a little effort, the process could be refined. And yes, it is perfect for TV-show writing. Of course, there are other essentials, like plot consistency and character development, which are crucial to such a show. Or maybe not so crucial?
For certain serial dramas (dare I say, “Heroes”?), I think the “what if” card can only be used at certain times or and sparingly. Unless the “what if” has limits like “what if it works?” “What if he says no.” Those choices could be very crucial to a show’s plot and possibly even a character’s development throughout that season, or part of it.
Other shows, I’m thinking sitcoms like “Seinfeld”, can ask “what if” all they want just to see how these characters (which are already developed) would respond, possibly learning new traits about them. But it’s a great way to plan for an episode’s plot.
Seinfeld was great with the “what if” stuff. Of course, the downside of that is, if you miss the first five minutes of the episode, you’ll be watching the rest thinking, “Uh… wait, what? What’s going on?”
Eek. I get irritated when I miss the first five minutes of anything…TV shows, movies, concerts, puppet shows. I like to get the whole experience.
That’s true. With Heroes, the entire premise is based on “What if?” so their challenge is to create concrete story lines and focus on character development. I need to see some of those characters evolve!
No the premise of Heroes is what did they do in X-Men 😉
I’ve heard the entire series was based on X-Men, which is fine with me. I love ’em both!
best place to get inspired or rather say get curious is coffee shop. you get to see many people and you dont know about them but at the same time you think you know something about them. 🙂
Ah, good suggestion. Thanks, Hemu.