Ever have a scene idea strike you from out of the blue and get stuck in your head, but you’re not sure what to do with it? You’re sure that it’s a brilliant idea because you’ve never seen it in any book before. No matter how hard you try, the idea sits with you, often for days, weeks or even months. Yet you can’t seem to settle on a story around it. Nor does it fit any of your current works-in-progress.
What you’ve got is a story starter. Some say a story starter is a type of writing prompt, something to get your imagination “started.” In a recent post at Writer’s Digest, author Andrew Welsh-Huggins describes a story starter as a “lightning bolt of inspiration.”
“The fun thing about a story starter scene is the freshness it brings to the creative process; so much more invigorating than staring at a blank page yearning for inspiration. The challenge is following up on that novelty,” Welsh-Huggins says.
I know what he’s talking about. I’ve had a story starter scene stuck in my mind since at least 2018. The scene features a woman who wakes on the morning of her birthday and sees the face of her deceased mother in the bathroom mirror.
I know there’s a story behind this scene somewhere, but for months I couldn’t figure out what it was. Since that image began haunting me (pun somewhat intended), I’ve played with different plot lines. The first novel I tried to write with that scene changed so much after several revisions that the scene no longer seemed appropriate. I set the scene aside, but never dismissed it.
Lesson learned: Never, ever dismiss a story starter idea. When a new plot idea inspired me last fall, I knew I had found the right place for my story starter scene.
What Welsh-Huggins shared and what I’ve learned shows that these random scenes from out of the blue can serve as the impetus for creative story telling in ways you can’t imagine.
Here are a few of my tips for using these random story starter scenes especially when the right novel concept is nowhere in sight.
* Keep a notebook of writing ideas. You should be doing this anyway for all of your novel and short story concepts. When you get that image of a particular scene and you can’t get it out of your head, write it down in that notebook. Write out the scene as you see it in your mind, describing every detail and nuance and emotion. Even if you do nothing more with the written scene at that moment, getting it down on paper will help you remember the details later when you need them. You can always refer back to your written scene later when you begin a new project to see if there’s a place for it.
* Review current works of your own or any manuscripts that are tucked away in a desk drawer to see if the story starter scene might work in any of them.
* Draft a short story around that story starter scene. Starting with a smaller writing project might spark other scenes or evolve into a larger, full-length novel.
* Brainstorm possible scenarios and actions that could be happening in your story starter scene. For example, let’s say you keep imagining a man sitting down to play the piano in an auditorium, but realizes suddenly that he cannot play. Create a bullet point list for each of the following details:
- Who is the man? A musician? A piano tuner? A building custodian with a hidden talent?
- Why is the man on the stage? Is he supposed to perform? Is he fixing the piano? Is he pretending to be a prolific musician?
- Why can’t he play? Maybe he doesn’t know how. Perhaps he has amnesia or some other illness or has a physical ailment, like arthritis. Let your imagination fly.
The next time a story starter scene strikes you from out of the blue, don’t dismiss it. It can be the start of something fresh and unique.
The Regal Writer 