Mitchell's Help Guide - Chapter 1

So welcome back retards.

You ready for this? I am going to blow your mind.

Where Ideas Come From

I apologise in advance if you aren't intellectual enough to understand the great philosophical ideas in this work. That's your problem, not mine. Go and find a higher IQ!

So, firstly, in order to understand where ideas come from, we need to know what an idea is. Now I am not going to look up a dictionary definition of this because there is no point. You will only argue with it anyway.

An idea is unique to the individual. So make up your own meaning. For argument's sake here, we will say your "idea" is: the novel. Innit. Most likely, your ideas are going to come from three places: (obviously, there are other areas)

1. Experience eg, you get dumped, you write about someone getting dumped in your story

2. Imagination eg. you dream about an attack from a candyfloss monster, you write about being attacked by a candyfloss monster

3. Knowledge eg, you learn how to do kung fu, you write about a character who uses kung-fu

Now I shall share my personal anecdote. The first of many, I might add. Alright so, I had a gay affair with the writer Monium Shakesbeare. And it was rich with sexual experiences and awesome discussions which have fuelled the essence of many of my ideas. This includes some of the rants I talk about love and life and that shizz.

It's the thing you're going to write and the idea is where it all begins. The best way to define this is to give an example.

Let's use the most well known example on the planet. The birth of the Harry Potter saga came to billionaire author JK Rowling on a train journey. Just randomly. A boy wizard popped into her head. 17 years and many movies later she is minted.

Her idea was simple: 'boy, doesn't know he's a wizard, goes to wizarding school.' See how simple that is? Yeah!

Now it makes me pissed that I didn't think of that.

But that brings me roundly to my next point.

'It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it.'

JKR could have easily wasted that idea, and wrote something shit that didn't sell and no one was interested in. I think it's impossible to say WHY she was so successful, probably a combination of luck and timing; and obviously shitloads of talent. Lucky bitch.

Either way, she ended up in good fortunes, so it's fine for her. But for the rest of us, we have to up our game. Quite considerably. And don't ever write about wizards for at least the next hundred years: or you will undoubtedly be accused of plagiarism.

So with wizards removed from the agenda of writing ideas, you have to find something else.

I have come up with some suggestions as to what you should do when thinking about ideas.

I have phrased this as "suggestions" as opposed to "rules" because I don't think you should put a limit on creativity. Therefore, there are no rules.

Hence the quote: 'In art, there are no rules.'(Wonder who made that up?)

My suggestions:

1. think of ideas more as topics, you can define them in key words eg. wizard, boarding school.

2. don't limit yourself to a genre eg, thinking your story idea is a "sci-fi" means you would adhere to the expectations of the genre, be diverse and try and create a "sci-fi-thriller-western-romance-spoof"

3. don't make complicated ideas eg. girl meets boy, who has a boyfriend and a girlfriend, who is in love with their dog etc.

"Be simple. Be original. Be a writer."

So the overall message of this chapter is to say that:

You need a simple, and original idea you can work with immediately. Think of the idea/topic as the bones of your story, its skeleton, and the plot, characters and setting as the meat you will add as you go along. Simples.

So get thinking about these ideas.

And get writing.

Stay tuned for Chapter Two where I will explain: Why Writing What You Know Doesn't Always Work.

Adios.