takmaps: I tried that, but came to the conclusion that I'd pretty much written 100 pages of absolute nothing because while I had a vague notion of where I was going, I had no idea how I was going to get there. So I decided to set the 100 pages I had aside and go back to the drawing board. I did a few exercises with my main characters who I knew pretty well to help me figure out 1) where the characters start out in the story, 2) what changes I wanted them to go through by the end of the story, and 3) what needs to happen for them to get there. The most important breakthrough for me, though, was in learning a bit about the fact that the main character needs to have either a false victory or a false defeat in the middle to give the story more of a zig-zag effect. THAT provided the catalyst for me to create a color-coded basic plot point outline in an excel spreadsheet, spread out between 20 chapters, because that seems to be an average book length. Basically, I chose a color for the main character going after what he wants, then one for the main plotline, one for character moments outside of the main plot (that will serve to make things more complicated), and then different colors for various side characters or moments of random happenstance. This actually helped A LOT because it helped me to see where I might need to have a certain plotline show up again to keep the readers from forgetting about it, even if I had no clue what sort of actual event related to said plot I wanted to occur. After I filled in my ideas for the beginning and the ending chapters, figured out I wanted a false victory in the middle (Chapter 10, of course!), and laid in the colors so the main subplots are liberally sprinkled throughout the novel and never laid to rest for more than a couple chapters, the actual events to fill in the middle came much easier to me. After that, I went for a more detailed plot outline sort of thing written in a spiral notebook, pretty much giving an idea of what kinds of things need to happen in each scene in varying amounts of detail. Some parts of the outline are brief, just giving a general idea that I need to "have main character and secondary antagonist get in a fight at minor character's soiree," while other parts almost go into the full dialogue. Either way, I still leave a lot of wiggle room for when I actually get to that point in the story.
One of my writing group is doing one of these ... but one of the characters is gay and the other one is trans, so they're technically straight. Also it's not triangular
This helped soooo much I am 11 and i have told my friends i am starting to write a novel. I gave the first chapter to them and they loved it. Thanks to you I have easily been able to put my own twist on each chapter. Nothing you would expect. TYSM
I wrote my first novel at 11 too. Now I'm 25 and I'm close to having my first book published. So never give up on your dreams. It's a long journey but it's worth it. Good luck!
7 tips for coming up with ideas for your book 1. Determine the genre A. Check your bookshelf and see which books you have most of. 2. Determine your audience A. What age are your protagonists? You will be setting your theme for the book from choosing this. 3. Determine your theme A. Individual vs. Society. Love can sustain challenge. Website with 101 theme ideas linked below. 4. Brainstorming A. What challenge will the character face? How do you want the book to end? Draw branches out like a tree and write them all out. Even if their dumb ideas, they may still contribute to the book. There's no such thing as a bad idea. 5. Use resources A. The Writer's Idea Thesaurus. There are also websites (but the book is better so thats more of the route to go). Think of books and movies and what you would have done differently. 6. Outline with note cards A. Write scenes on note cards. You can slide and change the scenes easily. 7. Just write. A. The writing process is a journey of discovery. You will keep discovering as you write. The first draft is for your eyes only and is easy to fix.
Looked at my book shelf. " Oh, it's like 90% fantasy. I have all of two mystery novels and some realistic fiction books that I didn't like all that much. Hmmm." Well I'm off to create a fictional world with fictional characters who might speak a fictional language. Bye!
Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for making all these videos to help young writers like myself and really push us in the right direction with where and what we want our story to be. I'm in the middle of writing a book (I'm only 17 so of course it's not going to be ground breaking) but all your videos help a lot so thank you!
I am eleven and am writing my first book. I gave the first three chapters to my friends and they can't wait until I finish it. I really hope to finish it this time because I love the characters and plot more than my previous attempt that I realized just wasn't working. Thanks for all of the help and tips!!!
AdventurousAndreannaYT when I was 11.... i dnt know what I was doing ( ´_ゝ`) \(￣< ￣)> you guys are amazing. Dont try to become adult. Enjoy ur school life. (〒︿〒)
Dellaina McCarty I’m 12 and I am the EXACT same way. Is there a way we can exchange numbers or google docs account because well now I really want to ready your story!
Story ideas are very.. Different for myself. I am a fanfic writer but I try not to go off story. Only for some of my story's and even then I change it up. I like the world and characters for my fanfic. I then write something I would love to write or something I thought would happen. Characters can be my story idea. With my newest one "Crazy Huh?" My character Kathyne is the idea. She will be what the story is about. Not only her but the world around _her_ or what she has done and how it changed batman or the joker. But it's mostly about her. Coming up with characters I base off myself or people I know. Story ideas away from characters are horribly hard for me to find out.
Winner of a video, I've been looking for "how to start writing a story book" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Yonallie Bookworm Blitzer - (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some great things about it and my colleague got great results with it.
I'm eight years old that really help me what you said and now I finally wrote a book but I have not sold it or anything like that I just like keeping them to myself and reading them to my father and my mother my story was about a family that got divorced and the kids were very very very sad but one was not she only worried about herself and then they split apart then some guy killed something not but the end was very very good and I loved it and I hope other people did when I grow up now I want to be a writer
Brilliant dear... Sharings of lil kids like u n other ones are sooo inspiring... I m 4 times ur age n thinking of starting to write a novel... N ur story inspired me sooo much.... God bless you... Lots of love n best wishes
Hi Kristen, I just wanted to share with you that I first subscribed you to you a few months back as I was trying to self-teach myself the process of writing stories as I hope to one day write for video games. Now, I'm in my 2nd week of a fiction writing class at a community college and I'm finding your videos to be very helpful on writing my short story assignments, writing prompts, and my journal. I just want to thank you now and in advance as you release more videos.
Kristen, you are awesome! I have just discovered you today. I LOVE your videos and can't thank you enough for the inspiration!!! I'm going to look into the book you were discussing! You just gave me new hope for my writing! Thank you! Keep recording! :-)
I've never tried to write anything before, but I really would like to try my hand at it. I'm definitely in the boat of the ppl who don't have any story ideas though! This video has a ton of great resources for me to try out. I really appreciate this video!!
I remember commenting on this video 2 years ago and you replied. I was so happy and now I’ve been writing so many books and they just pop into my head. I had writers block the other day and I was sooo frustrated
i cant really thinkof anything still because i want to do a story like harry potter but i cant think of ideas that havent been done before in the books
Hermione Granger blend genres you like, or try and answer what if questions where the original story gets twisted, like if you used the time turner to twist Harry's final battle in your favor you stunning you brilliant ginger loving badass you
Hermione Granger when I don't know what to write her story here's what I do I got a piece of paper and I just write down 15 - 20 character traits and then I pick the three that stand out the most to me and then that's what my character will act like then I get another piece of paper and I just write down ideas for a setting and see how I can make a connection with the character's personality into the setting and then I just start writing down random ideas of what I think should happen in my book like do you want your character to ride a dragon or do you want her to have a enchanted garden. hope this helped😀
Think of what you liked about Harry Potter and combine it with something else you like, or think about what you think could have made Harry Potter better.
I am writing a book called Journey Ahead! I was able to remember most of the first few chapters in my head so I told some people at my school! They loved it! Everyone who knows about my book wants to be my friend! I am working on it daily and I hope to finish it soon!
Thanks for the feedback. I have written the first chapter of my book "Fellowship Of The Mind". It is about two teenagers finding a nuclear bomb underneath the River Thames and have to use their minds to stop it from exploding. Here is the first chapter: Chapter 1: Night Raid Having your doorbell ring at four O’clock in the morning is never good news, not to Jack Campbell anyway. Jack was a well-built, sixteen-year-old boy from North London. His parents died before he could speak a mere noise, and lives with his best friend and housekeeper Felix Watson. Felix was in his 20s and was a well-paid electrician for PB&J Plumbing LTD. Felix was in no relation ever to Jack despite Jack’s father being close friends in school. Jack groaned as he threw his pillow over his head and dragging himself down the stairs and to the front door. He twisted the un-oiled, creaky doorknob to find a tall, thin man with a big cardboard box in his hands and an Australian accent. “Hi, I’m Raymond Iceberg, may I come in? Oh, right you must be Jack Campbell, correct?” He asked, rasing his hand for a handshake though didn’t seem to get a reply simply because Jack was too tired, so he just nodded and gestured to the kitchen. Jack made for the cupboard while Raymond sat down on the abnormally large table seeing as only two people lived in the house at that time. “Coffee?” Jack asked, looking behind him while opening a cupboard that was far too high too reach. He grabbed a chair from the table and stood on it to be able to reach the Coffee-Beans. Jack had a spike of suspicion that he knew he had met Raymond Iceberg before. That’s because the real Raymond Iceberg was not at school for 3 three days and at the bottom of the River Thames with a knife plunged through his back and a concrete slab on his feet, making him unable to move. The real Raymond Iceberg was a 6th former in Croydel College, only two years higher than Jack was. The fake Raymond Iceberg was twice the age of the real one, however. “No thank you, I’m fine. Though could you make me a breakfast? Preferably Jam Toast?” He replied looking at Jack helplessly trying to reach the Coffee Beans and ignoring the fact that Jack was wearing pyjamas and that Raymond was wearing a black coat and leather jeans. “Sure, let me just turn the heating down, it’s bliddy hot in here” Jack lied. It was quite the opposite of hot, in fact it was freezing in that house. Felix was two years off their heating payments and electricity. What Jack was doing was going to his room to open a safe that had a Browning Automatic pistol which with one twitch of Jack’s hand would send a 9mm bullet shattering through Raymond’s skull and into his brain. The very touch of it made him feel sick. He opened the safe, and carefully walked down the stairs with the gun behind his back to find that Raymond was talking into a radio “Yes, I am with the boy” He said. A faint and scratchy noise echoed through the other end of the microphone said “Kill him, and leave no trace behind” Raymond was a sick contract-killer. He was so horrible that he sent black tulips to the families of his victims after he killed them. That’s why is family are bamboozled about the bouquet of flowers at their doorstep. Unfortunately, Mr. Nice-berg (which is what Jack named him for his impeccable manners) wasn’t so nice after all.
I’ve always known I’ve wanted to write a fantasy book, I just didn’t know what. So what I did is I went through my book shelf and picked out a pile of my all time favorite books. Then I proceeded to pick a random page of each book, and I wrote down the first noun I saw (unless the noun was really weird or hard to work with lol) The nouns were trickery, arm, knit, fabric, may, shadows simulation, and eleven... I probably shouldn’t have picked so many books... but what’s interesting is that in one of the books (my favorite from elementary school) I flipped to a page that was a new month in the book, and in that book every month for a whole school year takes up a page (like part 1 or 2 etc of a book) and I landed on the page that said ‘may’ and I thought that was a sign so that’s my main character’s name!
Thank you for this video. I struggle with coming up with ideas for stories. I write short stories, so it's even more frustrating. These tips will help.
I finished my first novel a few months ago, and it was such a bittersweet experience. Because even though Im happy its over now Im just so unhappy I have no more ideas
I’m not really much of a writer, but I still like to come up with cool story ideas that I could maybe one day make something out of. Right now I have in my mind a story based on the idea of ‘what if dreams are actually alternate realities’. The main character falls asleep one night and finds himself in a beautiful fantasy world that I’m calling ‘Fantasia’ for now. And then there is a fun fantasy story line that I have no ideas about and then he wakes up. The next night when he falls asleep he once again enters this world for another adventure.
Thanks, this video is Soo helpful! I have some story ideas too: 1. You have a disease and the doctor just tells you that your days are numbered. Your disease isn't contagious, so you can spend some of your last days at school with your best friends. How will you tell them the news and how do handle it when you tell them the news? Also (this is your choice) your friends will try and do everything to find a cure for the disease. 2. A girl has a secret ability. The girl's stories come to life, but no one can see the world the girl creates. When the girl tells her parents, they don't believe her. They put the girl in counseling, but it doesn't seem to work. Then one day, the girl creates a story so big, she can't get out of her imaginary world. She ends up falling into a coma and is admitted to the hospital. Every time she breathes, the story that's going inside her mind comes to life, where everyone can see. But it's not a good fairytale. The world's in total chaos. A girl named Raven claims that she has a telepathic link with the girl. She's determined to save the girl - and the world.
I love how you mentioned that "there's no such thing as a bad idea". I tend to be concerned on how my ideas would sound once I finish my story before showing it to people. I've always been more of a visual person since the start, and been drawing cartoons in hope to create my own comic book one day. This video helped a lot! Thank you! :)
This is so helpful! I wrote my first book when I was 8 but then I stopped writing, because I gave up after the first chapter of every book I started. Now I'm 13 and I'm gonna try again!
I'm not much older than you, and I just picked up writing a few months ago! I'm on my third book of a trilogy! Good luck! If you need any tips, you can ask me cause I can help :D HAVE FUN! Writing is so fun and I LOVE coming up with my ideas as I go!
I got pissed off because I was going to write a story about something but I forgot what it was. It was really cool in my head, but it left and now I can't even find a trace of it in my mind. Not even the title. I figured it's a way of my mind telling me to worry about the first book I had started to write. So, I started to write the first book and it slowly came back to my mind. It's still slowly coming bacl, though. All these writers inspire me. :)
thanks, this has helped me a lot. i'm writing a suspense dystopic novel surrounding a girl helping a community escape an AI controlled state. i'm currently 3,000 words in!
As my brother always says: Writers block DOESN'T EXIST! He says it's just an excuse NOT to write, because you can ALWAYS find new ideas, but sometimes people just don't want to spend the time to LOOK for them. I'm glad you are rewriting your plot though! Good luck!
U just got me in the writing and now the ideas for the story are just popping in my head like popcorn on the pan.... im just like "Ōh, this can be in the story too, oh, and this can be connected to this, oh, i need this for the story to be more interesting"... Ill get you to know, when i need a little bit of a helping hand...
Thank you, Kristen. I've seen this video about 7 times, but I've been in a slump, and I haven't written in almost a year, but this week, I was listening to a Taylor Swift song, and somehow it just sparked the greatest idea that I've had since I quit writing, and I think I've just uncovered what my book is supposed to be! Thank you so much!!
I am watching this in 2019 and I am only twelve but I love writing and thank you so much be cause this video helped me so much to come up with more ideas. >3
I personally love it to analyse movies, while watching and asking myself why the creator did this scene in this style. Most of the time I'm doing this unconscious. If I'm running out of ideas or have no idea how to begin I just brainstorm and check out stories I like and get inspired by them. I even look up antient tales like "Odyssey" or and other religions, just to get some inspiration for my story. Also the big literati like Goethe, Shakespear, Doyle etc. Somethimes it helps me if I check out art from Michelangelo, Rembrand, Campendonk etc. If you can't come up with ideas don't be shy to look/analyse the work of other writer and artist. Most of the time there work will inspire you
I wish I could STOP coming up with so many story ideas while trying to finish even one of them.... 😳🤷♀️ All I do is new ideas all day long. Like massively different totally new maniacal ideas. So I can’t ignore them. I have thousands and thousands of pages of notes. I actually thought at one point drowning in all this that I was meant to work with a team of people or a civilization as a symbol maker or cultural programmer... and I just got another story idea about THAT!! 😂 Lordy. Help me. Also, random, where did you get that top? ❤️ You look so beautiful in it.
I want to write like a horror or crime or some sort of alternate universe novel for young adults but I can’t for the life of me think of a story that I truly love
You will get better! My grammar is decent. The only thing I struggle with is COMMAS! They kill my life. Spelling is okay since I won a lot of class spelling bees since 4th grade. Just practice and life will be easier for you!
Hey Kristen, I've been writing stories stories since I was 14 years old back in 1998 but I usually destroyed them all without showing them to anyone but...back in 2016 I was trying to write my first real Novel and I used to talk to a girl and she insisted to send it to her, big mistake. Soon after we stopped talking for good due to other things so I gave up writing, back in September 2020 I decided to start writing again, it took me 2 years to write the 1st draft but I did it and I'm now writing the 2nd draft by hand. A while ago I decided to send a Chapter to 3 national Publishers (I don't live in the U.S.) and one of them rejected, the other one liked it but they told me that I had to pay if I wanted to Publish the full Novel and the final one didn't even reply. A few days ago I sent the same Chapter to my sister and she told me that I need to improve to the dialogue a little to make it more appealing but my question is: how do I write good dialogue specially when there are children talking? She then loved the rest and that gave me a lot more energy to keep writing. Sorry for the long reply, take care.
Im writing a book called "Alone On Easter" That is my book I'm writing Or my other book called "The New Pug" Im writing 2 books, alone on Easter and the new pug
I like your ideas, and as a writer who has been having a writer's block it's terribly hard. I haven't been able to write for a while and due to my two favorite writers being P.B. Kerr and Tolkein for fantasy I was trying to write books that for all ages. I read books over my age limit back in elementary school and I believe everyone should be able to read any book. Books let the imagination flow
That was a very informative video, the only reason why I came to your video was because I am working on a Novel on Wattpad, I already got the Genre down, some few characters, the setting, the audience, and the theme. Although I haven't really started working on it through wattpad yet and I really won't know how long it would take, a lot of it has come from the top of my head and some of these ideas actually came from Video Games I was playing too which I know some will find interesting since the vast majority of you just watch nothing but movies all day and I'm totally cool with it. Anyhow, great video and I wish you for the better.
Great tips. I looked at my shelf. Mostly mystery, gothic, and classics. Even my contemporary has gothic, fairy tale-esque themes. Obviously that's what I should be writing. Thank you! All of these were very helpful.
Hi im a fanfic writer. And i think you are so right almost everybook idea has been done but I writing multiple stories (im still new to writing). Im not good at coming up with ideas for my books I write a sanscest story about a glitch broken skeleton who falls in love with a grim reaper.
I'm begging you to do a video on a book about mythology. I'm 12 and doing a book about Persian mythology and I'd LOVE some tips. I know this is late but PLEASE consider it. Also thank you this video was _very_ helpful.
vineeth narayan first try to compare it to similar stories in tbe genre. Try popular media, not indie stuff. If you can't find something really similar, then I'd see that as a greenlight. If you find something pretty darn similar, then try to personalize your story with things that make you and your story special.
that’s almost impossible. In another really good video, I found out that you can’t really come up with a completely new idea. But you can mix different things together to make it your own.
My tip is to use the ideas of some of your favorite books or any book that you recently read. You could also use the idea of a video you like and tweak it into a book.
I have been working on a book for more than a year and after deciding I was going to finish it and get to work with my publishing company. I just realized that I ONLY HAVE TO FIRST PART AND NO ENDING!! How have I not noticed I have no ending!!???
I've been enjoying several of your videos, but this is the first time I heard a description of your book that caught my attention. I love the dystopian trope, but I'm so sick of all of those books focusing so heavily on the love interest... So Alpha Drive is now on my "to read" list. :)
That awkward moment when your protagonist starts off as 10 years-old, but the series quickly turns dark and bloody...
I can relate.
Same..
Reminds me of my Charecter.
John Saul made it work.
...when her house lands on a woman, and without knowing it, the kid sets off on a path that will lead to killing again
I think of a plot but can't outline for crap.
try the snowflake method. it's definitely helped me keep up through this year's nanowrimo
I'm not here same here:/
same, so i just put a bunch of dot points on what i want to happen throughout the story and just refer to that
Just write and perhaps the story will reveal itself to you as you go along
takmaps: I tried that, but came to the conclusion that I'd pretty much written 100 pages of absolute nothing because while I had a vague notion of where I was going, I had no idea how I was going to get there.
So I decided to set the 100 pages I had aside and go back to the drawing board. I did a few exercises with my main characters who I knew pretty well to help me figure out 1) where the characters start out in the story, 2) what changes I wanted them to go through by the end of the story, and 3) what needs to happen for them to get there. The most important breakthrough for me, though, was in learning a bit about the fact that the main character needs to have either a false victory or a false defeat in the middle to give the story more of a zig-zag effect.
THAT provided the catalyst for me to create a color-coded basic plot point outline in an excel spreadsheet, spread out between 20 chapters, because that seems to be an average book length. Basically, I chose a color for the main character going after what he wants, then one for the main plotline, one for character moments outside of the main plot (that will serve to make things more complicated), and then different colors for various side characters or moments of random happenstance.
This actually helped A LOT because it helped me to see where I might need to have a certain plotline show up again to keep the readers from forgetting about it, even if I had no clue what sort of actual event related to said plot I wanted to occur. After I filled in my ideas for the beginning and the ending chapters, figured out I wanted a false victory in the middle (Chapter 10, of course!), and laid in the colors so the main subplots are liberally sprinkled throughout the novel and never laid to rest for more than a couple chapters, the actual events to fill in the middle came much easier to me.
After that, I went for a more detailed plot outline sort of thing written in a spiral notebook, pretty much giving an idea of what kinds of things need to happen in each scene in varying amounts of detail. Some parts of the outline are brief, just giving a general idea that I need to "have main character and secondary antagonist get in a fight at minor character's soiree," while other parts almost go into the full dialogue. Either way, I still leave a lot of wiggle room for when I actually get to that point in the story.
Does the world really need another vampire werewolf love triangle?
NOOOOOOOOO!
Maybe a vampire werewolf love RECTANGLE would do...
A. K. No a vampire werewolf TrApEzOiD. 😂
One of my writing group is doing one of these ... but one of the characters is gay and the other one is trans, so they're technically straight. Also it's not triangular
Also it's actually a were-jackal
Nooooo
This helped soooo much
I am 11 and i have told my friends i am starting to write a novel. I gave the first chapter to them and they loved it. Thanks to you I have easily been able to put my own twist on each chapter. Nothing you would expect. TYSM
I love hearing that! You should be very proud ♡
That's actually amazing! Most 11-year-olds' I know don't have the motivation to even pick up a book. I wish you luck in your story writing journey! :)
Kristen Martin thank you so much
Ben thank you
I wrote my first novel at 11 too. Now I'm 25 and I'm close to having my first book published. So never give up on your dreams. It's a long journey but it's worth it. Good luck!
7 tips for coming up with ideas for your book
1. Determine the genre
A. Check your bookshelf and see which books you have most of.
2. Determine your audience
A. What age are your protagonists? You will be setting your theme for the book from choosing this.
3. Determine your theme
A. Individual vs. Society. Love can sustain challenge. Website with 101 theme ideas linked below.
4. Brainstorming
A. What challenge will the character face? How do you want the book to end? Draw branches out like a tree and write them all out. Even if their dumb ideas, they may still contribute to the book. There's no such thing as a bad idea.
5. Use resources
A. The Writer's Idea Thesaurus. There are also websites (but the book is better so thats more of the route to go). Think of books and movies and what you would have done differently.
6. Outline with note cards
A. Write scenes on note cards. You can slide and change the scenes easily.
7. Just write.
A. The writing process is a journey of discovery. You will keep discovering as you write. The first draft is for your eyes only and is easy to fix.
U have such pretty eyes 👁 so jealous
Autumn contact lenses. you can buy them.
talimanwiz helpful reply
i was thinking that
Agreed.
This helped me so much, I'm trying to write a comic(I hate writing, but LOVE art). It's called Dead Eyes.
So happy it helped! :)
Your comic title reminds me of plankton from spongebob. There was an episode that had dead eye as a villain
Im making a comic too, although I love writing, and I hate art.
Potatocado lol I never went through with it, might come back to it.
I’m planning on trying to make one, and I’m mediocre at both, but writing is better for me.
Looked at my book shelf. " Oh, it's like 90% fantasy. I have all of two mystery novels and some realistic fiction books that I didn't like all that much. Hmmm." Well I'm off to create a fictional world with fictional characters who might speak a fictional language. Bye!
😜😜
Hello fellow Hufflepuff.
Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for making all these videos to help young writers like myself and really push us in the right direction with where and what we want our story to be. I'm in the middle of writing a book (I'm only 17 so of course it's not going to be ground breaking) but all your videos help a lot so thank you!
I really appreciate that! Thank you so much!
I am eleven and am writing my first book. I gave the first three chapters to my friends and they can't wait until I finish it. I really hope to finish it this time because I love the characters and plot more than my previous attempt that I realized just wasn't working. Thanks for all of the help and tips!!!
Dellaina McCarty I’m 11 and I’m an amazing writer it is my favorite thing in the world to do
Dellaina McCarty I wad 11 like you last year. Im 12 now and working on a book
Ive been writing for 4 years now, and my parents think the story Im writing could be a movie and want it to be published.
AdventurousAndreannaYT when I was 11.... i dnt know what I was doing ( ´_ゝ`)
\(￣< ￣)> you guys are amazing. Dont try to become adult. Enjoy ur school life. (〒︿〒)
Dellaina McCarty I’m 12 and I am the EXACT same way. Is there a way we can exchange numbers or google docs account because well now I really want to ready your story!
Im really late but you can turn the most unorigional story into an amazing origional story just add your own stuff.
Story ideas are very.. Different for myself. I am a fanfic writer but I try not to go off story. Only for some of my story's and even then I change it up. I like the world and characters for my fanfic. I then write something I would love to write or something I thought would happen. Characters can be my story idea. With my newest one "Crazy Huh?" My character Kathyne is the idea. She will be what the story is about. Not only her but the world around _her_ or what she has done and how it changed batman or the joker. But it's mostly about her. Coming up with characters I base off myself or people I know. Story ideas away from characters are horribly hard for me to find out.
Winner of a video, I've been looking for "how to start writing a story book" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Yonallie Bookworm Blitzer - (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some great things about it and my colleague got great results with it.
I'm eight years old that really help me what you said and now I finally wrote a book but I have not sold it or anything like that I just like keeping them to myself and reading them to my father and my mother my story was about a family that got divorced and the kids were very very very sad but one was not she only worried about herself and then they split apart then some guy killed something not but the end was very very good and I loved it and I hope other people did when I grow up now I want to be a writer
Follow your dreams kiddo! Even if you did not publish it, writing a story a 8 is amazing!
Brilliant dear... Sharings of lil kids like u n other ones are sooo inspiring... I m 4 times ur age n thinking of starting to write a novel... N ur story inspired me sooo much.... God bless you... Lots of love n best wishes
Hi Kristen,
I just wanted to share with you that I first subscribed you to you a few months back as I was trying to self-teach myself the process of writing stories as I hope to one day write for video games. Now, I'm in my 2nd week of a fiction writing class at a community college and I'm finding your videos to be very helpful on writing my short story assignments, writing prompts, and my journal. I just want to thank you now and in advance as you release more videos.
Thank you SOOO much!!! I am currently writing a horror story called "TIME'S UP"
I like horror.
Can u email it to me at velvet28@icloud.com
I am so late but that actually sounds like it’d be really good.
I know this is really late, but, this is really encouraging :)
Thanks so much! ♡
lulu 4ever yes
Not as late as me!
Hawkish not as late as me
Kristen, you are awesome! I have just discovered you today. I LOVE your videos and can't thank you enough for the inspiration!!! I'm going to look into the book you were discussing! You just gave me new hope for my writing! Thank you! Keep recording! :-)
I've never tried to write anything before, but I really would like to try my hand at it. I'm definitely in the boat of the ppl who don't have any story ideas though! This video has a ton of great resources for me to try out. I really appreciate this video!!
♡♡♡
TYSM i am meeting my internet best friend soon and i am gonna ask if she wants to write a book together.
How fun! Best of luck to both of you!
Kristen Martin thank you
Kristen Martin Kirsten u helped me with this I'm published my book soon!😊😊
M C I highly doubt that with your grammar...
Did you write the book?
I remember commenting on this video 2 years ago and you replied.
I was so happy and now I’ve been writing so many books and they just pop into my head. I had writers block the other day and I was sooo frustrated
Hey Ahmya... Congratulations
woah i want to be a writer. this video really helps me thank you ❤
So happy to hear that! Thanks for watching!
I am 12 but I wrote a book thanks to yoy
Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment!
Kristen Martin thank you
i cant really thinkof anything still because i want to do a story like harry potter but i cant think of ideas that havent been done before in the books
Hermione Granger start with fanfic maybe! It has helped me. If you want tips on fanfic I can help
Hermione Granger blend genres you like, or try and answer what if questions where the original story gets twisted, like if you used the time turner to twist Harry's final battle in your favor you stunning you brilliant ginger loving badass you
Hermione Granger when I don't know what to write her story here's what I do I got a piece of paper and I just write down 15 - 20 character traits and then I pick the three that stand out the most to me and then that's what my character will act like then I get another piece of paper and I just write down ideas for a setting and see how I can make a connection with the character's personality into the setting and then I just start writing down random ideas of what I think should happen in my book like do you want your character to ride a dragon or do you want her to have a enchanted garden. hope this helped😀
Hermione Granger Subscribed.
Think of what you liked about Harry Potter and combine it with something else you like, or think about what you think could have made Harry Potter better.
I'm a 12 year old boy and I really want to start writing a novel and when I'm older publish books this has helped me so much TYSM! :)
I am writing a book called Journey Ahead! I was able to remember most of the first few chapters in my head so I told some people at my school! They loved it! Everyone who knows about my book wants to be my friend! I am working on it daily and I hope to finish it soon!
Thanks for the feedback. I have written the first chapter of my book "Fellowship Of The Mind". It is about two teenagers finding a nuclear bomb underneath the River Thames and have to use their minds to stop it from exploding. Here is the first chapter:
Chapter 1: Night Raid
Having your doorbell ring at four O’clock in the morning is never good news, not to Jack Campbell anyway. Jack was a well-built, sixteen-year-old boy from North London. His parents died before he could speak a mere noise, and lives with his best friend and housekeeper Felix Watson. Felix was in his 20s and was a well-paid electrician for PB&J Plumbing LTD. Felix was in no relation ever to Jack despite Jack’s father being close friends in school. Jack groaned as he threw his pillow over his head and dragging himself down the stairs and to the front door. He twisted the un-oiled, creaky doorknob to find a tall, thin man with a big cardboard box in his hands and an Australian accent.
“Hi, I’m Raymond Iceberg, may I come in? Oh, right you must be Jack Campbell, correct?”
He asked, rasing his hand for a handshake though didn’t seem to get a reply simply because Jack was too tired, so he just nodded and gestured to the kitchen. Jack made for the cupboard while Raymond sat down on the abnormally large table seeing as only two people lived in the house at that time.
“Coffee?”
Jack asked, looking behind him while opening a cupboard that was far too high too reach. He grabbed a chair from the table and stood on it to be able to reach the Coffee-Beans. Jack had a spike of suspicion that he knew he had met Raymond Iceberg before. That’s because the real Raymond Iceberg was not at school for 3 three days and at the bottom of the River Thames with a knife plunged through his back and a concrete slab on his feet, making him unable to move. The real Raymond Iceberg was a 6th former in Croydel College, only two years higher than Jack was. The fake Raymond Iceberg was twice the age of the real one, however.
“No thank you, I’m fine. Though could you make me a breakfast? Preferably Jam Toast?”
He replied looking at Jack helplessly trying to reach the Coffee Beans and ignoring the fact that Jack was wearing pyjamas and that Raymond was wearing a black coat and leather jeans.
“Sure, let me just turn the heating down, it’s bliddy hot in here”
Jack lied. It was quite the opposite of hot, in fact it was freezing in that house. Felix was two years off their heating payments and electricity. What Jack was doing was going to his room to open a safe that had a Browning Automatic pistol which with one twitch of Jack’s hand would send a 9mm bullet shattering through Raymond’s skull and into his brain. The very touch of it made him feel sick. He opened the safe, and carefully walked down the stairs with the gun behind his back to find that Raymond was talking into a radio
“Yes, I am with the boy”
He said. A faint and scratchy noise echoed through the other end of the microphone said
“Kill him, and leave no trace behind”
Raymond was a sick contract-killer. He was so horrible that he sent black tulips to the families of his victims after he killed them. That’s why is family are bamboozled about the bouquet of flowers at their doorstep. Unfortunately, Mr. Nice-berg (which is what Jack named him for his impeccable manners) wasn’t so nice after all.
OMG THIS WAS SO HELPFUL! I had writer's block for like a month and after using these tips my brain blew up with inspiration and ideas.
Awesome! I love hearing that!!
I am starting to write a book📚 and your videos are really helping me😘
I’ve always known I’ve wanted to write a fantasy book, I just didn’t know what. So what I did is I went through my book shelf and picked out a pile of my all time favorite books. Then I proceeded to pick a random page of each book, and I wrote down the first noun I saw (unless the noun was really weird or hard to work with lol)
The nouns were trickery, arm, knit, fabric, may, shadows simulation, and eleven...
I probably shouldn’t have picked so many books... but what’s interesting is that in one of the books (my favorite from elementary school) I flipped to a page that was a new month in the book, and in that book every month for a whole school year takes up a page (like part 1 or 2 etc of a book) and I landed on the page that said ‘may’ and I thought that was a sign so that’s my main character’s name!
cool!
You have pretty eyes
Stop watching this for her eyes
@@salt.8989 I'm watching bc of her Eyes, but not the only for looking at her Eyes
@MAG_ARAL _KAMUNA I don’t think they were, it was just a compliment
Thank you for this video. I struggle with coming up with ideas for stories. I write short stories, so it's even more frustrating. These tips will help.
Happy it helped!
Thank you for making a video from my question! This was so so helpful!!
+Anne &Baby39 I'm happy you enjoyed it! Thank you for asking and for giving me a video topic :)
Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️ I already wrote like six chapters of my book so far and I’m starting to slowly lose ideas so this is very helpful!
I finished my first novel a few months ago, and it was such a bittersweet experience. Because even though Im happy its over now Im just so unhappy I have no more ideas
I’m not really much of a writer, but I still like to come up with cool story ideas that I could maybe one day make something out of. Right now I have in my mind a story based on the idea of ‘what if dreams are actually alternate realities’. The main character falls asleep one night and finds himself in a beautiful fantasy world that I’m calling ‘Fantasia’ for now. And then there is a fun fantasy story line that I have no ideas about and then he wakes up. The next night when he falls asleep he once again enters this world for another adventure.
Thanks, this video is Soo helpful! I have some story ideas too:
1. You have a disease and the doctor just tells you that your days are numbered. Your disease isn't contagious, so you can spend some of your last days at school with your best friends. How will you tell them the news and how do handle it when you tell them the news? Also (this is your choice) your friends will try and do everything to find a cure for the disease.
2. A girl has a secret ability. The girl's stories come to life, but no one can see the world the girl creates. When the girl tells her parents, they don't believe her. They put the girl in counseling, but it doesn't seem to work. Then one day, the girl creates a story so big, she can't get out of her imaginary world. She ends up falling into a coma and is admitted to the hospital. Every time she breathes, the story that's going inside her mind comes to life, where everyone can see. But it's not a good fairytale. The world's in total chaos. A girl named Raven claims that she has a telepathic link with the girl. She's determined to save the girl - and the world.
I love how you mentioned that "there's no such thing as a bad idea". I tend to be concerned on how my ideas would sound once I finish my story before showing it to people. I've always been more of a visual person since the start, and been drawing cartoons in hope to create my own comic book one day. This video helped a lot! Thank you! :)
This was so helpful im 8 years old and im writing a story this helps so much
So you're 10 rn? I am too!
Thank you for this! I’m 12 and really want to start writing something! This has really helped me .
This is so helpful! I wrote my first book when I was 8 but then I stopped writing, because I gave up after the first chapter of every book I started. Now I'm 13 and I'm gonna try again!
I'm not much older than you, and I just picked up writing a few months ago! I'm on my third book of a trilogy! Good luck! If you need any tips, you can ask me cause I can help :D HAVE FUN! Writing is so fun and I LOVE coming up with my ideas as I go!
I got pissed off because I was going to write a story about something but I forgot what it was. It was really cool in my head, but it left and now I can't even find a trace of it in my mind. Not even the title. I figured it's a way of my mind telling me to worry about the first book I had started to write. So, I started to write the first book and it slowly came back to my mind. It's still slowly coming bacl, though. All these writers inspire me. :)
Wolf Queen I hate when this happens
thanks, this has helped me a lot. i'm writing a suspense dystopic novel surrounding a girl helping a community escape an AI controlled state. i'm currently 3,000 words in!
I sometimes write in school, but currently I'm having writers block. This is now inspiring me to help rewrite the plot for my first book
As my brother always says: Writers block DOESN'T EXIST! He says it's just an excuse NOT to write, because you can ALWAYS find new ideas, but sometimes people just don't want to spend the time to LOOK for them. I'm glad you are rewriting your plot though! Good luck!
@@ashnikfield4224 Thank you! Here are some likes 👍👍👍👍
Usually to get ideas I go and look up pictures to help me brain storm. Thanks for making this video BTW! It really helped!
I do this as well! Pinterest has really helped me. I'm happy you liked the video. Thanks for watching!
This is like amazing advise, it's so well put together. I'm subscribing for that.
U just got me in the writing and now the ideas for the story are just popping in my head like popcorn on the pan.... im just like "Ōh, this can be in the story too, oh, and this can be connected to this, oh, i need this for the story to be more interesting"... Ill get you to know, when i need a little bit of a helping hand...
So awesome! I am happy all the ideas are coming to you now!
Thank you, Kristen. I've seen this video about 7 times, but I've been in a slump, and I haven't written in almost a year, but this week, I was listening to a Taylor Swift song, and somehow it just sparked the greatest idea that I've had since I quit writing, and I think I've just uncovered what my book is supposed to be! Thank you so much!!
This was wonderful. Thank you. On to Part 2.
I am watching this in 2019 and I am only twelve but I love writing and thank you so much be cause this video helped me so much to come up with more ideas. >3
This is so good! You are a great author!
I personally love it to analyse movies, while watching and asking myself why the creator did this scene in this style. Most of the time I'm doing this unconscious.
If I'm running out of ideas or have no idea how to begin I just brainstorm and check out stories I like and get inspired by them.
I even look up antient tales like "Odyssey" or and other religions, just to get some inspiration for my story.
Also the big literati like Goethe, Shakespear, Doyle etc.
Somethimes it helps me if I check out art from Michelangelo, Rembrand, Campendonk etc.
If you can't come up with ideas don't be shy to look/analyse the work of other writer and artist. Most of the time there work will inspire you
I’m a kid who’s about to turn 12 in a few months and I’m writing a novel. This video was so helpful
Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to make a story about a student and teacher affair and I felt this was helpful.
You're welcome! Thank you for watching. Best of luck to you!
love the calming background music, I'd want that playing while I'm writing.
11, in the process of writing my own story with my friend. We’ve done some planning, but this video made everything better!
im making a writing a book called the old house whitch is about a reporter who buys a old house with a murder in it
I really like writing prompts. I pinterest them and it usually sparks a lot of inspiration for me.
What’s your Pinterest? I’m trying to get inspired!
@@AshleyGriffyn My Pinterest is amyrogersbooks :)
Thanks I have been writing since I was like 5!
I can't make a good story but my school say it is good and thx for giving ideas
Those eyes forced me to subscribe. And the video was helpful to get me over my story block. Thanks and Cheers!
I wish I could STOP coming up with so many story ideas while trying to finish even one of them.... 😳🤷♀️ All I do is new ideas all day long. Like massively different totally new maniacal ideas. So I can’t ignore them. I have thousands and thousands of pages of notes. I actually thought at one point drowning in all this that I was meant to work with a team of people or a civilization as a symbol maker or cultural programmer... and I just got another story idea about THAT!! 😂 Lordy. Help me.
Also, random, where did you get that top? ❤️ You look so beautiful in it.
Wow thank u! I didn't know book writing are this technical. I'm trying to write my first new book and u just helped me a lot.
I love the tips on this channel because I'm a new writer and always seem to hit a block
thank you so much it helped me write a book
So happy to hear that!
YOU ARE SO GLORIOUS AND GORGEOUS
Thank you!
I want to write a fantasy book and listening to this has gave me so much motivation! Ty.
I want to write like a horror or crime or some sort of alternate universe novel for young adults but I can’t for the life of me think of a story that I truly love
You gave me a really good idea!
REALLY helpful with planning too.
Awesome! Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching! :)
Although I'm only 12 XD I plan on writing novels for myself and friends and this helped a lot
I realized I need to work on my grammar ._.
You will get better! My grammar is decent. The only thing I struggle with is COMMAS! They kill my life. Spelling is okay since I won a lot of class spelling bees since 4th grade. Just practice and life will be easier for you!
I can build on a plot really well & I can develop a pretty great story I just can’t seem to think up of a a decent plot
Hey Kristen, I've been writing stories stories since I was 14 years old back in 1998 but I usually destroyed them all without showing them to anyone but...back in 2016 I was trying to write my first real Novel and I used to talk to a girl and she insisted to send it to her, big mistake. Soon after we stopped talking for good due to other things so I gave up writing, back in September 2020 I decided to start writing again, it took me 2 years to write the 1st draft but I did it and I'm now writing the 2nd draft by hand. A while ago I decided to send a Chapter to 3 national Publishers (I don't live in the U.S.) and one of them rejected, the other one liked it but they told me that I had to pay if I wanted to Publish the full Novel and the final one didn't even reply. A few days ago I sent the same Chapter to my sister and she told me that I need to improve to the dialogue a little to make it more appealing but my question is: how do I write good dialogue specially when there are children talking? She then loved the rest and that gave me a lot more energy to keep writing. Sorry for the long reply, take care.
Thanks Kristen!! i'm glad i found this video. i'm definitely going to write. best part i like in the video "JUST WRITE.." it makes sense completely..
Great! It almost seems too obvious saying, "Just write," but it's so true! Thanks for watching :)
Wow! I checked out The Writer's idea thesaurus. It's amazing 🤩
I already have too many ideas ❤️ Thank you 😍
Im writing a book called "Alone On Easter"
That is my book I'm writing
Or my other book called "The New Pug"
Im writing 2 books, alone on Easter and the new pug
This video really helped. Thanks! Also, I like your last name :) (mine is Martyn)
Martyns/Martins unite! :)
I like your ideas, and as a writer who has been having a writer's block it's terribly hard. I haven't been able to write for a while and due to my two favorite writers being P.B. Kerr and Tolkein for fantasy I was trying to write books that for all ages.
I read books over my age limit back in elementary school and I believe everyone should be able to read any book.
Books let the imagination flow
this really helped me with my novel, Cat and Mouse. thanks!!
Happy to hear it 😊
did you ever finish it man?
That was a very informative video, the only reason why I came to your video was because I am working on a Novel on Wattpad, I already got the Genre down, some few characters, the setting, the audience, and the theme. Although I haven't really started working on it through wattpad yet and I really won't know how long it would take, a lot of it has come from the top of my head and some of these ideas actually came from Video Games I was playing too which I know some will find interesting since the vast majority of you just watch nothing but movies all day and I'm totally cool with it. Anyhow, great video and I wish you for the better.
Great tips. I looked at my shelf. Mostly mystery, gothic, and classics. Even my contemporary has gothic, fairy tale-esque themes. Obviously that's what I should be writing. Thank you! All of these were very helpful.
This will help a lot. Thank you!
Hi im a fanfic writer. And i think you are so right almost everybook idea has been done but I writing multiple stories (im still new to writing).
Im not good at coming up with ideas for my books I write a sanscest story about a glitch broken skeleton who falls in love with a grim reaper.
I'm begging you to do a video on a book about mythology. I'm 12 and doing a book about Persian mythology and I'd LOVE some tips. I know this is late but PLEASE consider it. Also thank you this video was _very_ helpful.
Great tips! I love finding fellow writers on RUclips. Nice to meet you Kristen.
+Tamara Woods (PenPaperPad) Thank you! It's nice to meet you as well :)
how to know if my idea for a novel isnt written before??
vineeth narayan first try to compare it to similar stories in tbe genre. Try popular media, not indie stuff. If you can't find something really similar, then I'd see that as a greenlight. If you find something pretty darn similar, then try to personalize your story with things that make you and your story special.
that’s almost impossible. In another really good video, I found out that you can’t really come up with a completely new idea. But you can mix different things together to make it your own.
I feel like this would not only help me with writing Wattpad fanfics, but it helps me make a background for OCS
Thanks for the advice and I am 12. And what I need is inspiration
My tip is to use the ideas of some of your favorite books or any book that you recently read. You could also use the idea of a video you like and tweak it into a book.
I'm actually planning to fictionise my daily urban life, in london.
London's my favorite city IN THE WORLD.
England is mine.
Best teacher ever 😄
I have been working on a book for more than a year and after deciding I was going to finish it and get to work with my publishing company. I just realized that I ONLY HAVE TO FIRST PART AND NO ENDING!! How have I not noticed I have no ending!!???
Extremely helpful !
Thank you so much.
subscribed
Thank you for subscribing!
SHE IS SO PRETTY I AM SO JEALOUS I promise you
Great info. Love the idea of creating an exciting ending first.
Thank you for this so much!
I'm so glad I'm not the only writer!😛
my english teacher showed the class this video
I've been enjoying several of your videos, but this is the first time I heard a description of your book that caught my attention. I love the dystopian trope, but I'm so sick of all of those books focusing so heavily on the love interest... So Alpha Drive is now on my "to read" list. :)
Thank you for this video, actually gave somewhat practical advice (most videos like this are terribly vague).
Thank you! That was my intention :)
thanks so much! I have have got lot of ideas popping in my head.😘
You're welcome! I'm happy it helped :)
This video is awesome. Thanks