The best novels start as ideas that effortlessly creep into an author’s mind and nag the author until he finally gives in and converts the ideas into novels. Such ideas are wonderful because they often mark the beginning of an author’s writing career. Although good writing ideas are usually brief, they possess certain things that intrigue an author to the point of wanting to explore the ideas. Usually, the more intriguing the idea, the more an author will want to make sense of it and the better the book will be. Unfortunately not many authors get their book ideas this way. Many authors have to get their ideas the old-fashioned way, some of which are covered below.

Enlist your passion

It takes a lot of time and even more in terms of effort to write a novel. When you start writing any novel, you must prepare to live with the world and characters you create for months or even years. Therefore avoid choosing ideas that might bore you quickly or those that you will grow to resent. Any author must find ideas that he is deeply passionate about. You will have a much easier time writing the novel and you will be proud if you write about something you like very much.

One of the ways of finding a great idea is to look back at stories that you are most passionate about. Think about the stories that had the most profound impact on you and make a list of them. After making a list, determine what they all have in common. For example, you can categorize the stories based on their genre, characters, themes, or problems they talked about.

You should not spend just one afternoon with these stories. Instead take time to write down your observations about the stories in great detail. Then take about a week reflecting on your observations and adding more to them. There is a good chance that you will learn things that you never knew about yourself. You might even realize that what you used to love was not really your passion. The more honest you are with yourself, the easier it will be to write fantastic heartfelt stories.

Have fun with plot summaries

There are millions of stories that have been documented so take advantage of this fact. Find some old stories (both novels and movies) and acquaint yourself with their plot summaries. Use the summaries to create original ideas based on what you think would have made for better plots. Rewrite a plot summary that you like, incorporating your changes. Once you have your original plot summary, rewrite it until it conforms to your passions. Make your new plot as specific as possible and decide on the ending. Repeat this process for more plot summaries until you get several writing ideas to choose from.

Finding ideas in real life

This is an ever-available option for any author. However, tread carefully when you want real life ideas to inspire your novel. Your characters in the novel should mirror their real world counterparts and they should never be the same person. You should also raise the bar in your novel and prevent it from sounding like you are recounting everyday events.