: Re: How to come up with original ideas for stories? I seem to have several ideas for fanfiction novels. I'm working on a long fanfiction at the moment that's quite complex and I'm trying to

@Mendez196

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A story (of any length) consists of a beginning, a middle, and an end. Google for the "Three Act Structure", here is a link to an example worksheet, it applies to all stories, even one page stories (although the segments might be only a paragraph long, in that case).

First you must learn how to structure a story. Once you do that, your original ideas are just characters with problems or issues to solve, and they pursue them. An "original idea" is a problem you think is interesting, or a character you think is interesting. Then you find the opposite (a good character to have that problem, or a good problem for your interesting character to have).

In Breaking Bad, it looks to me like somebody came up with a problem: An older adult that is a complete novice in crime embarks upon a life of it. That is the problem. So, what kind of crime would they choose? Making drugs, perhaps:

Now refined to an expert chemist, older, that is a novice in crime but nevertheless embarks upon the world of manufacturing and selling illicit drugs. Pretty cool. But WHY? What could compel a lifelong law abiding citizen to do this? They found a good reason: He is a low paid chemistry teacher that discovers he has Stage III lung cancer and only two years to live. His compelling reason is that he has a disabled son with cerebral palsy, and he needs to leave him enough money to support him. Or die trying, he's got nothing to lose. So ... here we go.

That is technically a "fish out of water" kind of story, but obviously that kind of dismissive summary doesn't do justice to a billion dollar story.

We can provide these kind of paragraph-long descriptions for most books and stories, and it is a good exercise for you to try and write some for books you know.

You will find that the main ideas are pretty straightforward, and if you generalize them (e.g. "a fish out of water" story) then you have examples, and can then come up with your own ideas.

Use the Three Act Structure to expand that paragraph into many and outline each major piece of the story. Then you will know the beginning, middle and end, and can write your story.

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