How to brainstorm better story ideas

Generating ideas is the most underrated skill in a novelist’s toolkit—more essential than an appetite for cold-blooded revision, a head for structure, or a gift for dialogue. Generating more story possibilities within a single manuscript separates a competent draft from a novel with depth, complexity, and staying power.

So how do you come up with more ideas? Fortunately, it’s not about generating more good ideas—it’s about generating more ideas, period. You won’t even recognize a good story idea until you’ve stacked up enough bad ones to spot the difference.

Weak ideas aren’t wasted time. They’re reference material.

Solve the clogged pipe problem
Why bad ideas mean progress
The list technique for brainstorming
The takeaways for each list
What to keep and what to toss