The main novel ideas for me usually comes from watching the news.
When I hear about a tragic incident or a crime on the news, I strongly empathy with the victim, and wonder what I'd do if I was in their shoes. You only hear about the tragic part of their story, but you never know about their future. That just keeps me thinking about them endlessly and leads to writing a novel. I just take the basic parts of the story and build my character into a survivor. I try to give them a happy ending because I want the people that motived me to have a happy ending as well.
The first reply kind of sounds terrible but hear me out!
There was this terrible crime incident in Korea that had lots of people scared because a huge tv show broadcasted it a few years after it happened. They interviewed the surviving victim who refused to meet the staff at first but later obliged. Seeing the interview had me shook because what the victim went through was horrific and I never would have had the power to be strong as her.
I started imagining what I would do if I was in her shoes, and again, wanted to give a happy ending to her story. So I made up a character who went through a horrific crime incident and suffers severe PTSD because of it and gave her a happy ending by letting her embrace herself and to let go of her fears. I've posted it on Wattpad and plan to upload an edited version here!
(https://my.w.tt/nv0tZLWuq4)
The one I'm currently working on also deals with the same aspect of my writing. I have once heard about a tragic incident where a boy was a sole survivor of the family. A fire had erupted from his electric blanket that was faulty which ended up killing his parents and younger sister. Again, I wanted to wish him a happy ending to his future, so I wrote IMYWIW18.
Lauv, A musical artist's playlist also motivated me to come up with this story as well. His playlist's title is 'I Met You When I Was 18', and he tells a story where he met a girl in NY when he was 18. That got me thinking about what I went through at 18, and what I hope had actually happened lol.
So, I made up a character that I can relate to, going back to when I was 18 (a freshman at uni) and made her meet a boy who has a background story of the above.
The link of the story is here:
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Coming up with your own story isn't that hard. I recommend thinking in various aspects. What would you do if you were in A's shoes? If B was the main character, how would the story progress? What hardships would B go through?
Don't limit yourself to the trends and think outside the box. Don't start writing another werewolf/vampire novel just because everyone seems interested in the subject.
Thinking outside the box and break the trends. Does every werewolf pack need to have some sort of moon/luna in the name? Does a werewolf need a pack? Why do Werewolf stories always have to do with finding a 'mate'? Do Vampires really need to worry about turning a human accidentally with their venom? Do they really need to drink blood?
(I know it's corny but when I was young I thought I had to write a werewolf/vampire story bc ppl seemed to be reading that sort of stuff the most Xb)
Think about what you really want to write about. What do you want to say with the story? What point do you want to get across the audience?
Listen to music and get into the lyrics! Watch a movie and wonder what would happen if a side character was actually the main character. Things would never be dull!