From Edie: Tim Suddeth shares how how writers find and develop story ideas through creativity, faith, observation, and intentional practice. Discover practical ways to grow ideas into compelling stories that connect with readers.
How Writers Find and Develop Story Ideas: Creativity, Faith, and the Writing Process
Gardening has been a part of my life ever since I grew up on a peach farm in rural South Carolina. (And no. Not all of SC is rural.) Everyone in my extended family and our neighbors had their gardens. Even my tobacco-spitting, 92-year-old grandfather.
Each year, Dad planted an acre-sized garden just after Mother’s Day. He would plow up the field and raise the rows. Then he dug a small hole, while I dropped the seeds, being careful to drop just the right number. After that came the waiting for them to come up. And hoping they’d outgrow the weeds.
Gardening is a great example of faith. You put the seed into the ground, then you wait while God does what he has done since creation in bringing our crops up. Even when our faith falters because of a lack of rain or whatever. But you trust this year’s crops to the same God who has been faithful in providing in the past.
It takes that same effort, patience, and faith to develop an idea into a story. Like a gardener planting seeds, writers begin with a simple seed or idea. It sits hidden in our brains, joining and growing with additional ideas until we have something we can develop on paper or screen. Because no matter how great an idea seems in my head, it’s only after I develop the idea that it becomes the fabulous story it was intended to be.
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