How to Create Short Story/Essay/Blog Ideas?

This not-a-plot-graph tactic can help you create winning stories, essays, blogs, and poetry.

You have heard of a plot graph? That’s when you use a graph to plot out things like Act 1, Act 2, rising action, and climaxes of your story. When I am stuck with story ideas – or when I have a visit from writer’s block – I like to use this little trick I learned studying scriptwriting in University to help me out.

I have written about this before, if you are interested in looking up my blogger page, you can, if not stay here and learn how to plot out a story idea for any given scenario.

The best way to explain this is through using an example. We are going to draw a graph that relates specifically to a short story submission in the comedy genre. We could tailor the graph to any other writing project. It would work particularly well for blogs, since you could enter your keywords as one column.

Drawing your Idea Graph

Let’s call it the Idea Graph because I’m not great at naming things.

Your idea graph should represent any other graph. It should have at least four columns, but let’s say 5 to round it up. These columns are anything you like. You get to name them. If I were writing for the comedy short story above, I would want two columns for character, 2 columns for different plot points, and one for location/setting.

So far, the graph looks like this:

Character	Character	Scenario	Plot point 2	Setting

Now all you need to do is start filling in those blanks. The answers can be absolutely nonsensical, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they fit into the original brief: which was to write a short story that’s funny.

If the brief were different, the graph would change. Let’s take a second example just to emphasise the point. This time we have been given a brief to write a blog for our soap making company. The columns might look like this:

Internal Links	Keywords	Listicle idea	Product to Promote	Topic
Home page	Handmade soap	Top 5 best	Charcoal soap	The crafting process
Contact us	Artisan soap	13 reasons why	Lemon sherbet soap	Household soap ingredients
Previous blog on toppings for soap bars	Gifts	10 things to consider	Shower gloves	Where soap comes from

So let’s fill in our first example graph. Try to add and complete as many rows as you can. The more rows, the more choice you will have in story concept later.

Developed Comedy Short Story Graph:

Character	Character	Scenario	Plot point	Setting
An astronaut with a sniffle	Silicon Roger, who has had multiple plastic surgeries	They go on a boat ride down the Thames	One is a customer; one is the bored server who throws them out	On an aeroplane
Shelly Orbit, Lollipop Lady	Axe Rockhard, bass player	They lose their sheep.	An asteroid hits earth but only where they are standing	In the Maldives
The sacrificial goat from a satanic ceremony	The physicist who is a genius but is always drunk.	They’re in a gameshow	No matter how much they try, they can’t get rid of a bad luck item.	Backstage at a drag show
The billionaire with the God complex	A busted 90s country singer	They share an office that’s too small	They crash the train because they’re morons	Under the floorboards in an abandoned hospital.

Mix and Match the Answers

And now that we have a completed graph, we mix and match the answers. For example:

1. An astronaut with a cold meets the drunken physicist and they have to share a tiny office. The asteroid hits earth and one of them becomes smoky boots. All this happens under the floorboards of an abandoned hospital that MI5 converted specifically to avoid that exact disaster.
2. The sacrificial goat escapes the Satanic ceremony and hides out backstage at a drag show, where he is befriended by a drag act of a busted up, forgotten 90s country and folk singer. They go on a road trip, end up driving a bota down the Thames together, and somehow end up crashing the boat because they are morons.
3. Shelly Orbit, Lollipop Lady, is left in charge of farmer Frank’s sheep while he runs home with a dodgy stomach. Shelly then meets Axe Rockhard, who plays her a snazzy musical number about how he is going to be the next star. He scares the sheep away and Farmer Frank knocks him out for it. They try to recover more sheep from the nearest market, but a serious of unfortunate events lead them to believe that the bass guitar is, in fact, cursed. They try everything to get rid of it and eventually lose it on the aeroplane by putting it in the luggage hold. They go to the Maldives; it ends up in Morocco. You cannot trust airlines with your luggage.

So… It’s all rubbish and nonsensical and might mean absolutely nothing on its own, but with the application of the creativity you have as a writer, this little trick can get you stories for anything. Tweak your columns to apply specifically to what you are writing. You can even add in columns for tone, theme, location, character traits, and more. You can use this trick to develop characters, simply by filling your columns up with mannerisms or features.

Use the Idea Graph Wisely

Of course, not every story works, but that’s OK. Use this technique to create work that is fully fleshed out, or to cheat and fire a ton of ideas at your teacher and make them think you’re an imagination superstar.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find more of my work over on my website. I also keep the blog for The Stone Circle, too.