Create Ideas by Playing With Tropes

The most common question to writers is probably "Where do you get your ideas from?" I think this is a worthy question, especially for the writers. If we can discover how we come up with ideas, we can foster it to come up with ideas or try to create specific kinds (curing writer's block?).

I have a number of answers to this question. Sometimes ideas just strike me. Sometimes I hear a word or phrase and roll it around in my mind until it builds up into a full idea. Sometimes I think of a what-if situation and build up from there. The most common thing, though, is that I try to do the opposite if what everybody does.

"Ninjas are always portrayed as super soldiers or incompetent boobs," I say to myself. "Why isn't there a story about an average ninja?" Shortly after that (and I mean seconds), I started working on a comic series called Average Ninja.

Similar ideas have included "How come everybody with a superpower will eventually use it for good or evil? Does nobody simply think it's not worth it and either doesn't use it or just uses it to live a mostly average life?" Also, "Why does every bad guy either want to rule the world? What would happen if he actually did it?"

I usually call it screwing with standards. It can also be called playing with tropes. There are a number of ways to do it and this page has a bunch of them and convenient examples. I won't write them all here because the page is perfect as it is.

There are a lot of stories out there. Many of them use the same tricks and techniques over and over again. When it reaches the point that you can identify them, you should try to screw with them. Why is the damsel always in distress? Invert it and make the prince trapped in a tower and the princess have to rescue him. But whenever a woman isn't a princess, she's always a brutish amazon warrior; what if we subvert and make the woman who is going to fight the dragon fight her with words or diplomacy?

Whatever terms you use, the point for me is to do something different. Try to surprise the audience. If you can, try to surprise yourself. The sheer novelty of a new spin on an old classic (which is yet another term for it) can get you pretty far. It doesn't always guarantee a good story, but it is a fantastic way to create ideas.