Book Brainstorming: How to Gather and Give Shape to Your Book Ideas

Hailey Thompson
Aug 27
5 min read

I’m so glad you’re here! This is the first big step toward your big debut. Congratulations on your commitment to writing your book!

I created this guide to help you get your ideas out of your head and onto paper in an organized fashion. Plus, I’ll have you asking yourself the questions that fill in the missing information ahead of time so you’re not scrambling to connect the dots later. Your future self will thank you!

📚 Step One: Gather your current materials.

To get started, gather any ideas you already have.

If you have notes, drawings, short pieces, or anything else you’ve jotted down in your phone or computer, compile them in the workspace.

If you have handwritten notes or sketches, place them in a folder or binder.

There’s no need to organize them yet; just get them all together first!

📚 Step Two: Review your materials & expand.

This seems simple, but it’s a powerful tool to help you generate ideas.

Review every note, writing piece, and drawing/sketch you came up with. Then, either call a friend or pull up a voice memo and record yourself explaining the concepts you’ve come up with this far. Try to expand on any of your notes, and go into as much detail as possible about your ideas.

When you’re done, either pull up the transcript of your recording or take notes from it. You’d be surprised how many new ideas you’ll come up with! Add these notes and ideas to your collection.

📚 Step Three: Start looking for inspiration everywhere.

When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Every conversation with a coworker; every song you listen to; every walk in nature; every memory that pops up on your social media; let it all inspire you.

You’ll want to spend a great deal of time ruminating over your book ideas. Usually, I spend about two to three weeks intentionally looking for inspiration.

You don’t have to spend every spare moment thinking about your book, but if it ends up a constant thought in the back of your mind, don’t be surprised! This is all part of the creative process, so let the ideas flow freely.

Whenever you have an idea, write it down—and do it fast! Those spur-of-the-moment ideas disappear maddeningly quick, so make sure you jot it down before it disappears. I make tons of voice memos on my phone during this process to make sure I capture all my ideas as they happen. I’m always shocked how many ideas I generate just by going for a walk!

📚 Step Four: Create a playlist for your story.

This sounds silly, but it’s an essential part of brainstorming. Music is just as emotional an art as writing; it’s simply a different medium of expression.

You’re aiming to invoke certain emotions with your story, whether it be fiction or nonfiction.

Listen to music that matches the emotions of the ideas you currently have. Assign a song to each scene or moment in your story, taking care to mark down which song goes with which scene/moment, and make a playlist out of them.

Once you have your playlist, start ordering your songs in the general order you want to tell your story. For example, if you want to begin your story with lighthearted connection, then move into a darker tone of trials and tribulations, have your song order reflect that.

By the time you finish reordering your playlist, you’ll have created a story map to guide you into the next step. Reorganize your ideas and story moments in the order corresponding to their songs.

If you’re writing fiction or a memoir, you can create this playlist for each character’s arc based on critical moments of their development!

📚 Step Five: Organize your ideas into a story structure.

I’ve provided the story structure and its critical moments along with their descriptions in the workspace. Use the descriptions to start identifying where your critical turning points are, then begin identifying each story arc. This will help you greatly during the outlining process!

There are separate story structures for fiction and nonfiction. If you’re writing a memoir, fill in the fiction story structure, but think of the rising action arcs similarly to the learning arcs in nonfiction story structure.

📚 Story Structure: Fiction & Memoir

The story structure for fiction and memoir is as follows:

Exposition
Inciting moment
Rising Action Arcs
Climax
Falling Action

I'll explain each point and use examples from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to illustrate them.

✍ Exposition

The exposition is the very beginning of the story, where we’re introduced to the characters, tone, voice, mood, purpose, conflict, and setting of the story (Ex: Harry Potter’s daily life with his cousin, aunt, and uncle).

✍ Inciting Moment

The inciting moment is the very “start” of the story, the moment where the conflict kicks in full-force and the characters can’t go back to “life as usual” ever again (Ex: Hagrid breaks down Harry Potter’s door, tells him he’s a wizard, and takes Harry to Diagon Alley).

✍ Rising Action Arcs

The rising action arcs are the series of events that connect across the middle sections of the book. They begin as mild challenges and get increasingly harder for the characters to overcome as the story goes on, preparing them for the final climax of the story (Ex: Harry Potter overcoming the trials of making friends, dealing with his enemies, fitting into the wizarding world, and figuring out the connection between the strange happenings at school).

✍ Climax

The climax is the moment the conflict comes to a head, where the characters either succeed or fail in defeating their greatest challenge of the story (Ex: Harry Potter defeating the trials and Professor Quirrel, winning back the Philosopher’s stone).

✍ Falling Action

The falling action is the series of events that happen as a result of the climax (Ex: Harry Potter waking up in the hospital wing to discover his friends on the mend and learn the Philosopher’s stone had been destroyed).

📚Story Structure: Nonfiction

The nonfiction story structure is as follows:

Hook/Introduction
Learning Arcs
Takeaways/CTA

✍ Hook/Introduction

The hook and introduction are your one shot to hook the audience, pinpoint your purpose, and create the goal for the reader. Your audience should know right away if this book is written for them or a different person. You’ll also want to thoroughly establish your voice and drive home your positioning by the end of the introduction.

✍ Learning Arcs

The learning arcs can be single chapters or span several chapters across your book. Each learning arc combines information with elements of storytelling to teach the reader about one overarching topic. The learning arcs should flow logically and anchor themselves in the purpose of the book.

✍ Takeaways/CTA

The takeaways and/or call(s) to action are at the very end of the book, usually in the concluding chapter. This is where you summarize your learning points and/or call your readers to act on the information in your book in some way.

Want the free Book Brainstorming Guide? Find it here!

🪴 Thanks for reading!

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