Finding Ideas

Every story begins with an idea.

Without ideas, there is nothing to create. So you may ask, where do you get ideas?

Ideas can be found everywhere. In the newspaper, magazine articles, in a picture (they are worth a thousand words right?), in your dreams, in a comment. The sources for ideas are endless.

Where do you get your ideas? It is a question that a writer encounters often. Curious minds want to know. I will share with you my most common practices for finding ideas.

Quick writes: Open a dictionary and randomly select three words. Begin writing focusing on these words.

Random sentence prompts: Open a book and let your finger fall upon a sentence. Start with this sentence and begin writing.

Daydreaming: Let your mind open up to possibilities. My latest short story idea was produced this way. I closed my eyes and saw a woman running, next thing I know she comes upon a body and sees the killer in the edge of the woods.

What if? Use newspapers or top news stories for this process. For example: two found dead in a half-burnt house. What if, neither of these people lived in this house?What if, the owner was gone on vacation? What if, one of the victims was someone who has been missing for ten years? You see how this goes. An idea is produced and all is needed is to dig the story from the remains.

So, I ask you, where do your ideas come from?