The Idea Factory

Writers are always on the lookout for ideas to write about. Here are some ways for you to never run out of ideas. (Honest!) Here’s the list:

1. Classified ads
2. The Calendar
3. The Liturgical Calendar
4. Your characters
5. Notebooks and Lists

Dennis Hensley, well-known, prolific writer, said that he can “usually develop 20 article ideas every day before he finishes breakfast, by systematically analyzing the classified ads in the morning paper.”

Today’s paper had these ads:

“Need six crazy people now! Start at $9.50”

“Rock ‘n Roll. Rock to work. Roll to the bank. Unique travel opportunity for 10 sharp guys and gals.”

Write a fiction story about six crazy people and the jobs they may be asked to do, what happens, make it humorous.

How about the “unique travel opportunity?” Get an interview. Is it a fun job or a scam to kidnap young people for the sex trade? Write an expose, if it is.

A yearly calendar has all the usual holidays, but find one that lists some odd ones. On a pharmacy calendar I found these:  Old Stuff Day, Moon Day, Spooner’s Day, Be Late For Something Day, Sweetest Day, Sourest Day, Dunce day, and National Ding-A-Ling Day. If that doesn’t spark an idea for an article, story or poem, you might be brain dead.

If you write for denominational organizations, see what a church lists as holidays, or holydays. Could you write articles or program material for Special Ministries Day, Cradle Roll Sunday, Family Week, or Pastor Appreciation Day?

If you write a series with regular characters, find out what your characters are up to. The kind of person he or she is should let you imagine further adventures or trials for them.

Notebooks are incubators for ideas. A notebook is a place to:

·       practice writing, make lists,

·       jot down strong verbs and new words; create descriptions, and copy    

     paragraphs of great writing to aspire to

·       play with words, create graphic word pictures of things seen, felt,   

     smelled,  touched, heard

·        gather ideas, names, the way things work, pieces of overheard dialog, part  

      of a dream

·       anything you want

Make lists. 

“Lists are a sort of…clustering of things caught up in the net of our concerns.” (From the Handbook of Short Story Writing. Vol II Writer’s Digest Books)

If you’re still stuck for an idea, make a list of ten related things and one or two totally unrelated.  Now write a one page story using all the words. Maybe it’ll be your first flash fiction piece.

                                          Whatever you do, keep writing.

                                                   Pat Zabriskie