Where Do You Get Your Ideas

Where Do You Get Your Ideas A common sentence from new writers itching to dive into the business. Whether talking novels or magazine features, the newbie wants to be known for having written, and they are ever-eager to jump on that writing train. Developing a writers eye comes from developing the habit. It isnt something you remember to turn on. Its a trait you learn to perpetually live with. Over time of honing this skill of seeing the world through a writers eye, one learns to: 1) hear every bit of dialogue as potential for a character exchange 2) read every news story as a potential plot 3) interpret every experience as the basis for a feature in a mag or chapter in a book Everything becomes fodder. Even if you have this ONE STORY youve always wanted to write, you still watch the world for dialogue and snippets of activity that fit into that ONE STORY youve always wanted to write so that you can make it richer. Youre always looking, listening, interpreting life as writing possibility. Two articles are sitting in a basket in front of me right now, saved from magazines I read three or four years ago. One was about canning vegetables. However, the title (which Im saving for myself, thank you very much) grabbed me. It was a practical title of a how-to piece, but the uniqueness of the title, then some sections of the how-to, suddenly appeared as the great basis for a story to me. Another article came from a gardening piece in a newspaper. Oh my gosh, that persons experience tending a cemetery plot had my writing radar going off the chart! A great test is to take any moment, any instance, and scour it for writing ideas. Drill down into the minutiae or think big picture, how this situation may have a heavy theme attached. The ideas are in front of you, knocking on your brain. The skill comes in knowing how to answer the knock.