If you’ve been writing for a while, you’ve probably heard this question: Where do you get your ideas?
I was thinking about it this morning while reading the msnbc.com news feed. Each post is one sentence long. Some examples from today:
· Two people who’d moved into a northern New Jersey townhouse a day earlier have died in a fire that started in their kitchen and spread upstairs.
· Thieves staged a Hollywood-style heist at a pharmaceutical warehouse over the weekend and made off with about $70 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs, authorities said Tuesday.
· The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in a small town: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
I got to thinking—that sounds like a list of novel ideas.
Also, I’m sure you’re on Twitter, right? Each post is limited to 140 characters. Some tweets I’ve seen recently:
· Well how about that. My moon is in the seventh house. Wonder if Jupiter is aligning with Mars…
· I love my chicken salad! It’s pretty boring though compared to the stuff they sell around here.
· I didn’t have money either; my stipend & research grant went to my trip to Taiwan & a laptop
With a little imagination, there’s novel fodder there, too.
Ever notice signs? My third Nano novel was inspired by a small sign in my doctor’s office: Please Bring All of Your Medications With You.
Oh, and the headlines on msn’s homepage (I’m sure the same types of things are on yahoo and others’ homepages):
· Injured dog limps into emergency room
· Shakespeare meets Lebowski
· She invited folks to whip her
· Mom & daughter reunite after 50 years
Short and to the point—just the hook, ma’am. The one about the thieves and the pharmaceuticals sounded interesting, and I jotted down a note. I saw a tweet a couple of weeks ago I was absolutely convinced was novel material. I wrote the story, but it only ended up being short story material. Ah well. But the point is this: an idea will grab you—quick and dirty, that’s the ticket.
www.readmoore.com
My chicken salad is worthy of a novel.
What’s the old saying? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction or something like that. When I tell people some of the things that went on in my classroom, they tell me I should write a book but I often wonder if people would believe it. Yes, some things are just that strange.
Definitely gotta figure out a story about Bree’s chicken salad. How in the world did you find this? LOL here I thought I was being careful in my quotes…
I have the Samhain blog in my feed!
Plus you know, everyone made fun of my chicken salad on twitter for a while. LOL
Great stuff. Now I’m off to write the story that just came to mind from the dog going to the ER.