Freelancing for Pleasure and Profit

Where do you get the ideas you write about? I'm frequently asked this question, as people tend to be amazed at the ideas that seemingly pour forth from my mind. Granted, I have an interesting family and we do some interesting things, so many of my ideas are created right at home. However, I do have one more source of ideas for articles and short stories.

I keep a Writer's Idea Box. In truth, it's simply a plastic bin that is filled with clippings from newspapers and magazines. Whenever I can't freely think of a topic, I thumb through the ideas in my bin, and within minutes typically have my topic and am well on my way to writing my article or story.

As a writer, I read a lot. I subscribe to more than thirty print publications. I read when I get up in the morning... I try to fit in reading an article or two throughout the day, and reading is generally one of the last things I do before I turn out my lights at night. There are always stacks of magazines and newspapers on the floor next to the bed, in the kitchen, and surrounding my desk.

Why so many? Writers need to be apprised of situations, trends, politics, health issues, fashion, newsworthy events, and entertainment. We need to know how people tick, and reading about many different kinds of people helps us to learn. Reading also keeps a writer's vocabulary sharp and endlessly increasing.

Often when reading a story or article I am intrigued by a certain facet of it that hasn't been written about in depth. I then cut out the article and place it in my Writer's Idea Box. Sometimes I read something that is far removed from the article I'm reading, and I clip that as well, as it will undoubtedly lend itself to something I'm writing later on. I also cut out photos from magazines and newspapers. So much can be written about a picture, as seen through a writer's eyes. Two writers can look at the very same picture, and write entirely different things.

Start your Writer's Idea Box today. When you read your morning or afternoon newspaper, try one or more of the following exercises:

1. Cut out a picture of a person. Show it to five different people. Ask them to tell a short story about the person. Write all of their statements down, and paperclip them to the picture.
2. Cut out four different classified advertisements. Make up a story about the person who placed the ad. Maybe add why they are selling the items they've advertised.
3. Cut out an obituary. Write a short story about the person's life or their death.
4. Cut out an article about a ball game. Re-write it so that the winning team actually loses the game.
5. Cut out interesting captions and headlines. Don't read the story that accompanies them. Instead write your own.

There are many more exercises like these. In fact probably every writer has a few in their own bag of tricks. The idea of the Writer's Idea Box is to fuel your thoughts. Sometimes the obvious things are the hardest to see.

Make it a habit to save interesting ideas you read about. One clipping in my box that I have yet to write about describes an elderly man's attempt at locating a brother's grave. He had never been told the child existed, and he had in fact died prior to this man's birth. Yet he pieced together things he'd heard from different relatives, and wound up finding the tiny grave marker in Bangor, Maine.

I found this to be intriguing for a couple of reasons. There was a mysterious element to the story. I am originally from Bangor, Maine, and know the exact location of the cemetery. And I found it fascinating that an eighty-year old man would undertake such an enormous project. It must have had a profound impact on him to learn of this sibling.

I really enjoy my Writer's Idea Box. I draw on the clippings inside to fuel my own ideas. I often have a different take away on the article. ( A take away is what the reader is left with, what they "take away" from reading the article.) And I have an insatiable appetite to know the how's, where's, when's, who's, and why's of everything. I guess that's one of the reasons I'm a writer!