A creative mind

Five places you can find inspiration

Inspiration to write can be found almost anywhere if you know how to look for it. Here are five ideas for places you can find writing ideas.

1. The conversation of strangers

Half heard conversations on the bus, at the shops, or really anywhere can be fertile sources of story ideas. All you have is a breif snippet of a conversation. But now you get to use your imagination – how did that conversation come to be? Who did what and where? What happened? Who was talking about it and what happens next?

Bingo. Suddenly you have a story.

2. The news

The news is often full of strange events and questions left unanswered. With the power of your imagination, you can discover the stories behind the headlines. Before you know it, you have another story.

Especially good are those strange stories that are used to fill up the headlines on a slow news day.

3. Asking “what if?”

Many a great Science Fiction story started when an author asked “what if?” You don’t need to be limited to science fiction – many stories can start as a question.

What if we could clone people? What if the Internet just shut down and never started again? What if physics changed and electricity just no longer worked?

4. Going outside

A long slow walk to nowhere in particular can be an endless fount of ideas. Take your time and be sure to really soak in the world arround you. Use your imagination to fill in the details of the unlikely, weird, odd, quirky, or unusual.

The world is full of many unique and striking details that can be the seeds of a great story idea. Take a walk and see what the muse brings you.

5. The muse of last resort

If all else fails browse the library of writing prompts at The Muse of Last Resort. There are some truly amazing writing prompts there. Also, some that I wrote.

There are lots of other places where you can find writing prompts. For some, they just work.

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