Quick and Easy Ways to
Generate Story Ideas
by: Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
There are many ways you
can generate ideas you can use for your stories, articles and other
creative pieces. Start with the three ways given below:
1. Put Your 5 Senses to
Work
A simple but effective
way to generate fresh ideas from a single concept, idea or object is
to describe or illustrate it using the 5 senses -- sight, smell,
touch, taste, sound.
For you to do: Generate
5 specific images or concrete examples (one example for each sense)
for the following:
-
vindication (what's the smell of vindication? how does it taste? how
does it sound? what does it look like? how does it feel?)
-
hesitation
-
celebration
2. Take Advantage of
Your Conflicts
Conflict is a part of
life. It's also a source of creativity. You only need to look at
yourself and examine your experiences to come up with ideas based on
conflicts.
For you to do: What's
stopping you from doing something? Who is in the way of you getting
what you want? What's stopping you from taking a career leap?
Brainstorm for conflicts in your life and come up with at least 15 in
your list.
3. It's OK to Call
People Names
Generate nicknames or
terms that capture the lifestyles, attitudes or characteristics of
certain groups of people.
For example, the
nicknames I came up for the kind of people I encountered on the bus
when I used to commute to work and back were: space-hog, slumper,
fidgeter and refined. The terms described how the people on the bus
behaved as they sat. [They were useful because I was able to avoid the
space-hogs and the fidgeters when choosing a seat. Sitting beside a
slumper was all right, since most slumpers kept their slumps within
their space ;o)]
For you to do: Generate
nicknames or terms for the following groups of people:
-
cashiers
-
waiters
-
teachers
-
employees
-
actors
Begin using these 3
simple ways of generating ideas today. Before long, you'll be churning
out one idea after another with ease. That's creativity at work!
About The Author
Copyright (c) 2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ Shery
is the developer
of creative, motivating and fun e-mail courses for writers. Sign up
and take an e-mail course today...free!
http://writingbliss.com
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