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Tips for finding story ideas

Sitting at your computer staring at a blank page is one of the most difficult times for a writer. Perhaps you've just finished one story and want to begin another, but are out of ideas and no matter how hard you sit and think nothing comes to you.

This happens to every writer and we soon realise that ideas aren't always going to drop into our head from nowhere, although of course, it's wonderful when that does happen. Most of the time though, we need a little help to form our ideas and there are some excellent ways of doing this. Below I give have devised four exercises that might be of help.

EXERCISE ONE

Think of a sentence; any sentence and then ask yourself questions about it as in the examples below:

She pulled back the curtain and looked out. A sudden gasp caught in her throat.

Where was the window she was looking out of? Was it her home or someone else's? Did she even know where she was? What made her gasp? Was it a gasp of delight or of fear? What would cause that delight or fear if she were at home? What would cause that delight or fear if she didn't know where she was? Who was she? Was she young or old? Was she married? Did she have children? Did she have a job?

He called out, but there was no one there.

Who was he? Again was he young or old, married or single. What job did he do? What did he look like, what type of personality did he have? Who was he calling to?
Where was he? Why was there no one else there? Why did he need someone else? Was he injured? Was he trapped or lost?

She looked towards Helen and tears began to well up in her eyes.

Who is she? Who is Helen? Why did she have tears in her eyes? Was it because of Helen? Did Helen tell her something she didn't want to hear or did Helen tell her something that made her so happy she cried? Was she just about to tell Helen something and it was that that was making her cry? Had something terrible happened to her; or something very good? Where are they? Are they in a fantasy world or the real world?

As you can see from these examples, asking yourself questions like this about simple sentences can help you to form ideas in your mind. Keep trying this with different sentences until one of the questions triggers something and an idea comes to you.

EXERCISE TWO

Write down short descriptions of several people of various ages and genders, e.g. middle aged, working class man, well-off young woman, or shy young man. Do several of them and put them on separate pieces of folded paper and put

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