By: Paul Lima

Many aspiring writers ask me: “Where do your ideas come from?” They read the articles or short stories on my web site (www.paullima.com) and they want to know how I develop story ideas. They know they want to write but they aren’t sure where to find ideas that will help them get started.

That’s a difficult question to answer because ideas come from so many places. For my fiction, ideas come from my memories, from incidents friends or relatives have been involved in, from overhearing snippets of conversation on the street or in restaurants. They come from reading newspaper articles or from asking simple “what if…” questions, such as “What if a teacher told his students to write first person fiction and then believed one of the stories he read?” The result of that “what if…” question became The Last Bang, and is on my website (www.paullima.com/cw).

Story ideas for my non-fiction come from chatting with entrepreneurs, reading media releases, reading a variety of publications and from walking my dog. In fact, you can read an article on how walking my dog helps me develop article ideas: Ideas, Inspiration and Dogs (www.paullima.com/articles/ww-1.html).

Since ideas are all around us, what is most important is what you do when an idea hits. Because if you don’t capture it, you just might lose it.

Here is what I suggest: Start a writer’s journal. You may want to use a notebook or a file on your computer. Whatever the case, it should be easily accessible, and it should be where you jot down notes, observations, actions and reactions and ideas. It can also be a place where you do any writing exercises that you read about.

In addition, it would be a place where you do your daily journaling. When I say “daily journaling”, I am not talking about keeping a diary. I am talking about 10 to 20 minutes of free writing, writing without purpose or focus. Why should you do this? You will find that making writing part of your daily routine will improve your ability to write. It will also help you establish the discipline that is required if you are want to write a short stories, a novel, an autobiography or non-fiction articles.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it will help you almost unconsciously discover themes, images and ideas that you can use for writing stories and articles. I don’t know how else to say it, but if you spend 10 to 20 minutes each morning or evening engaged in free writing (also known as freefall*), themes, images, settings, characters, situations and ideas will appear. Over time, you may find that some of them appear repeatedly in your journal. These recurring themes may become the bones over which you layer the flesh of poetry, short stories, a novel, essays, letters to the editor, columns or articles.

It will be your job to recognize which ones you should use in your writing outside your journal. But that is part of what a writer does: find many possibilities and chose what to focus on. So go ahead and start a journal. See where it takes you. See what ideas it feeds you. Learn how to listen to your voice and how to discover your own ideas. Because no matter where they come from, they are not your ideas until you see them as such, and write them down.

* You can read a blog post on freefall here: http://paullima.com/blog/?p=961

Paul Lima is a freelance writer, writing trainer, and author. You can find out more about his books on creative writing, business writing and the business of freelance writing here – www.paullima.com/books. Visit Paul’s blog on the business of freelance writing at www.paullima.com/blog.