Ah, the age-old question. Every non-writer wonders this, and writers frequently hear the question as a result.
"Where
do you get your ideas?"
Where, indeed?
From all around you.
The key to having ideas for stories
is to start thinking of yourself as a writer, and a certain kind of writer. Then put your subconscious to work. The best part
of this process, and the worst part, is that it runs in the background, always there, always humming away.
What it
means is that you will find ideas from anything and everything. Whether you are watching TV, reading an article in your state
historical society's monthly magazine, or even thinking about nothing, your subconscious is working on the question of what
you can write about, and is constantly coming up with ideas.
I have had ideas while watching the aforesaid TV, while
reading the aforesaid historical society monthly magazine, while working on novels, and even while reading a model railroading
book. (I have entertained an idea for a series of novels about a railroad police detective, so my subconscious sometimes gives
me ideas for stories that would be suitable for such a character.)
The problem, of course, is that you may have more
ideas than you will have time to write about. I know I have that problem. However, I consider it a good problem to have.
Of course, the hard part of writing is not having the idea: it is turning the idea into a story. I have enough ideas that,
if the well ran dry, I would still have stuff to write about for a long time.
What if hit men had a quality control
representative?
That's an idea I had once. (As a matter of fact, this is the one I had while watching TV, that
I mentioned earlier.) I turned it into a short-short story, available from my writer's pages at Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
and Smashwords, if you're interested to see how it turned out
So, to reiterate, my advice is to decide you are a writer,
and decide what kind of writer you are. Then just let your subconscious work on the matter.
Then, before too long,
you will be reading, or watching TV or a movie, or thinking about a discussion you had, or indeed, anything, and you will
find yourself thinking, Hey, that would make a good story.
From that moment on, you won't have to worry
about ideas.
