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3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas 

by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ (mailto:shery@writesparks.com)
 
 
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!
 
 
Copyright 2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
 
Shery is the creator of WriteSparks! - a software that generates over 10 *million* 
Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks! Lite for fr*e -  
http://writesparks.com

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