Musings from a Writer’s Brain—Research, the Dental Chair, and Linda Shenton Matchett

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Christian Historic Romance, historical research, Legacy of Love (Keepers of the Light), Linda Shenton Matchett, Musings from a Writer’s Brain, research, writing

I had dental work done recently which required the use of local anesthesia. The procedure took about forty-five minutes, and I could tell by the amount of vigor used by the dentist that without the numbing effects of the drug, I would have been uncomfortable or possibly even in pain. As I lay in the chair, I got to wondering what dentistry was like in the past, specifically the mid-1800s, because that’s the kind of crazy writerly brain I have. As a result, shortly after getting home, I fired up my computer and dug around to learn about the dental industry of 150 years ago. Let’s just say I’m glad I’m living in the modern era!

I conduct my research in a variety of ways from reading autobiographies and watching oral history interviews to talking with subject matter experts. These folks, who are at the top of their fields, answered copious questions such as:

• What would a physician have carried in her traveling “doctor’s bag” in the 1940s? What medicines were available to treat wounds?
• What do you do for someone who is choking? (Spoiler alert: Not pound them on the back.)
• What tasks are require to run a ranch and/or farm in the mid-west? What sort of disasters can occur? What farm machinery was available in the mid-1800s?
• When did indoor plumbing arrive in small towns across America?
• How did one become a midwife in the 1930s and 1940s? What sort of licensing, if any was involved?
• When did the police begin to use fingerprints to solve cases? What is the best way to hide a body?
• How close can a person be to a bomb and not get killed?
• What’s it like to fly a plane? Can someone land a plane who has never piloted a plane?
• How did the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) train their spies during WWII?

I also try to have hands-on experience in order to accurately portray scenes in my stories, and a few of the things I did in the name of research are:

• Trained with a retired Army captain to learn how to fire several different kinds of weapons
• Spent time in a lighthouse learning how do to the keeper’s tasks
• Ridden in an antique passenger train and in a horse-drawn wagon
• Went through training exercises from the Special Operations Executive’s manual (Britain’s OSS)
• Learned Morse code and used a telegraph key (that I got for my birthday!)

The more research I do, the greater appreciation I have for our ancestors who did the best they could with what they had. My research also makes me realize how easy I have it these days with all the modern conveniences and technologies available.

Which of these topics do you find most intriguing?

About the Author:

Linda Shenton Matchett writes about ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by. A volunteer docent and archivist for the Wright Museum of WWII, Linda is working with the curator to create her first exhibit that will be displayed next season. She is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry. Linda has lived in historic places all her life and is now located in central New Hampshire where her favorite activities include exploring historic sites and immersing herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

Connect with Linda on her Social Media at her Website/Blog: Facebook: Pinterest

 

Legacy of Love (Keepers of the Light)

by Linda Shenton Matchett

Will their love come at a cost?

Escaping Boston to avoid a marriage of convenience aimed at garnering society’s respect for her family name in the shadow of her father’s war profiteering, Meg Underwood settles in Spruce Hill, Oregon. Despite leaving behind the comforts of wealth, she’s happy. Then the handsome Pinkerton agent, Reuben Jessop, arrives with news that she’s inherited her aunt’s significant estate, and she must return home to claim the bequest. Meg refuses to make the trip. Unwilling to fail at his mission, Reuben gives her until Christmas to prove why she should remain in Spruce Hill and give up the opportunity to become a woman of means. When he seems to want more than friendship, she wonders if her new-found wealth is the basis of his attraction.

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Musings from a Writer’s Brain-A Dream is Just a Dream: or is it? by Mary Gant Bell

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Dreams, essay about dreams, journaling, Mary Gant Bell, Musings from a Writer's Brain, Tell Me it was Just a Dream, writing

courtesy of pixabay

Blame it on menopause or the full moon. All I know is – I have weird dreams. As I get older, they become more vivid. I wake up remembering every detail and emotion. This dream followed that pattern. Vivid colors. Clearly defined people. Pain. Suffering. Unity. And survival.

The only difference between this dream and the other hormonally-induced visions I have was that this one continued for four nights. Night two picked up where night one ended. Night three picked up where night two stopped. You get the idea. It went on for four consecutive dates. Each morning found me scribbling notes on the journal I keep in my nightstand.

It was a disturbing dream. For days, I caught myself pondering its meaning. Was it just a dream or more like a prophecy? Did it predict the future or replay some past, long-forgotten event? Had God revealed His truth to me? I spent significant time trying to decipher what God wanted me to learn from these four – but really one – dreams.

Then it occurred to me that maybe God intended for me to be His messenger. Perhaps I was to tell the story in addition to learn from the story. It could be that’s just what my author’s brain assumed. But once I started putting the words on the page, the point of the dreams flowed like an avalanche down the side of a mountain. (Although at times it felt like blood pouring from a head wound, too.) It came together very quickly and effortlessly. Even though it had been months since the actually dream, I knew this was a story God wanted others to hear.

 Tell Me It Was Just A Dream is the story revealed to me in those dreams. The book is in four parts, as the dreams came to me. The book, like the dreams, ends with an important take-away for all ages to apply. The message is as timeless as it is important – and urgent – for our world.

Order your copy today and begin changing the world. You won’t regret it.

 

 

Tell Me It Was Just A Dream

by Mary Gant Bell

It’s been said that everything can change in an instant. Valerie Walker can testify to this. One day her idyllic life was consumed with the mundane tasks involved with being a mother of three active children and the wife of the mayor. From one breath to the next, all of that changed.

Now Valerie struggles to salvage the shattered pieces of her life. But where does she begin? Her mother’s heart wants to comfort her husband and children. Unfortunately, their very survival must take precedence over luxury. If Valerie and her husband cannot keep everyone alive, there’s no point in soothing their souls.

Will they survive this tragedy, this shocking surprise? If they do, will they be able to rebuild the peaceful lifestyle they all enjoyed before the catastrophe uprooted them from their tranquility?

Or will this disaster tear them apart?

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 About the Author:

Mary Gant Bell began her writing career about fifteen years ago to give voice to the ideas rattling in her brain. She started with genealogy books and later Christian fiction romance novels. She married a man who craves adventure. Together they parent one daughter and a gaggle of attention-seeking cats. When Mary is not writing, she quilts or cleans seashells from her latest trip to the beach. She never learned to cook, so don’t show up at dinner time. She’d much rather chase her characters from chapter to chapter than preheat the oven.

Social Media  Facebook: Instagram: mary_gant_bell_author  Lulu Author Page

 

 

 

Musings From a Writer’s Brain by Amy R Anguish

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Amy R Anguish, COVID-19 writing, essay, Faith and Hope, Musings from a Writer's Brain, writing, Writing ideas

 

Temptation to Switch

 

With the world in chaos and feeling very much like we’re living in a dystopian novel right now, this romance writer is having all sorts of ideas running through my head. I read across various genres, including fantasy. Needless to say, a situation like this is triggering my imagination to try my hand at a new type of writing.

So far, in my few years of being a published author, I write Contemporary romance and women’s fiction. But I also have some friends who do write in the speculative genre, and we’re always bouncing ideas around to each other, as well as helping edit. Maybe they’re rubbing off on me?

But how can you not be tempted by this situation?

You could do a book where each chapter is from the POV of a different character, a peek into all the different lives and how they’re affected by a worldwide pandemic. This is the most tempting one to me.

There could be one where it’s a competition to see who can stockpile the most groceries from the limited supply.

What about one where the scientists are trying to find the perfect human to work with to test a new vaccine, but there’s no promise the person even exists? And then, they find one, but have to wait for so long before they’re sure it works … and the person dies before the time is up! Yikes!

Toilet paper wars.

And, of course, the household trapped together, and how long they’ll get along before their senile ancient uncle starts killing people. That one is way too dark for me.

But you get my drift. I’m always coming up with ideas to write, but it’s normally still in my main categories of romance and women’s fiction. Would people be more or less likely to want to read dystopian after living through something that feels like it?

Ah. The questions will probably remain unanswered for me. I’m too busy writing more romances to truly delve into any of these ideas, so feel free to use them for yourself!

In the meantime, if you need a book to take your mind off the craziness of the real world, take a peek at my book, Faith & Hope.

 

Faith and Hope

By Amy R Anguish

Hope needs more hope. Faith needs more faith. They both need a whole lot of love .Two sisters. One summer. Multiple problems. Younger sister Hope has lost her job, her car, and her boyfriend all in one day. Her well-laid plans for life have gone sideways, as has her hope in God. Older sister Faith is finally getting her dream-come-true after years of struggles and prayers. But when her mom talks her into letting Hope move in for the summer, will the stress turn her dream into a nightmare? Is her faith in God strong enough to handle everything? For two sisters who haven’t gotten along in years, this summer together could be a disaster, or it could lead them to a closer relationship with each other and God. Can they overcome all life is throwing at them? Or is this going to destroy their relationship for good?

  Buy Link

About the Author

Amy R Anguish

Author of An Unexpected Legacy

Amy R Anguish grew up a preacher’s kid, and in spite of having lived in seven different states that are all south of the Mason Dixon line, she is not a football fan. Currently, she resides in Tennessee with her husband, daughter, and son, and usually a bossy cat or two. Amy has an English degree from Freed-Hardeman University that she intends to use to glorify God, and she wants her stories to show that while Christians face real struggles, it can still work out for good.

Follow her at http://abitofanguish.weebly.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/amyanguishauthor  Or https://twitter.com/amy_r_anguish

And check out the YouTube channel she does with two other authors, Once Upon a Page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEiu-jq-KE-VMIjbtmGLbJA)

 

 

 

 

Musings from a Writer’s Brain–My Super Power by Carol Browne

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Carol Browne, essay, Musingsfrom a Writer's Brain, writing

by Carol Browne

The day I discovered my superpower is a memory undimmed by time. It was a life-changing event and I doubt I will ever forget it. Some of the details are sketchy, though, like how old I was. I know I was in my first year of primary school so I must have been about seven.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

I can still see the classroom, the table where I was sitting when it happened, and the chalk-smeared blackboard, but apart from the teacher being female, I don’t recall much about her. I regret that because I have never been able to thank this woman for making me aware of a talent I didn’t know I had. She set me on a path I am still following almost sixty years later.

It all started when I wrote a poem. Where did I get the idea from to do that? It’s a mystery, and it seems strange to me now that I even knew what a poem was, or that it should have meter and rhyme. I also wrote it in verses of four lines each. The subject was a crocus, something I must have seen and wondered at, but again I’ve no idea why this little plant should have inspired me to put pen to paper the way I did, nor why I chose to present the poem to my teacher. Having composed this no doubt unsophisticated piece of doggerel, that was that as far as I was concerned. I didn’t expect what was to follow.

I was at my table, scribbling away with one of those thick blue biros they used to hand out, when the teacher announced that Carol Browne had written a wonderful poem and it was going on the wall so everyone could see it. In fact, she advised my classmates to look at it if they wanted to know how to write a poem. She came over to me and congratulated me on my work and I was astonished, delighted and taken aback by this praise and recognition. As a shy and lonely child with physical defects only time would cure, I found myself suddenly elevated to a status I could not have aspired to in my wildest dreams. I never received validation for anything before but now I was worthy because of a talent not everyone else possessed. I could manipulate words. I could bend them to my will. I could do this because I was a wordsmith. This was my gift, my specialty. This was my superpower.

From that moment on I was a writer.

Born in Stafford in the UK, Carol Browne was raised in Crewe, Cheshire, which she thinks of as her home town. Interested in reading and writing at an early age, Carol pursued her passions at Nottingham University and was awarded an honours degree in English Language and Literature. Now living and working in the Cambridgeshire countryside, Carol writes both fiction and non-fiction.

Stay connected with Carol on her website and blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Fun with Definitions

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Catherine Castle, redefining words, SMP Author blog, the English language, Word definitions, writing

Today I’m talking about definitions and with some fun examples of how they can change the meanings of whole sentences.

By Bebb, M.S. Wikimedia.com

The English language is nothing if not strange. Its homonyms and homophones can confuse anyone. Add synonyms to the mix and that’s a lot to learn. Here’s another twist you can add to the complexity of our language: the redefining of words throughout the ages. When I was a kid, sick meant you were ill, not feeling well as in “I’m too sick to go to school.” In the eighties, the word came to mean awful, terrible as in “She’s so sick. I hate her.” Today when the kids call something “sick” they’re not referring to germs, they’re making the word a compliment: “That concert was sick!”

As writers, we should consider the changing guard of words as a challenge and use them to add flavor to our books. This can be especially interesting if you want to put your out-of-time characters into a pickle when they try to communicate with characters from earlier historical eras.

Read these sentences I created using words that have changed over the years and see if you can figure out the real meanings. To continue reading click here and go to the SMP Author Blog site for the rest of the post.

A Writer’s Melody

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A Writer's Melody, Catherine Castle poetry, writing

A Writer’s Melody (c)

Scratch, scratch.

Dip.

Tap. Tap.

Scratch, scratch.

Swish, swish.

Zip, zip, zip.

Clackety, clack, clack.

Ching!

Zip.

Crinkle, crinkle.

Swoosh!

Ping!

A writer’s melody from years gone by.

Quill against parchment.

The dip of pen in ink.

The tap of quill against glass.

The swish of the drying agent on paper.

The placement of paper in the old typewriter.

The clack of keys pressed down hard.

The ringing bell that says you’ve reached the end.

The zip as you push the typewriter bar back.

The crinkle, swish, and ping of crumpled paper

as it flies into the metal wastebasket.

Sometimes I miss those old writing sounds, although I must admit I never wrote with a dip pen, only an ink pen. There is something solid and comforting about the feel of paper and pen beneath my hands. The way the ink rolls from the pen feeds my muse as the loops and swirls of cursive writing flow down the page. Pen and paper are still my favorite medium for creating poetry. Obliterating a bad line of verse with scribbled lines provides an emotional release you don’t get with backspacing. The ching of the typewriter bell signaling I’ve finished one more line or one more page makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something. The wastebasket overflowing with scrunched paper balls shows I’ve been working hard, maybe not successfully, but hard.

Today, like many other writers, I use a computer. I don’t hear the accompanying scratch of pen to paper as earlier writers did, a song of sorts to feed their muse. My writer’s song is the nearly soundless beat of keys being depressed, the soft click of the mouse, and the hum of the computer’s fan providing the accompaniment to my progress of the written word. I print each day’s work out to let me see my progress because a scrolling screen doesn’t’ provide as much satisfaction as a stack of paper, and because I don’t want to risk losing a day’s work to a computer crash.

As I think about the changes that have affected how we create books today, I wonder what melody future writers will hear as they labor over their “babies”. Will the written word be dictated instead of typed?  We can do that today, if one can speak clearly enough. My computer speech program gives me a mishmash of words that make no sense and often have me rolling on the floor in laughter, so it’s still easier to type. Or perhaps we will have advanced to the point where we merely think a sentence and it’s placed on a disc or flash drive or computer hard drive. Maybe there will be a 3-D printer that writers use to create their books. Program the printer and replicate your thoughts in a bound volume. Perhaps we will have an embedded chip in our brain that transfers our thoughts, corrects our mistakes, creates the perfect manuscript in the process, and then stores it on some storage facility in a virtual cloud ready to be formatted straight onto an E-book or I Phone, or computer watch, or directly to the brain of a waiting reader!

But then what fun would that be? No rewrites. No polishing to find that perfect word. No discovering those misplaced modifiers or homophones that make us howl with laughter or cower in embarrassment. And if the book goes directly to brain of waiting readers there’d be no book signings! Bummer.

I don’t know about you, but I like the old-fashioned way of writing. Give me a pen and paper, a typewriter, or a computer keyboard any old day. I’d rather create and recreate and recreate some more.  I love the writer’s melody of clacking keys and scratching of pen on paper. I even like the ping of rejected pages against the trash can. Call me crazy. But a writer has to draw the line somewhere.

No pun intended.

What about you? What writer’s melody do you hear when you create?

Ten Reasons to Write 20 Pages a Day

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Catherine Castle author, humor, lists, Ten Reasons to Write Twenty Pages a Day, writing

Ten Reasons to Write 20 Pages a Day © Catherine Castle

1. I don’t have time to cook, so I get dinner out.
2. I can skip exercise.
3. I can avoid housework.
4. I forget to eat, so I lose some weight.
5. My characters keep talking to me.
6. I don’t forget where I’m at and have to read the whole book again.
7. “The End” comes in less than a month.
8. I get bragging rights to the Book-in-a-month club.
9. My internal editor is overridden by the writing process.
10. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Do you have any more reasons you can add to this list?

Write a Letter and Reconnect

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April 2012, blog, Catherine Castle, communication, love letters, National Card and Letter Writing Month, presidential love letters, writing, writing letters

Long before twitter, face book, and email that flies through the Ethernet in seconds, before cell phones and texting, people communicated by writing long, newsy letters to one another. Back then (which really is only about 30 years ago), before all today’s technology, letters were the only way to communicate cheaply with family and friends far away. Pricey, long distance telephone calls cost by the minute and a stamp was only 5 cents. Before the telephone, communication choices were letters or the telegraph, which was also expensive. If you do the math a letter was the obvious choice.

Letter writing was an important ritual. You gathered your writing supplies, sat down at the desk or kitchen table with a cup of tea or coffee, and took the time to think about what you wanted to say, carefully crafting the words to make sure they meant exactly what you intended. If you had the time and the extra paper, you even wrote a first draft, because you didn’t want to send a scratched-out letter home to Mom, a pen pal, a boyfriend or husband, or a thank you note that looked like you hadn’t taken any care in the writing.

I remember being hundreds of miles from my family, too poor to afford a long distance call, unless someone was dying, and so homesick that it physically hurt at times. The weekly letters I received from my mother and my mother-in-law were life lines to me that I anxiously awaited. My mother-in-law always gave me a run-down of her weekly life, their dinners out, where they ate, what she ordered and a cook’s critique of the meal. When she started to run out of room she’d inch the words around the sides of the page until every blank space was covered. She often included news clips from the hometown paper she thought we’d enjoy. My mother kept me in touch with newsy bits of chitchat about my sisters and friends and family at my old church. I looked forward to those letters. I can’t tell you exactly what their content was, but I can say that the memory of receiving them has stayed with me over the years. The lovely loops on my mother-in-law’s handwriting and the chicken scratch letters of my mother’s letters were comforting, and they connected me to home and hearth and let me know I was loved.

And speaking of love …who among us doesn’t have a love letter or two we’ve kept through the years? I know I do—and that includes all those special cards and notes written by my daughter.

One of the most unique collection of love letters I’ve seen has been a collection of love letters written during World War II and highlighted online in Reminisce Magazine. The author of the letters not only wrote letters, but illustrated her envelopes as well, providing a unique look at the historical era of the time and an interesting mail call for all the soldiers in her beloved’s unit.

Love letters are some of the most celebrated letters and come from all walks of life: rich, poor, and presidential. If you want a glimpse into some Presidential love letters  consider checking out the presidential libraries or do an internet search on your favorite president to see what a softie he was when it came to love. One of the most prolific writers of love letters was John Adams. Between the years of 1762 and 1801, John and Abigail Adams exchanged over 1,100 letters during their courtship and James’ political career. That’s over 28 letters a year or almost a letter every two weeks. Considering how long it took for letters to arrive back then, that’s quite a feat!

Letters provide us with a unique look into history too. I’m currently reading Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. The letters, written beginning in 1909 to Elinore’s former employer, chronicle Elinore’s story of her new life near the Forest Reserve of Utah and provide a true-to-life glimpse of living as a homesteader in the early 1900s. I use my Christmas letters as a type of historical ledger for our family’s important events, chronicling vacations, birthdays, weddings, promotions, deaths, and any other event that I think is worth remembering. The Christmas letters may not fall into the same historical category as presidential letters, or pioneer letters, but they will be important someday to my daughter or grandchildren as a peek into our lives.

The U.S. Postal Service named April National card and letter writing month to “help Americans to rediscover the timeless and very personal art of letter writing.” So this month, make a memory. Turn off your computer, ditch your email, your cell phone, and stop texting. Get out your best pen and stationary, practice your cursive writing, stamp out or create some personalized cards and reconnect with someone on a more intimate level. You just might be surprised at how much fun it can be.

Do you have any memories about letters you wrote or received? When was the last time you wrote a real letter, not a long email?

Drive-Thru Ash Wednesday

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blog, Catherine Castle, Christian opinion article, Drive-thru Ash Wednesday, religious holidays, romance author, writing

Drive-thru Ash Wednesday–Convenience or Capriciousness?

 Wednesday morning on the news there was a blurb about a Cincinnati church conducting a “Drive-thru Ash Wednesday.”  Apparently, if you are too busy to attend church service or intimidated by going inside you could drive through and get your forehead ashed, thereby still participating in the ritual. The Drive-thru “service” conducted in the church parking lot at Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, includes ashes on your forehead, a church brochure and a Lenten booklet.

According to a number of news sources I checked this convenient “ashes to go” idea isn’t new. Express Ash Wednesday services have been conducted by Ashes on the Go,  a St. Louis based organization, since 2007, and a number of churches across the United States are offering express ashes in train, stations, in front of churches and other public places. The reasoning many clerics give for this don’t-break-a-sweat service is to take the ritual to people who don’t have the time or wouldn’t come to the service for one reason or another.

I’m all for convenience, and I’m all for taking the gospel to the world, but this seems a bit over the line for me. What’s next? Drive-thru Easter services or drive-thru Christmas Eve services? Or maybe it will be drive-thru baptisms where we all go through the church lawn sprinklers, or drive-thru Sunday services where we get coffee and a copy of a Bible verse and a prayer tossed into the car window.

Ash Wednesday, which signals the beginning of Lent, is meant to mark a day of repentance and the beginning of the 46 days before Easter. The ashes placed upon believers’ foreheads are a sign of mourning and repentance to God.  During Lent it’s common for believers to give up something for the 46 days before Easter as a sacrifice to show their penitence to God.

My church doesn’t celebrate Lent like the churches that hold Ash Wednesday services, nor do we give up something for Lent. But I certainly understand the purpose of these rituals. The whole Lenten season is about preparation for sacrifice. Believers are supposed to remember what Christ sacrificed for us sinners. Putting the sacredness of a season, meant as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice, right up there (or perhaps down there) with the class of a pony keg drive-thru is not something I would want to answer for in glory.

The something-is-better-than-nothing attitude that seems to be attached to this drive-thru idea would insult most of us it if were being applied to us. We don’t want others to give us second best and we certainly don’t want God to give us second best, even if we do deserve it.

If Christ could give His life for us then don’t you think He deserves more than a drive-thru in a parking lot or a pass-by on the streets as a reminder? I know I think so.

How do you feel about Drive Thru Ash Wednesday?

Finding Your Story Ideas

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articles, blog, Catherine Castle, ideas, writing, writing tips

Finding Your Story Ideas

by

Catherine Castle

 When I first started writing my biggest problem wasn’t grammar, or punctuation, or even the fact that I was a terrible typist (thank goodness for computers!). My biggest problem was finding something to write about. I’d read a story in the newspaper, smack myself on the forehead, and think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Then I went to a writer’s conference and heard Dennis Hensley speak. He talked about finding ideas, and said he had so many ideas that even if he wrote 24 hours a day, for the rest of his life, he’d never exhaust his supply. Since then I’ve been collecting idea tips. Here’s a few things that help me keep my idea pump primed.

 Keep an idea file.

I actually have several of these files. One is in a notebook I keep next to the bed. It has first drafts of poems, outlines of dreams that I’ve turned into story ideas, one-liners for greeting cards, dialogue for the interactive Back To Bethlehem drama that my husband and I wrote for our church, and snatches of song lyrics. All these things came to me in the middle of the night and I jumped up, ran into the bathroom and jotted them down.

I also have a similar notebook file in my purse. I take this little notebook and a pencil with me wherever I go. It’s been handy to jot down ideas from the preacher’s sermon, bits of conversation I overhear, a striking piece of scenery, or a person’s posture or looks that might come in handy. Anything that strikes me as interesting, unusual, or malleable goes into my little notebooks.

The other idea files I have are file folders crammed with bits of information. I’ve filed, articles I’ve ripped from newspapers and magazines, and copies of bibliography pages from the backs of books that have interested me. Tidbits of interesting information are scribbled on scraps of paper – info like the fact that Quakers didn’t trust either side in the Revolutionary War (believe it or not, but I’ve got a story idea from that one little nugget). I’ve got Arabian fairytales and an 89-cent book about Haunted Places (good for spinning ghost stories). I even have a side of a Cheerios cereal box with a list of Great Discoveries like the first roller coaster, the first skateboard, and the first yo-yo.

Look for the Interest Factor

Chances are if you find it interesting or have never heard it, then an editor, or your targeted reader, may find interesting too. Here are a few tidbits, from newspaper articles, I found particularly interesting:

*Blacks owning Blacks – Census records in Charleston show that there were 122 free blacks who owned slaves

*WWI enemies called a Christmas truce the first Christmas of the war, the soldiers sang carols to each other, exchanged gifts of food from home, played soccer between the shell holes and barbed wire and paid mutual foxhole visits

*There’s a nudist colony in Colerain Township

*Cincinnati’s Race Street was the place to drag race your horse and carriage in the 1880s, illegal because it endangered pedestrians, but done nonetheless. 

Did you know these tidbits? Got any ideas yet? I know I do!

Go To Children’s Programs

 Children’s programs are great places to get ideas, especially for children’s articles or stories. Like children’s books the information if pared down so you can easily digest it, and best of all, it’s always interesting! Even if you write for adults you can often find a great nugget of an idea that with a little digging can net you an adult-oriented story.

Don’t Throw Away The Junk Mail

 I know this is contrary to anything you’ve ever heard the organizer kings and queens say, but junk mail has interesting information sometimes. Some of the junk mail I’ve dropped in my idea file are letters from Private Islands Unlimited (where you can buy your own island); the Association of American Indians Affairs and other Indian junk mail (I’m interested in Indian culture and needs); and history book club circulars (they have unusual history book titles that pique my curiosity).

Read Widely

 I subscribe to a lot of magazines and I buy and read a lot of books. (Too many in fact, according to my husband and the credit card bill). Some reading is for personal enjoyment, some is writing related, and some is just meant as a place from which to glean ideas. Because I write for children, I choose a different kid magazine every year. I look for articles (or nuggets from articles) that I can translate into stories, or do my own interview and write a new story about the same subject. Stretch your boundaries and get a reading material that’s outside your normal interest. You might find some really interesting things to write about where you least expect it.

Look For Trivia and Anniversaries

 The annual Children’s Writer Guide, published by Children’s Writer, is a great source for anniversary and trivia information. Each issue has a full section of 200 idea starters dealing with facts, statistics, and little known information. For example, the richest pet in Hollywood was Ava Gardner’s corgi Morgan. Ava left him a monthly salary, his own limousine, and a maid. (Does that give you any ideas for a cute After School TV Special? – Dog against maid?) Do you know when the 100^th anniversary or the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade is? If you do, you’ve got the beginning of an article you can sell. The comic book was invented in the 20^th century. Do you know when its 100^th anniversary is? NASA was created in 1958 and is coming up on its 50^th anniversary in 2006. In 1952, the world’s first nuclear accident took place in Canada – 50 years ago this year. Got any ideas yet?

Steal a Plot and Make It Your Own

 I’ve heard it said that there are only seven basic story lines (or plots) in the world: man (or woman) against man, man against nature, man against himself, man against evil, man against time … Don’t ask me to name the rest of them because I can’t. The point here, however, is not to name them, but to tell you that the twists and turns, that you create in your story, make a plot new and fresh. Learn to ask, “What if?” Change the characters around. Change their challenges, the goals, internal and external conflicts. Change the setting.

Take the classic story of “Cinderella” – a story of true love where Prince Charming meets his true love, the “enslaved” and mistreated Cinderella. The plot was twisted when a male (Jerry Lewis) played the cinder-sweeping lead in “Cinderfella” and Princess Charming meets her true love. Make the fairly god mother a ditz whose spells go comically awry and you could have a Cinderella comedy– an entirely different story. Put in a bunch of mice, who help Cinderelly sew her dress and slip the key under the locked door to Cinderella at the last minute, and you have a Disney movie. Turn Prince Charming a scam artist pretending to be a prince from another country and you have another story still. Set your story in Transylvania, make Prince Charming a Prince Alarming and have Cinderella’s love for him (not his love for her) free him from his vampire bondage. One different element, or a combination of elements, can change a well-know story line into something uniquely yours.

Use your idea file creatively

 Everything you put in your idea file may not end up as a story or article. Sometimes just reading through what you’ve saved serves as a mental pump primer. You might not want to write another non-fiction article about the high-jumping forest firefighter, but he’d make a great hero. A story about the South might not focus on the black owning blacks idea, but it would make a great sub plot and possibly increase the story tension. You might not want to visit the little town in Paris that’s described in your idea file, but it might be a great place to set a story. Think “What if?” when you review your clips. Learn how to turn those ideas upside down and create something new.

 Ideas are all around you. The hard part is learning to tune into them. However, once you’ve figured it out, you’ll never stare at a blank screen wondering, “What can I write about?” Just open your idea file and prime the mental pump.

 Where do you find your story ideas and what have you created using them?

Finding Your Story Ideas© 2002  was previously published in under the name of Catherine Hershberger in the February 2002 Inspired newsletter and the May Undercover 2002