Find Ideas For Your Next Story

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…I know my friend Katy was at one of my short storyathons where we write a short story in a weekend, we walked around downtown and she saw a fountain. She was inspired to write a story called the Last Fish in the Fountain, all about a fish who witnesses a murder and tries to help the police. So, look at the things around you. Could any of them be an inspiration for a story?

If none of those things work, then consider a story prompt. NYC Midnight has these fun challenges where they give you a genre, an item, and a location. I like these it forces to try genres I’ve never written before. It’s the reason I have fractured fairy tales about a kick ass Cinderella. 

Jim Tritten author of Kato’s Grand Adventure had this to share about story ideas.  I have done really well finding new ideas with Sonja Dewing’s Duckathons (he’s talking about my short storyathons where we have a time limit to start writing a story and publish it on the weekend) “Whether in her event space or on the train, I have risen to the challenges of a prompt and a limited amount of time to git it dun. Each time I participated, I wrote, published, and had the story recognized as an award-winner. Thanks, Sonja.” Well, you are welcome Jim.

That’s another way to force a story out of you is to have a time limit. Maybe try getting a story done for a contest, or try one of the NYC Midnight challenges. 

If you’re looking for something to start you off, here’s an idea for a story. I want you to think of something weird or fun that happened in your childhood.Then I want to add in something you wouldn’t normally see, like a chicken standing on a stove, a lion sitting on a white couch, or a dirty rusty wrench sitting on a clean kitchen counter. And I want you to combine these ideas into a single story. 

So by taking something that really happened and mixing something else, you create a feeling of reality in your story.

Now, Cheryl Cryer asked me to talk about how to pick a story when you have too many ideas. That will be the next episode.

Notes:

Jim Tritten – award-winning author of Kato’s Grand Adventure

Katy Hammel – award- winning author of The Last Fish in the Fountain

Sonja Dewing – author of The Glass Stilettos: A Fractured Fairy Tale

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