Mining Story Ideas

by Pam Hillman

How many times have you read the headlines in a newspaper or from an online source and thought, “well, that was interesting?”

But how many times were you able to take that small snippet in a headline or an event and turn it into a full-fledged story? Can every incident become a novel?

Maybe, maybe not.

Pssst… in the hands of a Mary Connealy or a Ruth Logan Herne, I’d say that just about any heading or topic could be turned into a full-fledged novel. :)

So, just for fun, I browsed some topics online. So many of them are extremely boring and don’t even warrant reading the article.

Okay, let’s mostly take all the cooking and recipe articles off the table. Sure, some of us write and read about cooks and cooking, but it’s doubtful that an article or recipe is going to send us running to our laptops to pound out a story about a French chef trained in Paris and a road-kill country cook from backwoods Mississippi. But, such a story would be quite interesting.

Now this subject heading caught my eye. But is there anything of substance to be found? (Sorry, this article turned out to be LONG, but I still included it.) If interested, read/skim it here.

Yes, this article had my mind thinking of characters who speak different languages trying to learn to communicate with each other; or two scientists who cannot agree on anything, but have to work together. Or a group of anthropologists who find an entire tribe of seemingly color-blind natives. Lots of possibilities here, but still it's a stretch because it's very broad and there isn't anything to really make you sit up and say "aha"!

Link to article

Well, this article was kind of interesting, but ideas for stories just didn’t JUMP out at me when I read it. Sure, it might be a good article to read to help with character development, but not necessarily for those big picture ideas. Moving on...

As I pondered why I was having a hard time finding just the right headings that would make us as authors sit up and take notice, I realized that I was looking in the wrong places, and my focus was too broad.

What I needed was human interest stories. Yes, we’re cooking now! I took screenshots of just the headlines for several human interest stories from People Magazine and every one of them jumpstarted my thoughts in several directions for story ideas.

All of these headings are about somebody, or a group of people. All of them jumped out at me with potential for story ideas. I especially liked the one about kids interrupting Zoom meetings. Oh, the fun someone could have writing a Rom Com where the hero is suddenly thrust into Zoom meetings and needs a nanny for his kids or nieces and nephews. I can see the chaos now, as well as the "KISS" Zoomed to the entire office. lol

So, yeah, reading recipes, or political squabbling, or the top ten ways to grow your investment portfolio won’t necessarily generate compelling stories. But delve into the headlines of human interest stories and you’ll have more ideas than you can shake a stick at!

Maybe you have all the ideas you'll ever need tucked into your folders, so this isn't necessarily about searching for stories, but about those that just JUMP out at you when you're not even actively looking. So, where do your ideas come from? The news? A snippet of something on Facebook or Twitter? A sermon? A phrase in another book? Something a friend or family member says in passing?

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com