Amanda at From Ink to Ether has a great post up about finding ideas by reading magazines and seeing trends within the articles. It got me thinking about how we writers find ideas for our queries.
Like Amanda, I read trade magazines. Okay, not as thoroughly as she does, but I do read them. It’s great to see an article about Topic A that either just touches on or doesn’t address at all Topic B. For example, if I were to read a story on the nursing shortage and it had a statistic that said something like 80 percent of nurses are female, I’d be wondering if there’s a reverse sexism issue within the profession. I’d propose an article on male nurses and how sexism has hurt or helped their careers. (BTW, don’t bother writing this one – I just did.)
Another idea mill – press releases. It takes almost no effort whatsoever to contact a PR person or 12 through PRN Media and ask them to send releases to you. They’re thrilled because hey, how many people contact them and say “I will accept willingly those releases others delete without opening.” Well, maybe not verbatim, but you get the idea. And while a lot of releases are something akin to “Joe Shmoe has replaced retiring CEO Jack Black at ABC Company”, there are often PR people who go beyond this very basic release and actually send you article ideas. I just finished one based on a PR person’s idea. She was eager for me to talk with her expert, who’d just been hired to oversee the company’s sovereign wealth investment division. There was my article on sovereign wealth investments, which paid handsomely. While hers was just a suggestion that I talk with her expert to get the company spin, I was able to develop the article from that suggestion. Thank you, PR person!
Other places I get ideas – television. I just finished outlining the first half of a book based on one 15-second news report that had me wondering about the survivors of an accident.
Conversations with others can set the ideas in motion. I had a few ideas come from talking with someone who said, “You know, you should really look into writing something about X. It’s a big issue and it’s not getting much press.” (This is different than those people you call for an interview in which the topic has already been determined who suggest you’d be better off asking them questions about a different topic because they think it’s more interesting.)
Also, I take ideas from life. Today I was getting bloodwork to rule out Lyme Disease (I live in the land of the deer tick) and I saw signs that indicated what Medicare won’t pay for and what it will. It could easily lead to a story on the cost of retirement and how healthcare in general isn’t really taking care of anyone.
Where do you find your ideas?
Thanks for the link and nod, Lori!
Ideas really are everywhere. I find that I get hit with a lot of ideas while at the gym. Maybe it’s the fact that my brain is allowed to sit out for an hour and half that it decides to run full force, or maybe it’s the room full of everyday women doing an everyday thing that gets me to thinking about the things that effect us all.
I usually get my ideas while reading or watching tv. Something, usually unrelated, will pop into my head. I am not someone who is ever full of too many ideas, unfortunately.
I have this new notebook where I am starting to jot down ideas. Last night I got jotting down topics that are common and not specific (sun safety/baby proofing etc.) that I hope will just help trigger ideas when I need them.