Developing Ideas into Stories, Audience, Ask "What If", Call for Submissions for Writing by Kids, Writing Greeting Cards

An idea for a story just popped into your head. A phrase, a feisty character, or maybe a situation. The more you thought about it, the more the story played like a movie in your mind. Days, weeks, even months passed and the story wouldn't go away. Like a pesky mosquito, it buzzed around in your brain. Sound familiar?

Writers use many techniques to develop story ideas. Some let stories mentally evolve until the characters are strong enough to come to life on paper. Others take an idea and imme...