Where to Find Ideas for Stories and Novels
Combing the Daily Newspaper for ideas: March 17, 2010
I’ve come up with some of my best ideas clipping the daily newspaper. I’ve written a novel, using the Jodi Huisentruit kidnapping as an inspiration. She was a TV anchorperson who was kidnapped in front of her apartment building at four-thirty in the morning. They never found her. I also found one about a guy who rides the freight trains every summer. He’s a perfectly normal guy otherwise. He just likes to hop the freights and go for a ride. I’m still working on that one. I’ve got the hobo vernacular down. There are books about that. Anyway here are some possibilities I found in today’s paper:
1. March Madness: On my football board, the guys are all talking about bracketology as if it were the stock market. Can you imagine a person who lives, breaths and eats sports? I know it’s been done in several movies, most notably “The Diner,” but it’s definitely not a cliché.
2. There’s some hypocrisy going on in the Republican party regarding Nancy Pelosi’s “Deemed passed” idea. Gingrich used it a lot more than the Democrats are. Maybe do this from a Congressional page’s point of view.
3. Lots of flood threats going on in Minnesota. Considering the earth quake in Haiti and the one in Chili, what would that be like? Fargo, North Dakota, seems to go through this every year. High school kids are excused from school to help sandbag. Knowing them, it must be like party time. Maybe not. Maybe they’re more serious than we think. Explore the issue.
4. Health care issue. I’m going through some stuff myself right now with arthritis in my neck. When did you first notice you were getting old? 22? 40? When you celebrated your silver wedding anniversary? When the kids flew the nest?
5. Doctor certified in new specialty. Sleep medicine specialty. This is in St. Cloud, Minnesota, population approx, 70,000. Narcolepsy is interesting for me. I once had a student who had it. Not being able to sleep must be hell.
6. Suicides in the Ivy league. “Cornell Takes Steps After Gorge Deaths.” Do you realize how hard it is to get into an Ivy League school? These are privileged kids with the world by the tail. What could provoke them, other than flunking out?
7. Dentist accused of assault and battery. He used paper clips instead of stainless steel posts inside the teeth of root canal patients. Isn’t root canal bad enough? Protagonist would be the patient with the paper clips.
8. Comics page. Danae in “Non Sequitor” gets detention for insisting that all boys are booger brains, including historical figures.
9. “Tiger Will Return for Masters.” Is there really such a thing as sexual addiction? Aren’t just about all guys addicted to sex?
10. “Brazen Conn. Warehouse Heist Nets 75 Million in Pills.” Thieves cut a hole in the roof of a warehouse, rappelled inside and scored one of the biggest hauls of its kind---antidepressants and other prescription drugs, most likely headed for overseas black market. Enough to fill a tractor trailer. What kind of mind would think this up? Definitely unique.
I’ve come up with some of my best ideas clipping the daily newspaper. I’ve written a novel, using the Jodi Huisentruit kidnapping as an inspiration. She was a TV anchorperson who was kidnapped in front of her apartment building at four-thirty in the morning. They never found her. I also found one about a guy who rides the freight trains every summer. He’s a perfectly normal guy otherwise. He just likes to hop the freights and go for a ride. I’m still working on that one. I’ve got the hobo vernacular down. There are books about that. Anyway here are some possibilities I found in today’s paper:
1. March Madness: On my football board, the guys are all talking about bracketology as if it were the stock market. Can you imagine a person who lives, breaths and eats sports? I know it’s been done in several movies, most notably “The Diner,” but it’s definitely not a cliché.
2. There’s some hypocrisy going on in the Republican party regarding Nancy Pelosi’s “Deemed passed” idea. Gingrich used it a lot more than the Democrats are. Maybe do this from a Congressional page’s point of view.
3. Lots of flood threats going on in Minnesota. Considering the earth quake in Haiti and the one in Chili, what would that be like? Fargo, North Dakota, seems to go through this every year. High school kids are excused from school to help sandbag. Knowing them, it must be like party time. Maybe not. Maybe they’re more serious than we think. Explore the issue.
4. Health care issue. I’m going through some stuff myself right now with arthritis in my neck. When did you first notice you were getting old? 22? 40? When you celebrated your silver wedding anniversary? When the kids flew the nest?
5. Doctor certified in new specialty. Sleep medicine specialty. This is in St. Cloud, Minnesota, population approx, 70,000. Narcolepsy is interesting for me. I once had a student who had it. Not being able to sleep must be hell.
6. Suicides in the Ivy league. “Cornell Takes Steps After Gorge Deaths.” Do you realize how hard it is to get into an Ivy League school? These are privileged kids with the world by the tail. What could provoke them, other than flunking out?
7. Dentist accused of assault and battery. He used paper clips instead of stainless steel posts inside the teeth of root canal patients. Isn’t root canal bad enough? Protagonist would be the patient with the paper clips.
8. Comics page. Danae in “Non Sequitor” gets detention for insisting that all boys are booger brains, including historical figures.
9. “Tiger Will Return for Masters.” Is there really such a thing as sexual addiction? Aren’t just about all guys addicted to sex?
10. “Brazen Conn. Warehouse Heist Nets 75 Million in Pills.” Thieves cut a hole in the roof of a warehouse, rappelled inside and scored one of the biggest hauls of its kind---antidepressants and other prescription drugs, most likely headed for overseas black market. Enough to fill a tractor trailer. What kind of mind would think this up? Definitely unique.
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