CornerScribe

Where do you get your ideas?

How many times have you heard this question? Even worse, how many times have you felt your own creative well running dry? I’m a firm believer of two things.

1. Generating ideas is very much like priming a pump. The more you do it, even if it’s a struggle at first, the more they’ll come to you.
2. You positively, absolutely MUST generate a certain amount of trash in order to get to the good stuff. I’m convinced that there’s some karmic formula at work. If you wait until you get a good idea, then give up now. You have to accept the ideas as they come, and eventually there’ll be a good one in the mix.

So, how do I get ideas? I’ve been known to mine the news for novel and short story ideas, and there’s no shortage of material there.

California’s Lethal Injectin Fiasco

This one just begs for a science fiction plot, in my opinion. How about…a society is faced with the need to find an effient, humane execution method. You could do a Logan’s Run take on this. Or, it might be interesting to explore what causes a society to need a new execution method.

Another approach might be drama or romance, if that’s your genre of choice. What if the spouse of a criminal watches the condemned suffer through a botched execution? How would the guards or the executioner react to such an event?

Prostitute Killings

This one is an obvious candidate for crime drama or even horror, but what else might we do with it?

Don’t send me hate mail for this (I’m not suggesting the situation is even remotely humorous), but if you’re willing to exercise a bit of creative license, you could turn this into a dark humor piece. Assume you have a man (or woman) who’s completely inept in the romance department. Driven by frustration, he decides to become a famous serial killer…. and fails just as miserably at that.

Just about any story can be twisted in any way you like. I don’t feel compelled to stick with the facts at all. What’s the fun in that anyway? All I really need is a boost sometimes, and for that, the news headlines is as good a place to look as any.