Tip #1: Coming Up with Ideas

HELP! What do I write about when it's time to do some writing? Where do people get ideas?

Lots of time writers don't realize that great ideas are sitting right there, under their noses. You just need to give them an interesting little 'twist' to find the story hidden inside them. The best way to do this is to always keep the words WHAT IF handy.

For example, one day my three-year-old son came home from school with a funny looking drawing. I asked him what it was. He replied: "That's a monster." I asked him what kind of monster. "It's a Momma Monster," he answered. Suddenly I found myself thinking: What if a kid really had a monster - a REAL monster - for a mother??? What would that be like?

So I sat down and wrote a story called "Momma's a Monster."

You can do the same sort of thing.

TRY THIS:

1. Keep a journal of things that you notice. They can be ordinary, everyday sorts of things.
For example: Today I noticed a spider spinning a web.

2. Then, when you have written down a few things you've noticed, try making up some WHAT IFs about them.
For example:

• WHAT IF ... spiders could spin webs from spaghetti?
  
• WHAT IF ... spiders could write in their webs?
  
• WHAT IF ... spiders were as big as people?

Don't those sound like they might make good stories? Give it a try!