Idea File: Finding Freelance Writing Ideas in Conversation

You’ve heard this starting out, I’d bet:

Ideas are all around you.

And I’d bet you wanted to scream every time you heard it, too.

How ironic that the one piece of advice that made me want to scream “You don’t get it!” when I was first starting out is exactly the advice I needed to hear.

Yes, my writerly friend, even though it seems like throwaway advice, ideas are truly all around you. Even you sitting over there on a farm in the Midwest. And you, sitting in a suburb in Ohio. And you, sitting in a small village in Scotland.

If you’re like I was, you’re thinking “You have no idea how boring it is here!”

I’m with you. I lived it. I was sitting in a house in the middle of a field just left of nowhere when I started my writing career. What did I have around me? Wheat. Soybeans. Corn. Cows. Allergies.

Before you say it, yes. They’re all ideas waiting to be discovered. If I’d been smarter about my freelance writing career, I’d have found the nuggets of stories in those very things I thought were too ordinary — new harvesting techniques, the rise of soybeans as a main crop, best herd advice, and how to combat everyday allergies naturally. Alas, I was too much of a newbie.

I had one other thing around me that was just as much an idea generator as anything else:

Friends and neighbors.

On another forum a few weeks ago, a writer was talking about a conversation  she’d had with family. In that conversation, she landed on a great idea for a book series.

Now she has a working idea for not one, but several books. All from one conversation.

Ideas can be like that. They’re just hiding in plain sight.

I notice particularly when I’m writing poetry, and it’s even more pronounced when I’m reading poetry, as well. My ear picks up little phrases or thoughts or single words that I can’t wait to write down or make something of (I keep a list of words that I may work into poems someday).

So where are your ideas? Well, I don’t know as I’m not with you right now. But let’s look at the conversations I had yesterday and see where there might be some ideas:

Conversation with my doctor.

I take a natural thyroid prescription medication that, for the last two years, has been hard to come by. The doctor and I had a conversation about where to find it. That led to how I might go about getting the right formulation if the one she prescribed wasn’t available. And I complained about the weight gain that inevitably comes when my medication is off.

So where are the ideas?

• Animal-based medications: are they right for you?
• The science of thyroid: what impact hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism means to your health
• Weight and thyroid: where’s the balance?
• Compounding pharmacies: when do you need one, and will insurance cover it?

Conversation with my husband.

We talked about a lot of stuff yesterday, but some of the high points included the discovery of a species of man in the Himalayas, the Yeti footprint discovery, the “spy” whale Norway claims Russia is using, the Tivo being on the fritz, the need to use Amazon because no one has that Tivo part locally, the new bicycle he just got….

Don’t need any more to make some article ideas. I’m seeing:

• How to tune up your bicycle
• Hidden sources for parts (a “beyond Amazon” kind of story)
• Myths and monsters and why we believe (or why we don’t)
• How anthropology has evolved, and what it may mean for our understanding of where we come from
• Spy games: crazy tactics used throughout history, and how they may have changed outcomes

Your assignment:

Think about the last conversation you had that stuck in your mind. What was it about? Do you remember the topic? The mood? The interaction?

Now, write down four ideas from that conversation, or from a series of conversations. They don’t have to relate directly to your conversation, but can be inspired by them.

What did you come up with?
Have you sold ideas that came from a conversation or series of conversations?
How do you tune yourself in to recognizing ideas in the everyday things?