Small Things Make Great Stories

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash

“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.” – Neil Gaiman

What do you do when you want to write, but you don’t know what to type up or scratch out on paper?

The simple answer? Keep your eyes open.

Writers are observers. Writers are the ones who take time to watch people to see how they act and react. Writers take notes—either mental or physical. It’s a practice, but it pays off.

What average experience can you turn into a story? What line from a conversation makes a great opening line for that chapter? What tossed aside item could have an interesting history for a poem? What journey or adventure can be found in the story of an old object?

Be conscious for ideas. As Mr. Gaiman said, they’re there all the time. You just need to see them. Take advantage of mindless tasks like cleaning, showering, or sealing envelopes, where you can use that time to think about your story. I’ve come up with whole character conversations as I cleaned horse pens at the barn.

Try committing to writing a short paragraph every day, or one poem per week. Blogging weekly has forced me to look for topics. I find them in cheese (Inspired by a Block of Cheese), in discouragement (When You Hate Your Novel), in movies (Faithful in Little, Faithful in Much), and from Gaiman’s quote. Commitment will drive you to need something to write about, and in turn, cause you to be more aware of the small things that make great stories.


“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott Card

Here are some writing prompts, derived from my own, everyday observations. What could you write, based on one of these?

1.      A homeless person on the street corner. Who are they? Why are they there? What’s their story?

2.      An empty swing at the park. Why is it empty?

3.      A telephone from the 1940s. What kind of conversations passed through the receiver?

4.      A sentence. “Nothing happens in Kansas.”

5.      The Magi. What if there were more than the assumed number of three wisemen who came to visit Jesus? What is one’s story?

6.      Your grandpa. What’s his life story?

7.      Getting fingerprinted. What if some crime was tied to your fingerprints that you had no memory of? Did you commit the illegality? Or did someone steal your prints somehow?

8.      A song. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

9.      Food. How did something as nasty sounding as escargot become a delicacy?

10.  The truth in every legend. What is the Loch Ness monster? Do dragons still exist? Why do people say there’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?

None of the thoughts are particularly profound. Most everyone has access to ideas as simple as the ones I’ve listed. But each has the potential to create emotion, intrigue, or suspense.

There are stories all around you. Open your eyes and look.

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Where can you find your story?

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