Resources

 Keep a journal. Most writers keep journals of their thoughts and ideas. Over time you will develope a rich storehouse of ideas that you can go back to again and again.

The daily newspaper. There are at least five good ideas in every single daily issue of any big city newspaper.

Read obituaries. Newspapers try to include the occasional obituary of people who weren't famous but lived amazing or at least interesting lives.

Look at cartoons. I think the New Yorker is especially good. Their cartoons often have a delicious blend of irony, naivety and sophistication that can spark new ideas.

Read the classics. Project Gutenberg has 17,000 literary works that are generally out of copyright and free to use. How many time has Romeo and Juliet been rewritten into a new book or movie? If you can't come up with an original idea, copy an old idea. It's done all the time.

List the ten most important events in your life. What changed you? What made you the person you are? Pick the most interesting one.

Remember someone you hurt. Maybe you did it on purpose or maybe it was accidental. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you have done.

Think about someone you hate. This should be the most despicable human being you have ever run against. Make up a story of how they got to be that way.

Write what you know. Your world may seem pretty dull to you but it may seem very exotic to the rest of the world, especially if you can find offbeat characters and situations.


    What are lessons you've learned about how to live life and how did you learn them?
    What are moral issues you've always felt strongly about.
    What foolish things do you see other people do that really bugs you?
    What foolish things do you do over and over that really bugs you?
    Think of a person you really admire. What is it about how they lived their life that you like?
    What do you wish you had understood when you were much younger.
    What mistakes do you see young people making over and over.
    How have people's expectations and behavior changed since you were young.


Resources for creative writing

Seventh Sanctum  A site of generators to randomly produce concepts, characters, and descriptions for stories.

Here are 102 resources on Character, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outlining, Setting, and World Building, plus some links to generate Ideas and Inspiration.  

Screenplay Treatment Generator

Web-based Story Idea Generators – Things that make you go hmm

Serendipity Random generators for Places, People, and a  Fantasy Novel Title Generator.

RhymeBrain Rhymes Invent-a-word Alliteration Aid Songwriting helper Dewordifier

Create a simile with the simile generator

Random Plot Generator

Over 3,300 clichés indexed!

This generator provides you with the event that gets the story rolling and a secondary conflict to keep you going!

Character Generator A quick character sketch filled with the kinds of little details that makes stories engaging: character gender, cardinal traits, weaknesses, and most prized possession. 

Everyday Problems Generator

The reverse dictionary is available.

Your dictionary  sentence examples

The Random Name Generator

Writer Wrench alot of tools

a new kind of word reference that can help you write about anything! Unlike a thesaurus, which groups words by their meaning, we group subject-related words by parts of speech.

Phrase Generator

Create Your Own Poem Using the Poetry Generator

 The fiction writers den is a place of inspiration and creativity for all story writers. 

Find rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.

10  Websites That Help Cure Writer’s Block With Writing Prompts

Name Generators

This makes random poems. 

The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations

Resources for Writers: Generators

Creative Writing For Dummies, UK Edition

Portable MFA in Creative Writing

The Everything Creative Writing Book; All you need to know to write novels, plays, short stories, screenpla...

20 Master Plots And How to Build Them