All experienced writers know that ideas are everywhere. Anything from a family argument to a change in the weather can give you material to write about. But we all experience times when it feels like the well has run dry—as if every decent idea in the world has evaporated and there just isn’t a drop of inspiration left.
One of the best things you can do when ideas won’t come is go to a new place. Visit a city or a neighborhood you don’t often frequent. Wander through a store or a park that is unfamiliar to you. You don’t have to journey to Italy, India, and Bali like Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame, or climb Mt. Everest like Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air. There are places all around you that offer a wealth of perspectives and images to explore. Here are three unusual places that can help stimulate fresh ideas for your writing:
1. Thrift Stores.
People throw out things they see as no longer useful. Other people buy those things and use them. It’s an odd system but one that works on many levels.
When I was living off the salary of an adjunct instructor, I bought most of my clothes at thrift stores, and I soon learned that if you look hard enough, you can dress yourself pretty stylishly on someone else’s rejects.
For writers, thrift stores are full of ideas because very single thing in them has a history. All you have to do is pick something off the rack and ask yourself why its owner didn’t want it. I once found a brightly colored jacket of Guatemalan fabric in a Minneapolis thrift store, and I knew immediately that its owner had bought it on a trip and realized once they were home that there was no way they were going to wear a green, orange, red, yellow, and purple jacket in the fashion-conservative Twin Cities. At least that’s the story I came up with.
When I was living in San Francisco, I used to find beautiful silk blouses in perfect condition at a thrift store not far from the affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood, and I assumed they were the cast-offs of wealthy women who didn’t like to wear the same thing twice.
The next time you’re in need of ideas, go to your local thrift store. Wander around. Check out the clothing, furniture, cooking utensils and–best of all–the doo-dads. Imagine their histories. Where was that frog-shaped candle before it ended up at the Salvation Army? Who had it and why? Where did they keep it? How did they use it? What were they like? Go back even further. Where did the thing originally come from? Who made it? Who was that person who operated the machine that poured the green wax into a mold? Take the thing home, set it on your desk, and write.
2. Fan conventions and history re-enactments.
Years ago, I went to a few Star Trek conventions and more than one pretend medieval jousting competition, and I found them far more interesting and even more delightfully nerdy than I had imagined. I also found them excellent sources of material because, basically, they were all about longing.
Why do people go to Comicons, Twilight conventions, and California Gold Rush re-enactments? Why do they spend good money on Star Fleet Academy uniforms or Princess Leia costumes? Why do they take the time to act out periods of history long gone or ones that only happened in some movie-makers head? Because there is something they yearn for in that imaginary world. Adventure. Excitement. The opportunity to be a Jedi Knight or vampire rather than a history teacher or computer programmer.
Everyone at a fan convention or historical re-enactment has a reason for being there. Each person has a story. Strangely, they often don’t realize their real stories are more interesting than the fantasy ones they’re immersing themselves in.
3. Toy stores.
Walk down the aisles of a large toy store, and you have everything you could possibly need as a writer. Imagination. Color. Creativity. Fun. You also have a disturbing window into our society. The toy tools and weapons designed for boys. The blond Barbies and princess outfits for girls. Violence. Misogyny, Racism. They’re all there, along with tons and tons of plastic that will eventually end up in landfills, all in a massive temple to crass materialism. Certainly not a place for a child. But definitely the place for a writer.