Look around at your surroundings for ideas

Look around at your surroundings for ideas (Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe, N.M.)

 Find Your Writing Niche: Look around at your surroundings for ideas

Ideas for stories are all around us. People continue to achieve outstanding feats, survive overwhelming odds and make life happier for others. Think in terms of events and holidays.

1)  Memorial Day. It’s not too late to ask a newspaper editor to run a story about a veteran. Ask at the local American Legion or VFW if one of its members received an award recently. A local resident contacted The Sun News where I am a freelancer to inform the editor that a World War II veteran was holding a fundraiser with all proceeds going to veterans. I got the assignment.

2) 4th of July.  Parades abound. In my town, Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., the Property Owners Association sponsors a parade where people decorate floats, golf carts or bicycles or make their own costumes. A magazine or other publication may be interested in knowing the story behind the decorations. I’ve covered the parade several times and children play a major part. They often have provided the theme for the decorations and will tell where they got their ideas.

3)  Start of school. Some children are glum when the school year begins because they don’t have the resources to buy the items they need. In Brunswick County where I live a group of retirees with computer backgrounds started a program called Computers for Kids.  How do they get the computers? Who gets them? There are a dozen stories within this one. Look around you and the ideas will multiple.

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Article By: Jo Ann Mathews

I published three ebooks in 2020: Women and Adversity, Honoring 23 Black Women; Women and Adversity, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers; and Women and Adversity, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. These books are meant to be study guides for all students from grade school through college to help in choosing topics for assignments and to learn more about these noteworthy women. Go to amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and goodreads.com to learn more.

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