Ideas for Articles

                                                Ideas  for  Articles

         If  you are a free lance writer and have been contributing your products to three or four  e-magazines, you would be all the time on the look  out for ideas.  Wouldn’t you?  If you don’t  write  out around three or four pieces every week,  your popularity graph may take a nose dive.

         So, I read the daily newspaper rather minutely for such news items or reports of sorts that would trigger my thinking mechanism  and produce some   400 words. “Ah, here is one you exclaim,” and make a mental note  of it. You have come to the last page and before putting it aside, you want to have a second look at the ‘article idea’.  And good Heavens, you can’t sight it.  You try to recall what it’s all about.  Your mind refuses to recall it back.

        That’s my experience friends.  So here is what you have to do because I have been following this method myself. The moment you  see some spark  or interesting news items,  mark it with a series of lines and write down the page number on the front page. You can come back to it any time  even on the following day.

         I read a minimum  of two newspapers daily along with their supplements. The writing schedule comes only after breakfast. You go to the concerned page and re-read the material.   Alas !  You cannot recollect the bunch of lines of your article ideas. You scratch your head as to why you marked that little paragraph or caption. Nothing doing.

        But some deep introspection brings  back  your memory and you rush to the computer and write out the piece.  You put  away the first draft for a  re look after a few hours or the next day. And presto. The article does take shape. Rehashing and rewriting is a must.  You can’t afford to send to your editor a half hearted stuff. What you send must be your best.

       The other ‘ideas ground’ is the play ground opposite your house where school children play cricket  They are never silent. Either they would be talking or shouting  or fighting.  The cause of their fighting which will be different each day.  If you listen carefully to their arguments, you would get a bundle  of ideas for an essay..  You must be patient.  In my case, all I  do is to stand at my front gate and I get a full panoramic view of all  the players.

       In your case,  if you don’t have a play ground  of sorts opposite your house, you   may like to go over to the main road and observe the commuters.  You would spot out  a number of soliloquists.  From  their body and lip actions, you may develop some article  ideas.

      You might  find two people quarrelling.  Listen to their dialogues for article hints. 

      This  outdoor exercise,  would need a couple of  hours. But in the interest of your writing career,  you have to put aside this much of time.

        In all these adventures, you are bound to get at least one situation that will drive you to writing out a piece of some 500 words.

         Best of luck.