Things to write about

Everyday brings dozens of ideas to write about.

• You can write about your day. Was it colourful, drab or nasty. My day was colourful. I was in the thick of things watching two thousand people marching through the streets of Pretoria, on strike for wage increases.
• Did you learn anything new? I learned that my computer has a cd writer. This was amazing after months of begging people to write things on cd for me.
• Listen to old people talk. They have many a story about what happened when Steven wanted to marry Lucy but Lucy was more into Jim and then poor Jim died.
• Listen to children.
• Read the papers for some good ideas. I saw a poster on a lamppost this morning: Neighbour stole my toilet! The mind boggles.
• Remember your childhood and the things you got up to. Write about the colourful characters. If they weren't colourful, make them colourful! Think again of the people and see them now through the eyes of a grown up - do you realise things about them now that you didn't realise then?
• Bonzai, birthdays, beaches, ballrooms, billiards, bedrooms, bicycles. Free associate.
• Draw up a chart and write something new about each character every now and then until it feels as if you know them and they actually exist.
• Smell things.
• Write about the future, how you think things will be like two hundred years from now.

Find your voice!