Ideas are everywhere, even if you are just minding your own business and living your life. For example, I was out of the country in January with my husband, and we were heading to a short-term apartment we had rented. Once we landed and got our luggage, we waited in a line to grab our rental car, with a three-hour drive ahead of us to reach our apartment. The instructions provided by the landlord explained clearly how to get into the complex, get the apartment key, and where our assigned parking spot could be found–down a surprisingly narrow, vegetation-lined driveway–he had included a photo. 
We were both tired and relieved when we finally arrived on the correct street but finding the designated alley way provided us with quite a bit of trouble. We drove around the block twice – not easy with the amount of traffic at the end of the day – as I stared at the photo, looking for anything in the picture to help us identify where we were to drive and park. Nothing on the street looked close to what we were trying to find, so we decided to park the car on the street and look around on foot.
When we squeezed into a spot between two cars, we heard a loud voice yell, “Stop!” We were positive the voice could not be referring to us, so continued to press on, perilously close to the white car in front of us. We may have tapped it with our front bumper. Then we heard another, “Stop!” and realized it likely was directed to us so I suggested we get out of the spot we were now halfway in and drive around some more and figure out where we were to park.
We did that, and went back down the street one more time and by identifying a streetlamp in the picture (why hadn’t we seen that before?) we found the skinny driveway and fought our way down it, with the car’s side mirrors pulled in. We found our assigned place, parked, and proceeded to bring our luggage to the door of the complex.
Once inside the apartment, we collapsed, then relaxed and slowly began to put things in order. It was not long before there was a buzzing throughout the apartment and I soon realized someone was at our door. I cautiously opened it to find three people – a man, woman, and teen boy, standing there. The man immediately spoke up in a heavily accented voice, “Hello, you hit our car.”
I could go on with the rest of the story but am using it here as an example. Whenever you are on vacation, out and about, or just in other surroundings, pay attention to the experiences and small interactions with others you encounter. Even those that take minutes can be valuable as story ideas and writing prompts. I could make this into a story about all of us becoming friends, or even something less tame–a scary fight.
About a year ago, my friend decided to take an escalator with her two large bags in her arms. She lost her footing almost immediately and plunged down the moving stairs about halfway through the ride. She broke her nose and was covered with blood, and bystanders helped her by calling for an ambulance and staying with her until help arrived.
This anecdote could also become an idea for a story: possible intrigue when she forgets her name, maybe her purse or on of her bags got misplaced, a romance could ensue between her and any of those who helped her, a mystery could be created with a note someone presses into her hand saying, “You were pushed.” If you let your mind run wild as you think about incidents that happened to you or were related to you, or that you read about, you will have dozens of story and article ideas at the ready. 
Make it a point this summer to keep an idea journal. Write down any story or item that you hear, see, or read about that day. Something had to have happened, from your niece winning her cross-country race that day to a power outage at your office building causing some people to become disoriented or frightened.
Just a quick paragraph is all you need in your notes because you will use this as a memory-jogger. When you want story or article ideas, you will read through your journal and think about a way you can spin one of the anecdotes into a part of a plot, the entire plot, or something else. You can change things around considerably, adding a fictional main character with a conflict and then loosely using the journaled idea to help a new manuscript come to life.
Since many people have new and interesting experiences over the summer, when school is out and the living is a bit easier, it is a good time to begin the idea journal and carry it with you wherever you go. Of course, you can write your ideas in your phone if you would rather–do whatever seems most convenient to get your notes in place.
In no time you will make a mental note each time you hear or see something with even a bit of interest or intrigue and you will write it down. The idea journal will prove invaluable as you write stories and articles going forward. So, challenge yourself to keep this type of notebook for the summer months ahead. If you find it helpful to your writing, you will want to continue the practice throughout the year to ensure you are storing your ideas in a safe place.
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