How Photographs Can Jump Start Your Idea Mill

I suspect many of you collect newspaper and magazine clippings in a search for story ideas. I print out interesting stories I find on the Internet and add them to my clipping collection. But have you thought about collecting pictures and photos?

I can’t begin to tell you how many times a photograph or picture in a newspaper or magazine has drawn my attention. I ignore the story that goes with the picture and concentrate instead on the picture itself. If there are people there, I try to imagine what they might be doing or saying to one another. If it’s a scenic picture, I file it away as a possible backdrop to a story.

Recently I cut out a photo showing a dilapidated old cabin sitting alone on a prairie. I began to think about the people who built it and lived there, gradually shaping the story of a family living through the dust bowl years and the Great Depression. The characters are emerging and in my imagination, they are beginning to move through the house.
Even your own family photos can provide inspiration for a story. You don’t have to use the actual people in the photo in your story, but you certainly can. These old photos can help you create biographies about the interesting people in your life. They can remind you of some incident that is worth retelling.

The next time you see an interesting photograph, save it. It might just inspire the next Great American Novel.