Take a moment today and open your purse. Really
examine its contents. Let’s open mine, shall we? A
pen, three lipsticks in resplendent shades of mauve, a
lipstick that tones down the other lipsticks, a rice
krispie treat, a mangled Halloween chocolate bar, a
cell phone, a Hot Wheel car, a comb, receipts dated
back to 2005, 2 rogham shot cards, 2 IUD cards, 2
credit cards, 2 tampons, 2 dollars, lotion, and plenty
of loose change. These are the things that I must
think are necessary to have when I leave the safety of
my home. What do you have in your arsenal that helps
you face the world every day?

Just as we have our purses full of tools, gadgets, and
tricks”¦(Yes, tricks, my dears. The rice krispie treat
and Hot Wheel are not for me when I have a temper
tantrum in the grocery store), we also should have a
purse full of writing tools and techniques. We can
open the purse and find a tool that is necessary for
the current literary situation. I want to talk about
one that was discussed at the Association for Mormon
Letters Writing Conference last Saturday. It’s the
question most asked of authors, “Where do you get your
ideas?”

1) Ideas can come from your subconscious, perhaps you
had a childhood trauma or a childhood bliss, and
suddenly the idea springs to your conscious mind from
some trigger. I read somewhere that writers get ideas
the way oysters get pearls. I like that analogy.
Sometimes are subconscious works on layering an idea
deep within us, year after year, until finally, the
pearl is big enough to be plucked from its shell.

Nancy Kelton writes that we should ask ourselves these
questions:
“What am I burning with?
“What is first among my concerns?”
“What do I care most about?”
“What’s number one on my agenda?”

2) Save scraps of news articles, internet stories, or
ideas that have no apparent purpose, but trigger a
reaction in you. Sometimes you can put these items
together to create something new.

3) LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN! Write down conversations
or snatches of them. This is eavesdropping. But it
does make for some interesting stuff. There is
conversation fodder everywhere.

4) Go against the advice. Talk to strangers. Every
person has a story to tell and wants to tell it. You
can steal ideas from their life stories.

5) Think about your interests and experiences. What
are your strongest memories, the times you have felt
most moved? What interesting conversations you have
had? What do you wonder about or wish for? How do you
feel about historic or current events? What makes you
happy, angry, or sad?

6) Keep a journal. Write about both day-to-day events
and thoughts/ideas. Review your entries to find
observations or connections you may have forgotten or
not been aware of at the time.

If these few suggestions don’t give you a purse full
of ideas, here are a few prompts that were given at
the conference. From these, we got some very strong
beginnings of personal essays that we hope will be
submitted to the journal.

Write about a person who understands you and touches
you. Write in scenes. Show, don’t tell.

List three relationships between you and someone you
would like to write about in some way. Take the one
that is leaping out or hitting the hardest right now.
Think of a scene with this person. Write.

Think about one of your earliest childhood memories.
Try and evoke the images in your head. Write about
that scene.

Write about your deepest dream and what it is that
might be holding you back from achieving it.

Write about one day that brought you grief. Write
why.

Start your piece with “I have a confession to make. I
never really . . . ”

Describe your father’s face. See where that leads
you”¦..

Start your writing with “The only thing I ever wanted
was”¦”

Wedged between the lipstick and the candy, you now
have some extra tools to fill in the empty pockets of
your writing purse. So, zip the purse up and start to
write. But most of all, never leave home without it.