How to Come Up with Story Ideas — 36 Non-Shitty Ideas

Ok, maybe 7 of them are a little shitty.

Are you one of those people constantly brimming with ideas? Then you quickly spill them brilliantly onto the page and publish? Well, this article ain’t for you. This is for the rest of us. Those of us who sometimes bang our heads on the desk hoping ideas fall out before our brain does.

In hopes of keeping that grey matter inside your skull, here are a few ideas to help you come up with story ideas when you’re stuck:

1. Ask your partner, friends and family what their fav story of yours is.
2. Write your ‘dinner party story’
3. See a post while scrolling Facebook that you want to fight with verbally? Instead of fighting pointless third cousins and that chick you went to high school with…turn your rage into a Medium rant. Debate the topic yourself…throw down here.
4. Look for writing prompts you can join in on.
5. A story about your favorite trip.
6. The most important lesson(s) you ever learned from your parents/partner/siblings/boss/etc.
7. A story about a time you pushed out of your comfort zone.
8. Review your favorite movie/album/TV show
9. Review your favorite piece of technology
10. Look at the news, find something infuriating — then let the words flow.
11. Tell people that new thing you bought that brought joy to your life.
12. Write about something you failed at (and what you learned).
13. Write about something you succeeded at (and why).
14. Think about something that you changed your mind on — tell people why.
15. A lesson you learned from working a specific job.
16. Describe something about your life/lifestyle that is really important to you.
17. Write a letter to your past self, or future self.
18. Share what motivates you.
19. Bitch about what demotivates you.
20. Outline something you did to get yourself out of a rut (and what threw you into that damned rut).
21. Write about a goal, dream, or bucket-list item (maybe it will give you some accountability to ‘get ‘er done’).
22. Write a poem (I’ve never done this personally — but give it a shot!).
23. Tell people how to fix something, a flat tire, a flat hairdo, a flat chest (if you figure out that last one, tag me in it).
24. What are your tricks of the trade? Things in your career that you learned that make you a rockstar.
25. Write about your pet. Especially if it’s a cat — cat people are big on Medium.
26. Write about your ‘happy place’, that simple place that brings you joy.
27. Tell people about the most embarassing thing that’s ever happened to you (your readers will love the humility and connect with your honesty).
28. Write about things people assume about you that are wrong.
29. Tell people what you would do if the world ended in 72 hours.
30. Review and summarize your favorite book of all time. Have 7 of them? Great — now you have 7 article ideas.
31. Go to your comments and respond to the beefy questions with an article.
32. Tell people your unpopular opinion — do you think Canadian bacon is better than American bacon (you’re wrong, but whatever)? Write about that.
33. Write about your love affair with kale. Except not kale, nobody loves kale.
34. Write about your biggest achievement.
35. Write about the things you wish you could change about yourself.
36. Look at your favorite Medium writer’s profile — and ‘borrow’ some of their ideas (but put your own twist on it).

Hopefully that list above gave you some jumping-off points. Was there one that you thought was particularly shitty? Then write about that, and the other things you’re sick of hearing about or being told.

‘The possibilities are endless’, and some other fortune-cookie-style advice goes here.

When in doubt, get ideas by scrolling through Medium. If you hit a title that gives you the damn-I-should-have-thought-of-that shudder — write a variation of that.

If this list wasn’t shitty, save it to your reading list for the next time you’re about to bang your head on the desk.