Pay Attention!

Pay attention to the world around you. You never know where an idea may come from. When an event happens, no matter how small, take notice. A story idea can come from the shape of a cloud or the paper boy stomping through your flowerbed.

I see people in swirls of my bathroom tile floors, I see dragons and cities in the clouds. Sometimes I see something for what it is and consider its purpose in the world. A story idea can come from that.

BUT! Don't think that some small object has to have an entire story written around it. To make a story feel authentic, consider what kinds of details we run into every day. Consider the next sentences about someone looking in an office fridge:

1) He opened the fridge and found an array of Tupperware containers and a moldy orange.

2) He opened the fridge and found an array of leftover and takeout containers, a mushy orange, and a pile of Arby's Sauce packets spilling out of the butter receptacle.

Those two sentences aren't masterpieces, but they illustrate what I mean.

Sentence 1 is boring and imprecise. Tupperware is a brand name, and I doubt very many containers in office refrigerators are actually Tupperware. Most office fridges I've seen contain many kinds of containers -- including Styrofoam takeout boxes. A moldy orange is probably cliche, but it's also very boring. Also, this description is not unique to offices. It could be any home fridge.

Sentence 2 is more precise about the containers. The orange is mush -- not moldy -- this distinction isn't profound, but it tells the reader that the subject must have picked up the orange to feel it or it's become a soggy lump and no touching is necessary. The array of containers is more appropriate to an office fridge, and the Arby's sauce indicates the type of worker eating there.

If you have trouble adding realism, maybe document the little details you find in daily life in a "details" journal. You can always go back through the list.