Finding good ideas for writing stories is probably not like you think it is.

In fact, I think it will look more like a process than an epiphany.

Live your life. Read books. Take the kids to school. Walk the dog. Cook dinner and stop at the gas station.

What ideas naturally come from there?

Maybe you see two people simply eating lunch together. It it boring? Or is something sinister going on? What’s the story here?

But like we have already said, we have no idea where good ideas really come from.

Often it is as simple as seeing old things in a new way.

Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.

-Stephen King, On Writing