subscribe to e -- news blog Story Writing Ideas (Part 2) -- Just one image can start a great story I loved Jackie French's comment at the CYA Conference in 2009 so much it still is posted on my wall. "It doesn't take one idea to create a book, it takes THOUSANDS." So, where do ideas come from? I have the good fortune of being part of a local writers group.  Yes -- one of those often told truisms -- it really is INVALUABLE to be a part of a writers group... but I digress (more of this later!)  We are pulling together an anthology to celebrate Queensland Writers Week (8-14 October) in this year, the National Year of Reading.  Now, while I was wax lyrical at an earlier meeting about how manageable this entire process was going to be (bless Blurb, but more about that later too!) I had a terrible flash ... I simply did not have a couple of days to wander aimlessly in the streets, letting my head empty for it to then be overtaken with a brilliant idea, which then brewed and simmered until clarity befell me.  (You have a huge insight now into my writing habits and possibly the exact understanding of why I don't manage to produce much of it!)  What on earth was I going to do!!!! Image -- get an image and free write... it is a method I use in the classroom and it actually works.  The image I used