Your Press Cuttings File.

Writer’s Block? Where is your Press Cuttings File?

Many ideas for short stories and articles come from incidents reported in news papers or magazines. Tabloids offer spicy gossip on any number of subjects from clandestine love affairs to marital break-ups, from crafty embezzlements to corporate take-overs, from suicide bids to mercy killings.

Early in my writing career, I started cutting out interesting items from newspapers and magazines, which had the potential to trigger the imagination. I put them in different envelopes under various headings e.g, Marriage/Romance, Travel/Adventure, personalities/profiles etc. As the envelopes grew bulky, the job of sifting through them became a headache. Precious time was lost searching for a stimulating piece that could be turned into a story.

So I went to a shop that bought old books and papers for recycling. I persuaded the owner to part with two stiff-bound ledgers that had been discarded by some office. I started pasting the cuttings into the ledgers, and continued doing so on a daily basis.

Now I have several such Press Cuttings collections. They are storehouses of ideas and facts. I have no time for writer’s block. A quick run through the pages of my books generates ideas for new stories and articles. They supply me with facts and figures, subjects to write about, controversies to work on, and topics to research.

Keeping a Press Cuttings file is easy, and an important item in a newbie’s repertoire.

• As you read through magazines and newspapers, mark whatever you find newsworthy. Cut them out at the end of the day. Mark the date and source.
  
  
• Find an old stiff-bound book or ledger and paste the cuttings in it on a daily basis. Merely cutting them out and keeping them aside to paste at a convenient time will result in a logjam or they may even find their way into the waste paper bin. So be sure to paste your cuttings daily.
  
  
• Paste them under appropriate subject heads.
  
  
• When stuck for ideas, browse through your files and see how many ideas pop out from these cuttings.
  
  
• Turn those ideas around in your head. Identify characters and breathe life into them. Create an unusual take on a particular subject. Visualize your success as if you are already there. You will permanently banish writer’s block.

I once saw an advertisement in an Indian newspaper. It said, “Bridegroom wanted for pretty young bride. Marry one and take one free.”

I turned it into a nice story about a foreign tourist who thought it would be fun to investigate. He was shocked when villagers wanted to marry him off to a bride who was deaf and dumb. What came as a free gift was her twelve year old sister. The foreigner had to be bailed out by his Embassy. The story sold on first submission.

So to all Newbies I say, if you have a fertile imagination to go with your press Cuttings file, you’ll never run out of ideas.

Published July 15th, 2011, Newbie Writers News Letter.