Looking for a Topic

Stop. Look around. What do you see? Dirty sneakers by the door, muddy from your morning run? A closet full of boxes full of useless papers you just can't throw away? An old jacket you don't wear anymore? Chipped paint on the wall? Everything you see has a story attached to it. Even the bruise on your knee that you can't remember where it came from.

Starting a new project is never easy, but the hardest part is picking what to write about. Should you write about your older brother's ex-girlfriend and their tragic break-up story? That weird dream you had two months ago that you only remember in fragments? Or the presidential race? I'm not here to tell you which topic or subject matter will sell a poem, short story, or book. Rather, I'm here to show you that inspiration can come from anywhere. Remember that pair of dirty sneakers? Well, here's a short—a very short—story of how they came to be muddy (whether it's true or not is for me to know and you to only guess ☺):

Drip. Drip. Drip. I can't see anything. I only hear the echo of a cloudless and sky-less rain. I have no idea what I'm stepping in. It could be anything. For all I know, this could be the esophagus of a giant space worm. My breath fogs in the dimness of the only light I have—a dying yellow glow stick. Crunch. A shudder runs down my spine from the crown of my head to my toes. Squish. Eew...

See? And if you wanted to, you could take that even further. You'd think a pair of sneakers would be boring, right? But if you do it right, you can turn even the most boring day of your life into something interesting, something so controversial it's almost taboo (like modern politics) into a comedy. Or, if you want to get really adventurous, you could turn a comedy like the old TV show "Tom and Jerry" into a horror story.

The great thing about being a writer is that you get to invent the new reality. You can twist facts or make something up entirely, or you can be so precise and factual that people think it's made-up anyway. But whatever you pick, go with it. Even if it seems ridiculous. You never know—you may end up writing a modern version of Poe's "The Raven." You could call it "The Sparrow."

PS: Speaking of topics and writing and books, I've entered the Geek and Sundry contest on Inkshares for fantasy. Check it out and help me get published!