I always have ideas for new writing projects—especially when I’m up to my elbows rewriting. My brain would much rather be working on the next shiny thing than polishing up my works-in-progress.

How do I generate ideas?

Most of my fiction ideas come from wondering “what if. . .” Like, what if a teenager discovers a unicorn living in the woods behind her house? What if a woman recognizes a missing girl as someone she’d seen in a recurring dream? What if the new girl in school decides to make friends by running for class president?

Please don’t steal my ideas—I’m working on all of these right now.

Instead, think what if. . .

Sometimes it helps to start with random elements: a setting, a character, a situation. Make lists of these things. Mix them up and see what happens.

Or here. I’ll make it easy for you.

Pick one item from column one, one from column two, one from column three and one from column four and see what happens. You may have to finagle a little.

What if . . .

1	2	3	4
a car	buys	a peanut	but it’s illegal.
a bear	spanks	a glove	and it catches fire.
a doctor	eats	an atom	but there’s an earthquake.
a garbage collector	makes	an unknown virus	and turns it into an empire.
a life guard	forms	a corporation	and becomes very popular.
an insurance salesman	follows	a hospital	but an evil twin ruins it.
a horse	breaks	a mermaid	and it turns into gold.
a dog	steals	a cellphone	and the same day keeps repeating.
a teacher	invents	a city	and starts a trend.
a computer programmer	cooks	a homeless person	but forgets where it is.
an astronaut	draws	a calendar	in the midst of a snowstorm.
a helicopter	pretends to be	an elevator	but there’s a snake in the basement.
a zombie	mortifies	gasoline	just as World War III begins.
a rabbi	loses	a jogger	and falls in love.
a pregnant woman	builds	money	and becomes the next internet sensation.
a teenaged boy	loves	books	and gets transported into a parallel universe.
my left shoe	finds	a rock band	and stumbles into a robbery in progress.
an army	sells	a clarinet	but the warranty expired.
an elephant	runs into	a backpack	while acting as a Russian spy.
the president	alienates	a nun	who turns out to be their birth mother.

Now it’s your turn. Use this idea generator to come up with a story line. It doesn’t have to adhere strictly to the four items you chose; let your imagination take you where it will. Write a piece of flash fiction or a short story. Post it on your blog or on social media, and include a link below. Or, better yet, submit it to a contest from the Poets and Writers database and tell us about it. (Good luck!)