Dumpster Diving for Fiction Ideas

I’m the queen of cheap. When it comes to a great deal, I’m not too proud to dumpster dive. I’ve gotten some great items from others’ discard piles, including a bed frame, a desk, and a dresser. With a little elbow grease, you can polish these items, apply a new coat of paint, and add them to your home without anyone knowing the difference.

Image: sxc.hu

Today, I want to encourage you to take a similar approach to fiction. If you’re anything like me, you have a folder (or folders) full of unfinished projects that you have touched in years. They may not have hit your computer’s recycle bin, but that’s a technicality. These projects are in the trash because at one point or another you lost interest and decided that the story wasn’t going anywhere.

My challenge to you? Go dumpster diving through your old fiction. You don’t have to pick up up where you left off and continue writing a story that isn’t going anywhere. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything good about that old work. Maybe one of your supporting characters was golden. Maybe you had a really funny line of dialogue that can be reused in a different situation. Maybe one of your plot points has redeeming qualities and can be resurrected.

Create a new document and just write down points as you go through your old work. That way, when you’re facing writer’s block with your fiction, you can look through this dumpster diving file and feel inspired.