All you need to turn a banal scenario into a gripping story is a little imagination, says this award-winning radio journalist and author.

by Bob Brill

“Where in the world do you get your ideas?”

It is a question I’m often asked, whether it’s for a podcast or an article. For each writer, I think it’s quite a different answer. For me, it’s quite simple: everywhere—but usually I get my best ideas driving in my car.

Perhaps living in Los Angeles—the car capital of the world—I’m fortunate in my misfortune. Misfortune in that we drive everywhere and judge distance by time, not miles (“It’s going to take me an hour and fifty minutes to get to work today.”).

My actual distance to work is thirty-seven miles. Since I usually go to work around two p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and must travel through Hollywood, the time does not correlate to the distance. Driving through Hollywood on a weekend afternoon feels like every traffic light every two blocks is timed to make me stop and wait. Along with the tourists, the homeless who wander across streets without looking, and just the overall jumble of people, it takes almost two hours to travel the thirty-seven miles.

If I go to work during the week and work my usual overnight shift, the same thirty-seven miles takes me about one hour and ten minutes due to light traffic. And because the homeless are still there, you must be more careful. It’s dark, they usually wear dark clothing, and many are less than careful not to wander in front of your car. Especially when they are off their meds.

So basically, I’m saying I have a lot of time to think when I’m driving. And a lot of time to notice my surroundings and take it all in. This brings me to a story idea. It might be one of those homeless people attacking the little delivery cars with googly eyes and a flag on top. These deliver food without the aid of a human and travel the sidewalks of Hollywood waiting at traffic signals along the way.

Recently, I saw a homeless guy attack one with a stick, then kick it over. Most people would look at that with disdain (“How dare he?”), but I look at it as a story to be written. Developing the rest of the story is easy. Who is this guy, where did he come from, and was this googly-eyed machine something relating to his past or just a nightmare he had?

Never listen to anyone who says, “That’s been done.” Everything has been done. Yours is just a new or different twist.

I pull over, get out my iPhone, and punch record. I take about thirty seconds to put the idea into a possible story and save it for later. I may or may not get to it, but it’s there.

Often, I’m driving home late at night—or more correctly, early in the morning—and I’ll see a coyote running across the road. He stops and stares at me, then dashes off and up into the hills. This coyote has a personality. Suppose he ended up in a backyard ready to attack a small dog. The owner hears the dog barking and gets his rifle. He fires and kills the coyote. It may be illegal and now the court battle begins. Or maybe he wounds the coyote and takes him in, saves him, and raises him with his dog. Now that could be a great story.

Then there was the time a pretty young woman was jogging up the road past me. Ponytail swinging in the breeze with every stride. It’s five a.m. and she’s out for an early-morning run. What’s on her mind? What are the dangers she’s facing? Why not run at night? Is there a stalker in her future up around the bend? You know, some guy who just had a fight with his girlfriend and is not happy with women at the moment. He is getting into his car to go to work when he sees the jogger. You can use your imagination for the next step.

These are all easy scenarios, but one of my favorites comes from just listening to the radio. Now, I’ve been in radio for over fifty years, so it’s in me. However, every song tells a story. Why not listen to those songs to get an idea for a story you want to tell? You don’t need to steal the story the songwriter is telling, but it’s okay to get an idea and develop that idea yourself into something different.

There aren’t that many story ideas in the world, and as long as you don’t take the song and make it into a really close story of your own, it’s probably going to stand the test of plagiarism. There is no totally new story under the sun. How many times has the Romeo and Juliet story been told? Where do you think West Side Story comes from? And there are so many more versions of it. William Shakespeare isn’t going to sue you. He’d probably be happy you thought so highly of him. If you do want to do the “story in the song,” you should seek permission of some kind. It shouldn’t be expensive.

Remember, most songs never go anywhere past the music, and the people in control of the music mainly get a fifty-fifty split for licensing. For obscure songs or even minor hits, many will consider anything better than nothing since the song is sitting on a shelf. You may get the rights for a hundred dollars.

So, the bottom line to finding what to write about doesn’t often begin with your own imagination. It begins with an idea, and that idea is usually right in front of you. Taking that idea and then using your own imagination to develop it is where you as a writer come in.

Life is full of stories. Every moment of every day brings a new one. You just need to be open to seeing it.

Oh, and a final note here: Never listen to anyone who says, “Oh, that’s been done.” Everything has been done in the past billion years of the earth. Yours is just a new or different twist.

Bob Brill is an award-winning radio journalist, author, screenwriter, and historian. A native of Pittsburgh and hardcore Pirates and Steelers fan, Bob began his radio career in 1972 and worked all over the western U.S. He is currently a news anchor at KNX 1070 Newsradio in Los Angeles. Bob has won multiple broadcast awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award, for anchoring KNX’s storm coverage in 2011. He is the author of Lancer: Hero of the West, the first in a series of western novels set in the 1880s.

Visit Bob at his website and connect with him on Instagram.