Sometimes finding a topic for creative writing can be frustrating.
Some teachers give their students creative writing assignments to practice their writing skills and to get their creative juices flowing. Sometimes people who enjoy writing as a hobby may also choose to write a creative writing story for entertainment. No matter what your reason for writing a creative story, finding a topic can be a difficult task. Help is available in your immediate surroundings to get the creative juices flowing.
Life Event
When choosing a topic for your creative writing story, choose something that has happened in your life. You do not have to stick to the way things happened, but it can make a solid story starter. For instance, if you have recently dealt with a lost pet, use your experience and write a story about a child whose dog ran away and her adventure to find her pet. Or if you recently had a baby, you can write a story about introducing a new baby to the rest of the family. Recent news stories can also lend you ideas.
Observations
Observing the world around you can be a good way to come up with a creative writing topic. Sometimes, all you need is to see something or someone and a story begins to develop in your mind. Sit at the mall or a busy park and watch the people. Pay attention to anyone that strikes your interest or is doing something out of the ordinary. Ask yourself why that person has attracted your attention and why they might be acting the way they are. Use your ideas to create your story.
Interests
Think about the interests you have. The activities you enjoy doing or the topics that interest you can be transformed into a creative story. If something interesting ever happened to you while you were participating in your favorite hobby or sport, turn it into a story. Change details to make it more interesting if you feel the event would not be interesting to others. In many cases, your life is more interesting to others than it is to yourself, so you may not need to change many details at all.
Journal
Some writers are better at coming up with topics if they can brainstorm first. Sit down with a piece of paper and just start to write. Don't focus on writing something useful. Just keep writing. Whatever pops into your head, write it down. It is all right if what you write does not follow in proper order or even if it makes sense. Set a specific amount of time, such as 15 or 20 minutes. At the end of the time limit, read what you have written and see if there are any ideas you can use for your story. If there is nothing, keep writing.
Emotion
Choosing the core emotion you want to get across in your story can help you to find and settle on a topic. For example, if you want the underlying emotion of your story to be humor, you need to come up with a topic that makes you laugh. However, if the underlying emotion should be fear, you require a scary topic. Once you know what type of story you want to write, you may find that topic presents itself to you with little thought.
Preferences
Your own personal preferences play a big role in the creative writing process. Choose a topic that best suits your personality and writing styles. If there is a specific type of book you like to read, model your creative writing story after that style of book. For instance, if you read mystery books, select a creative writing topic with an undertone of mystery. If you choose a topic that fits with your preferred style, it will be easier to find a topic you are happy writing about.
