By Amy Sue Nathan
I'm tucked neatly inside a bedroom community complete with picket fences, a town hall and 4th of July parades down Main Street. I'm surrounded by kids selling raffle tickets, moms playing tennis and dads smoking cigars on the country club lawn. When you drive in suburban circles and your muse wears a hairclip or drives a hybrid – where are all the article ideas? Are they supposed to sneak in before carpool or after soccer?
I write mostly about parenting in one form or another – that makes sense, right? I've written and published personal essays and it can be gut wrenching as well as rewarding. But in this economy that's often not enough – for an editor or for me. We both need more – the editor needs more – and to bring my writing to a higher level, so do I. Because sometimes, my suburban muse starts fading.
When that happens I usually retreat to a place and time when I was steeped in the city life where things happen every day, where the city news, parking meters, parks, skyscrapers and trends would encircle me and give me thoughts, when I did corporate writing and wore - GASP – work clothes. But I realized a few years ago that it's a matter of taking what you know and what is in front of you and figuring out how that, is the news.
Here are my tips for finding a remarkable story hidden in the everyday:
1. Look over the picket fence, behind the shed and under the fake boulder where you hide your spare key. If all-of-a-sudden the moms are wearing stretch pants, it might be more than a fashion trend, it might be a trend toward weight gain. Hmmm, sounds like a story.
2. Try on your neighbor's shoes. Figuratively, of course. Don't interview everyone you wave to at the winter choir concert, but people love to talk about themselves if you're engaging. Sometimes the best pitches are based on someone else's point of view – and your take on it. How about those crazy sports parents? Maybe their side of the story needs to be heard. OK, maybe not.
3. Step back behind the plate and look at the whole little league field. What are you doing in your life besides writing? It seems like just another day to you, but someone else might find it fascinating. I once wrote a piece on my Wine Time group. It was part of my life, but there were experts ready to chime in. Cheers to them!
4. Ask yourself, is it really ordinary or is it simply run of the mill to just you? Remember, mundane is in the eye of the beholder.
It all goes along with that that sage advice -- mine your own life. I'd like to add, mine others' lives as well. Look at everything straight on, upside down and sideways. Shake it and see what falls out. You're bound to be surprised and pleased – and your readers will be too.
Amy Sue Nathan is a published freelance writer, editor, Web 2.0 consultant and single mom who blogs about the business, process and wonders of writing. She is also on a quest for a literary agent for her first novel.