Asher, Sandy, Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, Walker Publishing Company, Inc., 1987.

In Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, Sandy Asher attempts to help the intermediate level and above student who is in search of ideas to write a story, poem or play. She discusses how she gets her ideas and presents “stories behind the stories,” short anecdotes from other authors in which they discuss how they got the ideas for their published works.

Ms. Asher suggests getting ideas by asking the following three questions: (1) How many ways can this be done?, (2) What would happen if? and (3) Why?. She discusses the need to address all of the senses. Like Ralph Fletcher, author of A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You (Avon Books, Inc., 1996), she recommends keeping a writer’s journal. Unlike Mr. Fletcher, she recommends writing entries into separate sections organized by questions such as: (1) Whom do I know?, (2) What are the milestones of my life?, (3) Where have I been?, (4) What’s wrong with my life?, (5) What do I want?, (6) What would happen if...?, and (7) Why...?.

Ms. Asher provides guided practice for students by presenting examples and a framework for a poem, a portion of a play to be completed, and lots of starts and suggestions for stories. After many opportunities for practice, she gifts the reader with “a dozen ideas in search of a writer.” The last chapter of her book presents an annotated bibliography of books that the student writer may find helpful as he/she continues to work on improving his/her writing.

I think that this would be a useful book for young writers struggling to come up with ideas for creative writing. The young writer will also find it enjoyable learning how some of his/her favorite characters and stories were conceived.