Roses are an abiding symbol of love and romance
Yesterday, I discussed getting ideas for writing from positive feelings such as ambitions, dreams and aspirations using the power of ‘What if?’.
Today, it is time to turn to feelings and emotions such as anger, depression, bereavement, love and romance as an alternative source of writing ideas.
Feelings are an extremely fertile area to find ideas for writing. Feelings are frequently strong and important to us. Feelings come in all shapes and sizes. To use feelings as sources of ideas for writing creative fiction, think about these feelings. Imagine you are experiencing them again. What is it about these feelings that makes them so important? Described them. Tell the story.
Have you ever felt really angry about something? Did you feel angry because you were badly treated at work? What about relationships that have fallen by the wayside, did they leave you feeling angry? Could you imagine being angry enough to do something extreme – at least in your imagination – such as murdering someone? In fiction, many characters have had that feeling and been the subject of many short stories, online novels and novellas as a result.
How about love and romance? Do you long for love and romance? Have you experienced love and romance? How did it feel? How did you meet your lover? Where did you spend your time together? Was there adventure and mystery in your relationship? How did your lover feel about you? Love and romance can often be the source of a great writing idea for stories and are immensely popular among online fiction writers and in the traditional printing press.
Have you ever suffered bereavement? I still remember the strong feelings I experienced when my mother died. At some stage in our lives we all have to go through bereavement and so when you write about bereavement you are writing about a very strongly shared feeling. One of the best ways to find readers is to focus on a shared emotion or a shared pain that you can help others resolve through your writing. Perhaps bereavement could provide you with an excellent idea for writing your short story, flash fiction or novel which also has the virtue of perhaps helping others as well as being entertaining.
Depression is surprisingly common among human beings. Have you ever felt depressed, incapable of solving problems and perhaps even lacking energy for life? Write about your depression. How did it start? Where do you think it came from? Was there a trigger that started your depression? Did you find a way of alleviating your depression? Since depression is a common feeling, many may wish to read your story about depression. If you are still suffering from depression, writing about your depression may even help you work through the feelings as well as providing an interesting story for others to read.
Good writing is a rounded experience. It uses emotions, feelings, sense of smell, sight, touch and a host of other impressions to bring a subject alive.
Whatever the feelings are that you write about, I hope thinking about feelings provides you with some great ideas for writing your next short story, postcard fiction, sudden fiction or even a novel or novella 
Bye for now
Rob