Falling for Jeff by Nell Musolf

Photo by Molly via Flickr Creative Commons License

Tagline: Janet thought she would never find love again...until she accidentally met Jeff!

Observations: Let's talk about setting today. Woman's World stories very often occur in everyday settings, like in this case--the grocery store. This is why when you're searching for ideas for stories, you can often look at what's going on in your own ordinary life to get ideas.

What did you do today? Went grocery store shopping maybe. Got gas. Picked the kids up from school. Bought spackle and paint to fix a ding in the wall. Those things could all be kernels for a story. Everyday settings like the grocery store, the gas station, the hardware store, etc. make the stories more accessible for the readership. They can identify more with the story and the characters because they are so much like themselves. This is in contrast to stories in which the reader lives vicariously and therefore wants to experience something more adventurous, exciting, dangerous.

You could easily build an entire story just by starting with a common, everyday setting. You could pick a setting and then think of a small problem or goal the main character has or needs to solve.

Sample settings and problems/goals for them:

Dry cleaners - The character lost a lot of weight and needs their clothes altered. (A lot of dry cleaners in my area have alterations included as part of their services) They have a wedding to attend but the clothes they were going to wear have a big stain.

Movie theater - The character thinks they lost their phone at the movies the night before. The character got two movie tickets as a gift and doesn't want to go alone, or, conversely, is trying to adjust to life without their spouse or ex and meets someone there.

Mall - There's fender bender in the parking lot. The person can't find their car in the parking garage. The person left a bag on the roof of their car, it falls off, and spills the contents all over.

Corner coffee shop - The customer picks up someone else's drink by accident. The person doesn't know what to order. The person is trying to find a new drink because their doctor just told them no caffeine.

Pharmacy - Sprained finger, needs a splint. Looking for a greeting card of some kind. Buying all the leftover Easter/Valentine's Day/Halloween candy on sale.

See what I mean? I just dashed these off in the last ten minutes.

However, there are plenty of Woman's World stories published that do NOT have commonplace settings. So don't feel you're limited. There are just as many stories that occur at places you don't go once every one or two weeks, like the arboretum, the museum, a concert, the beach, a blueberry farm, a cooking class, and so on.

Pro tip: Have a designated place for keeping these kinds of brainstorming ideas so you can refer to them when you need them.