writing ideas from today's news

If you are a writer in search of a story, look no further than today's Sunday paper. It's possible that many of the current popular YA dystopian epics began with a writer reading a headline. In fact, many novels either take old news or create possible future scenarios.
George Orwell's original dystopian novel, "1984", forecasts Big Brother and a government-controlled society. Stephen King's tome, "11/22/63" shares a time-traveling twist on Kennedy's assassination. George R.R. Martin surely studied royal histories before writing his "Game of Thrones" series. Harper Lee culled the plot for "To Kill a Mockingbird" from actual hometown events.
So if you need a story idea, pick up the paper.

Here are five possible story starters for budding writers in need of a beginning taken directly from news headlines:

1. A meteor explodes over the Russian city of CHELYABSINK. The most powerful meteor to strike our atmosphere in over a century, it injures more than 1400 people.

2. Three people die and hundreds are injured when two Chechen Islamist brothers explode bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts.

3. Scientists describe the first human embryonic stem cells developed by cloning.

4. American Edward Snowden discloses a U.S. government surveillance program to news publications. He flees the country, and is granted temporary asylum in Russia after living in the airport.

5. An airplane originating from Malaysia and carrying more than 200 passengers - including two with fake passports - disappears over the South China Sea. Rumors of terrorism and alien abductions abound.

Remember, the news story is just a seed, where you take it is up to you. Happy writing!

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