LibGuides: Creative Writing: Generating Ideas


Library Research Guides

Intro

Sometimes ideas for writing projects find you, but when they don't here are some sources that may help provide inspiration.

Prompt generator

Writing Prompts
Random Writing Prompts generator from Language is a Virus web site.

The news

The news is a good source for getting exposure to information about all kinds of topics. A sampling of news resources:

News Sources
Newspapers are a great source for finding interviews and profiles of individuals as well as information about organizations. Tip: for local or lesser known individuals, check local news sources. National news may be more useful for better known individuals or organizations.
HIstoric News Sources
See the Historic page of the News Sources research guide for news titles that cover the past, in some cases going as far back as the 18th century.
wwiTV
Directory of television news channels web sites (many offer video content live or recorded online). Use the Countries menu to target channels in a specific geographic area.

News apps - Install a news app on your smartphone for quick access to constantly updating news stories. Here are a couple of reviews of news apps - with free options:

Diaries and memoirs

Life stories are another potential source of ideas. Some collections available at MHC:

Biography in Context (aka Biography Resource Center) This link opens in a new window
Biography in Context delivers outstanding research support with 600,000+ biographical entries — on more than 528,000 individuals — spanning history and geography.
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography This link opens in a new window
Contains narrative biographies of scientists from around the world and across history.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete This link opens in a new window
Biographical dictionary with essays on the lives, works, and careers of literary figures from all eras and genres.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of people who shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century.
North American Immigrant Letters This link opens in a new window
Primary source collection of letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives of immigrants to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
North American Women's Diaries and Letters This link opens in a new window
The collection includes some 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from U.S. and Canadian individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950. Also includes journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous. It also includes some 300 biographies on contributors.

Images

Pictures can evoke stories. Plenty of images are freely available on the Internet, but a few of our library image databases that also provide a bit of background information about the pictures they contain are as follows:

AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window
AP Newsroom contains breaking news, feature stories, photographs, graphics and audio clips produced by the AP’s network of award-winning journalists, who operate in more than 250 locations worldwide. Includes 170 years of news stories, 12 million historical and contemporary images and an extensive collection of audio clips.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
The Artstor Digital Library provides over 1.6 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. You need to register (free for MHC community members) if you wish to download ArtStor images.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Art Online offers access to online art reference sources including Grove Art Online, Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and Oxford Companion to Western Art. Click on the "Images" menu item to limit your searching or browsing to just images.

Music

Songs often tell stories and music can evoke mood (plus sometimes it's just fun to have some background music when you're writing!). Some music sources:

Classical Music Library
Classical music for streaming from the Middle Ages to the present. Audio recording, often with album liner notes for additional information.
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
The Naxos Music Library is a huge online collection of classical music, historical recordings, jazz, world, folk and Chinese music for streaming. All members of the MHC community have access and are invited to listen the great albums there, whether for academic work or just for fun. Browse and listen online without logging in, or create an individual account on the website to make playlists, tag favorites, and access music on your phone via the android or iphone app.

YouTube
Search by artist, song name, or genre (e.g., Irish Music)