Are you considering writing a story, but you seem to be running low on story ideas, or maybe you don't have any at all? This issue is a common setback among writers; while some get ideas almost every other second of the day, the rest of us have to struggle to come up with any. And if that is where you find yourself and you need some pointers on how to come up with great story ideas for your next writing project, lucky for you, I have some solid methods that seem to work all the time. So, whether you are writing a mystery, a fantasy or a romance-thriller, here are my five ways to come up with story ideas:

1. Use the What-if Question: Think of a popular event that has made the news lately, possibly an event you are very familiar with, and ask yourself, what if something else had happened in this news story? Maybe a presidential election has just been concluded, and a new president elected. What if, on the night of the announcement, the president-elect gets assassinated? It could also be a known event in history, and you can use the what-if question to change a few crucial elements of that history to create an alternate history story idea.

2. Draw Inspiration from Your Life: It is not a bad idea to dive into your own life; great ideas are not always farfetched. There might be events in your life that would make a great story. Something that happened sometime in your life that you can't forget. It could be your encounter as a teenager trying to find a girlfriend and avoiding bullies. It could be your ordeal trying to find a job or dealing with a troublesome employer. It could be the loss of someone dear to you and how you dealt with the grief. You can also create characters and dialogue patterns based on people you know and their manner of speaking. You can even base your setting on the place you grew up or where you currently live.

3. Adapt from Your Favorite Book: You can get incredible story ideas by analyzing your favorite book and deciphering the various elements that make it outstanding and memorable. Is there something about the characters that you find intriguing? What moments in the story were compelling? Is the narrative style something that you admire? You can adapt these elements to form your story idea. And you can even work with the same concept as your favorite novel and try to alter key aspects of it to bring about a completely different story.

4. Imagine the Unthinkable: Don't muzzle your imagination; instead, allow it to run as wild as possible. Imagine the most bizarre of circumstances. Like, what if your neighbor’s wife is a member of a secret cult that is planning to harvest the souls of the people in your neighborhood under a grand scheme to become the most powerful beings on the planet and take over the world? What if your dog is an alien, and with it, you can teleport into a completely new universe where you discover insane amounts of gold that change your ill fortune forever? What if your friend's fiancée is a vampire, and in two nights from now, you will lose him to these soulless bloodsuckers? When you loosen up your mind and allow it to produce weird ideas like these, you will get your story idea in no time.

5. Consider Your Emotions: What are your biggest fears? What are the things that make you happy? What are the things that make you sad? What are the things you hate? Questions like these hold potential for great story ideas. For example, let's say your biggest fear is losing your wife to some other guy. Now imagine that your wife's hot, single ex-boyfriend in high school is in town. In fact, he is your new next-door neighbor, and now you are afraid that his presence might rekindle old flames. What is worst, you guys are already going through a rough time financially that has put a huge strain on your marriage relationship, and your wife's ex is practically living the dream. You can see from our example that there is a goldmine for story ideas in your emotions which you might want to consider exploring.