Writer's Fallout Shelter

This doesn't sound of topic to me and it's a brilliant and commonly asked question. I found the biggest thing for me is reading. Read everything, particularly in the genre you're most interested in writing.

There are also a number of books about writing that give great suggestions on where to harvest ideas. Two I'd really recommend for you are Pen On Fire (A busy woman's guide to igniting the writer within) by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett - She also has a podcast http://www.penonfire.com and Word Work (Surviving and Thriving as a Writer) by Bruce Holland Rogers. Both of these book had me eager to write even before I'd finished reading them. Pen on Fire had me writing by the end of the first chapter.

Ideas are really everywhere. Mostly I've found the that we spend a lot of time turning down ideas rather than needing to find them. You say your journals are too personal to take ideas from? That's turning down ideas right there. No reason you couldn't write fiction based on situations from your own life and people you know. Even if it's taking a major or minor turning point, a death, a birth, a marriage etc. and creating a character with the emotions involved. I find journaling is important because even if you don't write anything publishable from it, you are writing and it helps you explore yourself and get your frustrations, and other emotions out of the way onto the page. BTW have you noticed how blogging has really become the latest thing? These are all people who write their 'journals' online, we get readers so something about it must be interesting.

I say don't discredit anything you see or hear. Absorb it all, play with the What If ideas and let the muse and characters come to you. Start writing, even if it doesn't make sense. Be a bit wild, put caution aside. Just because you can't later sell it doesn't mean you shouldn't write it. I find that by starting writing, the ideas come to me. They never come when I sit back doing nothing and wait.

Have fun and keep writing,
Yours truly,
Rebecca Laffar-Smith