How to Think of Ideas

Take a few moments and sit down and simply write. Write whatever comes to mind. This is what I am doing right now and I'll show what happens:

A ship

Take a trip
History in the making
Vintage
Retro
Camels
Time Travel
Silk Dresses
Loving to hate
Purses

Now, these are the ideas that just popped into my mind as I wrote. No meditating. No reading someone else's book or article. I started with the word ship and simply wrote down the first thing that popped into my mind. Now, I am going to take a couple of the thoughts and turn them into a one line idea that I may be able to expound on in the near future.

A ship- Like the Titanic. Unsinkable, yet not promised and someone actually paid the passengers to gamble with their lives.

Take a trip- To an exotic island where a known murderer has been hiding for 5 years, alone, and wants to make things right with his victims family, but is tempted to take on the visitors to his island.

History in the making- A cure has been discovered for Aids, but at what risk to the developers of the cure?

Vintage - A young girl becomes enamored with a vintage trunk that contains a vintage dress and finds it holds more secrets than she can bear to reveal to others: the secrets may jeopardize her family and her life.

Retro - A disco? Hmm... A novel set in 1960, centered around the mystery of a missing boy.

Camels-??

See how I took a simple word or phrase and turned it into an idea?