Originally a guide to research by Pratima Ghale at Mt. Holyoke College. Used with permission for students at Hollins University, using Wyndham Robertson Library (2014). Updates after 2014 are by the WRL.
The news in all formats is a great source of story ideas. A sampling of news resources:
WRL's Newspaper Databases - includes databases containing US, International, and historic newspapers.
This American Life Radio Archives - Online archive of a radio show featuring real life narratives based on a different theme each episode.
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.
Diaries and Memoirs
Life stories are another potential source of story ideas. Some collections available at MHC:
Also search the library catalog for book-length autobiographies, memoirs, journals, diaries, correspondence or memoirs (narrow by time - e.g., twentieth century - and/or place - e.g., America or United States).
Images
Pictures can evoke stories. Plenty of images are freely available on the Internet, but a few of our library image databases also provide background information about the pictures they contain:
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:
