Holidays Provide Fiction Ideas

Does your family gather for Thanksgiving? Christmas? Birthdays or anniversaries? Watch them interact for great fiction ideas and details.

Holiday gatherings can be delightful, stressful, or both, and they usually put a crimp in your writing time. But one of the perks for a writer is to sit back and watch your family members interact. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah, football games or birthday parties, spend some time sitting quietly in a corner and observing.

In my family gatherings, I can watch one person hover in the background, twisting her earring. Another person’s voice relaxes with each glass of wine. A friend gives a nervous giggle throughout each story she tells. Another friend has a horse laugh which ends in alternating deep chuckles and shrieks as she tries to catch her breath.

During football games, one person is shouting at the TV (don’t we all know someone like that?), while her spouse sits quietly munching on chips and suddenly screeching for a touchdown.

My family is scattered across the country, so when we manage to all get together, I can listen for accents, dialects, and figures of speech. I can pick out little mannerisms: running a finger around the rim of a glass, absently scratching a spouse’s back, a sideways wink when telling kids a story.

Sure, these are all things we can pull out of our memories or find in a people-watching session at a café. But with a variety of people gathered right in front of you, take advantage of it! Then use those details (no other identifying characteristics if you want to stay on speaking terms) to enrich your stories.

And if you’re looking for more ideas to jumpstart your fiction, check out Fiction Story Ideas: True Stories, Fiction Story Ideas: News Events, and Fiction Story Ideas: Pictures.