Good writers watch, listen, smell, and sometimes even taste a possible tale to tell. As hard as it may be, writers who desire the best words scour the earth 24/7 to find them. Techniques vary, but you need to find your own.
The shabby notepad your mother told you to use as a grocery list when you were young or the torn off heating bill that just keeps coming back, will soon capture the cracks in the pavement or the newsworthy incident at the corner of Broad and Market. Subway to trolley or golden corn field to manure pile, inspiration can happen anywhere.
Mr. Bishop, my writing and literature teacher, once pulled out a chunk of granite he found while visiting New Hampshire, the “granite state”. The New Hampshire setting of Our Town became tangible. Your verbs and adjectives can magnify meaning.
