We already know that the titles of newspaper articles are designed to make us read the article headlined but these headlines can stir the imagination, create amusement, anger and enough curiosity to read on. In short, newspaper article can inspire writers to write novels. Here is a selection of titles that I found today and each one of them could be the spark that produces a novel.
The lost cheeses of Georgia. Is this Georgia in the USA or Georgia in Eastern Europe? This could be a story of a man who dedicates his life to the unique cheeses of either country or US state forced out of business by either the Capitalist system in the US or by the Soviets. Our hero travels to remote areas and locates farmers who still make these old cheeses and brings them back into the limelight. Of course, during his journey, our hero also goes through a process of change. If you attempt such a novel I suggest you find out something about cheese and cheese making, not to mention the reasons why cheese makers start making cheese in the first place!
The man who ran out of air. What man? The long-distance runner? The deep-sea diver or the astronaut? Perhaps we are talking about a hot-air balloonist or a man who says things that sound impressive but do not really mean anything. So, who speaks impressively but speaks only hot air? A politician, perhaps, or a man or woman whose life can never match his/her dreams. Lord Jim, for example?
The books you read. We have all experienced the wonderful experience of losing ourselves in a great novel. It is one of life’s most enduring joys. Perhaps you tell the story of Mrs Ordinary whose jobs come and go along with her partners but she always falls back on the novel in order to escape, to keep her sanity and to be transported to another, safer world. Another approach might be to show how books are sometimes a portal to our hero's personal history and reveal why she reacts to events as she does.
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