This book will show how your own personal experiences can provide you with an endless supply of ideas for your writing - whether fiction or non-fiction. You will learn how to write about what you know - and you certainly know a lot. The good news is that the older you are, and the older you get, the more experiences you have had - so you'll always have something to write about. The author, Lynn Hackles, will show you how to make your own 'Raking up your past' file - using memories, lists, diaries, newspapers, smells, family trees, etc. And how to turn your own anecdotes recounted to friends and family into useful prose; and how to fashion the passed-down history of your ancestors into a family saga.With this book you'll also learn how to: sell a snippet of conversation; make money by sharing secrets; take your boss and your best friend and come up with a new character; sell one event in your life to several different markets; impart knowledge you didn't think you had to people who didn't know they needed it; and, use the emotions, traumas, joys and experiences of your own life to make your writing stronger and more saleable. With this book you'll never run out of ideas; writers block will be a thing of the past.