While many writers are lucky enough to have book ideas come to them quickly and naturally, some of us must dig a little deeper to find inspiration. But when your topic choices are essentially unlimited, it can all start to seem a bit overwhelming.

Never fear! Below are just a few different ways to help spark the idea—the one that will finally get you up and running (or rather writing).

Use an event that happened to you
The easiest place to start is to come from the “write what you know” plan of action. More specifically, write about an event that happened to you. It could be when you were a child, teenager, or adult. It could be wildly exaggerated or completely true. It could be funny, tragic, or utterly mundane.

Whatever the event is, use it as a catalyst for some sort of conflict that your protagonist must overcome. You might be surprised at how your personal event takes on a life of its own.

Go out and people watch
One of my favorite ways to generate book ideas is to simply sit in a place where there’s a lot of foot traffic—think coffee shop, park bench, cocktail bar—and observe. More often than not, you’ll come across an interesting person or interaction that sparks your creativity in some way. Whether it ultimately inspires a particular character or plants the seed of a plot idea into your head, you’re almost guaranteed to walk away from the experience with some new material just begging to be used.

Explore the world of writing prompts
Some writers swear by writing prompts as a daily or weekly exercise to get their creative juices flowing. Others tend to feel that prompts are constraining or contrived. Regardless of their use as a writing tool, you may very well find them helpful as an idea starter. In this case, you wouldn’t be looking at writing prompts with the goal of finishing them as an exercise but purely as scenarios that catch your interest.

You may not even use the entire prompt as your plot but instead notice one particularly intriguing bit from it that gets you thinking. Or perhaps the prompt actually reminds you of something related, which gets you thinking about something else entirely, and before you know it: a book idea! Here are some prompts to get you started.

Use a person that you know as the main character
We could all use a little inspiration from the outside, so why not choose someone you know and cast them as the protagonist? This doesn’t mean it has to be someone you know well—if it hits a little too close to home to cast, say, your best friend in the leading role, then try someone you know more peripherally: that guy you met at a party who had a cool-sounding job, the always-friendly crossing guard at your kids’ school, the jet-setting CEO of your company.

Take what you know about them (always changing names, of course!) and make it your own. Once you have a solid main character in mind, the plot often follows.

Take the time to travel
No, you don’t have to book a plane ticket to some far-flung tropical destination (although if you get the chance, have at it!). Traveling can be taking a road trip over a long weekend, or even something as simple as driving over to the next town and spending a few hours exploring.

It’s not necessarily where you go but the fact that you are in brand new surroundings that you’ve never seen before. Stepping outside your usual routine is a great way to kick-start your imagination and get you thinking about people and places from a whole new angle.

Build around a particular theme
If deciding on a specific plot seems too daunting of a task, consider tackling something a bit broader but just as important: your theme. Every book out in the world says something, whether it’s a commentary on income disparity or the resilience of true love.

So try working backward: What do you want to say to your audience? What kind of message do you want to convey? What important universal truth do you want your readers to understand by the end? Once you’ve decided on that, you can build outward in terms of plot and characters until you have a full-fledged idea in mind.

Write down your dreams
Another way to generate book ideas that can be quite fun is by keeping a dream journal. While many of the concepts you get from it may be a bit out there in terms of coherent construction, you’ll likely be surprised at just how many little nuggets of inspiration can be found in the midst of a dream (or nightmare, for that matter).

You obviously shouldn’t rely on your dreams for sound narrative structure or logical continuity, but never underestimate the amount of fun you can have by leaning into the idea that your creative subconscious will do some of the heavy lifting for you.

Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.