I wanted to know where you find inspiration for topics when you have a blockage?

I don’t like this question. Can I answer another one? Okay, I’m just kidding. The reason I dislike this question is because I’m going to have to admit that in terms of ideas, I very rarely experience a blockage and that I actually have a notebook filled with ideas right now, and most of them, I know, will sell as soon as I send them out. But I’m trying to get a life (people are beginning to forget what I look like), so I’ll let the other journalists get to them, or look at them in my own time.

Anyway, given that I actually do keep a steady supply of ideas, I’ll tell you how I do it. I know where my focus lies, and I try to keep up with a lot that is going on in that area.

1. Read local newspapers and magazines. I’m awed by my fiancé, Sam, who is the India bureau chief of a British media agency. He starts his day reading at least six or seven local newspapers, gets breaking news alerts all through the day and night on his phone, subscribes to every magazine you’ve ever heard of, and actually pays people to read all the local-language papers each day and find interesting stories in them. They routinely end up making documentaries for National Geographic on these stories they’ve found in local-language media, so don’t underestimate the power of what those Hindi and Urdu language papers are reporting.

2. Build your sources. Every time I’ve finished interviewing someone who is an expert, I beg, plead, and urge them to put me on their mailing list, if they have one. If their organization deals with something I’m interested in, say sanitation or wastepicking or refugee life, I’ll let them know very clearly that I’m in it for the long haul, but can’t do it alone and need help in understanding the issues, and finding the various angles. Most people are almost always grateful that a journalist is not interested in a one-off piece (especially if it’s an important social issue) and will happily call to give updates.

3. Express further interest in people you interview. If I have time (and I usually try to make sure that I do), I do a background search on my main source (I’ve found that typically, one stands out among your interviewees)– where has he or she been interviewed? What issues do they care about the most? What kind of work have they done in the past? What are they planning for the future? Call them once in a while to say hi or check in, and keep asking if there’s something new or interesting in their field of work? If you’ve done point no. 2 well, this won’t be a problem, but many people don’t belong to organizations, don’t have mailing lists, and are simply people who happen to know a lot about something. Touch base with them once in a while.

And finally,

4. When you find that something interests you in a conversation with friends or family, file it away for future use. I’ve found several ideas through conversations or surprised revelations by my friends or acquaintances. A neighbor of mine was a doctor and astrologer, who led me to this piece. My father has been talking about the anti-Sikh riots since I was a baby (for the record, we’re not Sikh). I wrote about detectives being hired by parents for arranged marriages of their children after a conversation with friends, decided to look up hymenoplasty when talking to a cousin about repression among Indian women.

Oh, and that detective? He gave me another story that I haven’t seen published elsewhere.