Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012.
I’m a journalist by training so I feel like I’m always gathering stories ideas, whether I want to or not.
When a friend posts something on Facebook or I read something in an email newsletter or a magazine, it can all prompt ideas for blog posts.
What I’m not as good at is keeping hold of those ideas until I act on them. Since I’m blogging part time as a hobby, it’s not like I’m typically going to drop everything and write a post when I get inspired. So I try a variety of tricks, including:

• Saving interesting web reading via Instapaper
• Emailing myself if an article or website has an “email this” function, and putting “for my blog” in the subject line
• Tearing out articles and stuffing them in a “to blog” folder

I also love doing interviews with people about their personal experiences of life transformation and living life intentionally. I get those ideas by talking to friends about their experiences, and through old-fashioned journalism, approaching people whose stories interest me. I have a wish list of some people I’d like to interview, and last year I sent a whole batch of hand written notes asking for interviews. None panned out, but I’m still hopeful.
How do you get your ideas for blog posts? What do you do when you’re stuck or just out of ideas?