Writing Ideas

In my other day job, writing, I sometimes get asked where I get my ideas. I was reminded about that this morning when I saw a headline in my newsfeed saying "career bank robber caught."

Years ago, I worked at a bank, and one of our branches was hit by a career bank robber. He was in and out in 5 minutes and cleaned the branch out, leaving just a few stacks of ones and fives. That led to an idea - a career bank robber sees something at a robbery which gets him out of the rob 'em and leave 'em mindset.

A decade later, I'm still trying to convert that idea into a novel. Ideas are cheap - plots are expensive. Thus endeth the lesson.