My first journalism job was a small newspaper way up in the wilds of the Canadian north.

One day I was sitting at my desk plowing through press releases (story suggestions from companies and PR outfits that were hoping they'd find a reporter sitting as his desk just looking for a story).

My boss, Peter Paterson, said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Looking for a story.”

Here's how the rest of it went:

PP: Get the hell out of here.
ANG: Sorry?
PP: You're never in a million years gonna find a story sitting at that f!%#ing desk. Here's what I want you to do. Go out and knock on every door on this block.
ANG: What will I say?
PP: You figure it out. If you don't come back with a front page story, you're fired.

Of course I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't find a story (actually, I can't remember what I did, but I found one). And that's the secret. Go out in the world. Get away from your computer.