So here are ideas for Five Easy Pieces:

1. Read a book, go to a movie or a play or a concert and write a review. Or go to religious services for two different denominations and write about the comparisons and contrasts.

2. Go to public meeting having to do with education or civic matters that you think would be similar in other countries and write your general impressions. This would be more of a mood piece than a news story.

3. Stand at the busiest intersection in your hometown for an hour and do a piece on whatever strikes you (clothes styles of old vs. young, number of cars that run the yellow light--or the red light). Did anyone stop to talk to you whom you didn't know? What was conversation about? It's a way of conveying the flavor of the place where you live to others.

4. Mail or hand-deliver a six-question written interview to a well-known writer or leading professor or member of the clergy on whatever subject interests you. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

5. Pick out someone in your community who has a really interesting or colorful job and interview her or him What tweaked their interest in the job in the first place? Why do they like it? What's their normal day like? What's the best thing that every happened to them? The worst? The funniest?

If you think hard enough, you can come up with five of your own ideas for easy pieces. Two warnings: 1. Don't avoid doing the difficult, in-depth stories, because readers like and want them, too; 2. Don't forget photos!