A study was conducted over a two-year period to investigate the idea-generating strategies of six professional writers and their implications for students. Because finding an idea that leads to a journal or newspaper column is so important to a writer, an attempt was made to learn ways professional writers establish working plans and develop a knowledge of the topic through long-term memory. It was found that they are "assiduous string savers," accumulators of quotes or notes stored from memory and written clippings to be used for triggering associations--to generate new ideas and to discover connections. The writers' testimony demonstrates that the work of a professional writer is facilitated by an extensive storage of professional information or an immersion in the context of the profession. This immersion frees the writer from the short-term demands of discovery that student writers usually encounter. The greater the understanding of the subject, the greater the potential for making connections spontaneously. In that respect, there is a gulf between professional and student writers, which implies that students need a context to draw upon. Possibly, this context and experience need to be provided for them in rhetoric classes. (EL)