What's my story?

Picture yourself with an idea for something you want to write. It could be a research paper, a short story, a dissertation or a novel.
Now picture yourself taking all the research you have accumulated - newspaper clippings, magazine articles, printouts from the internet as well as your own notes.
If you haven't reached that point yet, imagine that you have taken all the ideas that you have for what you want to write about - big ideas, small ones, serious ones, silly ones - and spread them out all over the table.
What you see covering that table in all its many forms is your subject matter. The next step is crucial: You have to look at the table and say, "That's my subject. Now, what's my story?"
What are you going to sift out of all of that material or all of those ideas that will be creative, fresh, and fulfilling for the reader?
Say to yourself "Health care is my subject; what's my story?" Or -- "Abraham Lincoln is my subject; what's my story?" Or -- "The first job I ever had is my subject; what's my story?"
It's a question every writer must answer.