Writing about holiday disasters made me think that this article on Almost an Author about using embarrassing moments as inspiration would be a nice companion piece.  I also like that Mrs. Lord warns against using other people’s embarrassing moments.  Don’t embarrass somebody twice by using his or her embarrassing moment in writing that you will share with others.  As Mrs. Lord says, each of us must “have enough embarrassing or funny stories” from our own lives that we don’t need to borrow other people’s.