One of the best ways to force your brain into creativity mode is to give it a writing topic it wouldn’t typically arrive at on its own. Potentially viable topics can be found anywhere and everywhere. So ask yourself: if that’s the case and topics are everywhere, why is my mind fresh out of ideas right now? Because even though those topics are there for the taking, you have to know where to find them.
There are a variety of techniques writers can employ to locate topics worthy of a half-hour of their time, and all it takes is that half-hour to get the words flowing and to get the writing practice that is so essential to improving your skill as a writer.
There are many online discussion groups and email lists devoted to writers and providing a “topic of the week” or “premise of the week” to stimulate the flow of creativity. Many of these groups are also designed around the peer-critique method of submitting your work for critique by others within the group. In return, you are asked to submit your own critiques of their work. These groups can offer an excellent way to network with other writers while simultaneously encouraging you to write more often.
There are many websites designed to provide random journaling topics. These sites offer links that take you to a word or phrase generated on-the-fly by the click of your mouse. The benefit to this type of site is the topics are always there, with no need to wait for a group leader or moderator to provide them daily or weekly. I mentioned two of my favorite random topic sites in a previous article, Six Easy Steps For Overcoming Procrastination.
Another terrific method of locating a topic is read more »
I must admit, I’ve been suffering from a case of the writing doldrums lately. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to get myself in the writing mood. Even my usual tactics — a few of which have been outlined in previous entries — haven’t done the trick, so I decided to try something new.
I typically write at home, sitting in front of my computer at a desk, surrounded by a variety of helpful texts — a dictionary, a thesaurus, and occasionally the most recent edition of the Writer’s Market — with quick access to snacks, the stereo, and anything else that might make my writing session more enjoyable…but also quick access to the growing pile of laundry, the internet, email, and a dozen other distractions to lure me away from writing. What I came to realize is snacks are portable, music is portable, and Microsoft Word has a built-in dictionary and thesaurus. So I went mobile, hoping the change of scenery would help me regain my missing zest for writing.
As I write this article, I’m sitting in a park not far from my home, surrounded by a nice view and the sounds of nature, enjoying a pleasant breeze, and quietly observing the bravery of a squirrel as he inches closer and closer to my picnic table in hopes of a handout. (Any closer and I might consider whether he’s beginning to view this little adventure as “stalking his prey,” but for now he’s keeping a safe distance.) The weather is lovely and, for the first time in several months, the ideas are flowing like water. read more »
Finding a publisher for your novel or non-fiction book can be a daunting process, often marked by one rejection letter after another. It can take months or even years to secure a contract with a publisher. With the advent of print-on-demand publishing, a new crop of companies has emerged to provide instant self-publishing services to writers who do not wish to go through the process of finding a traditional publisher.
Through print-on-demand publishing, a writer can pay the POD publisher a fee to publish his or her book. The POD publisher accepts a manuscript from the writer in a file format such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect and then uses that file to create a digital copy of the book. Whenever someone orders the book (whether it is the writer, a bookstore, or a retail customer placing the order), the POD company prints exactly enough copies to fill that order. POD companies do not stock copies of the writer’s book in a warehouse to fulfill orders. Instead, the digital printing technology allows them to print copies only as needed. Unlike traditional publishing, in which print runs of smaller quantities are cost prohibitive, a POD publisher can print only one copy at a time without incurring any additional expenses.
The print-on-demand publishing method has its advantages and disadvantages, but in my view as a novelist, the disadvantages outweigh read more »
I’m up to my elbows in story notes, revised outlines, and chapters in desperate need of rewriting for the Mnemosyne project. Mmenosyne is just a nickname for the project; it’s not the actual title of the book. I give all my projects nicknames until I settle on a final title. Sometimes the title comes before the story has fully gelled in my mind, and other times the story kicks around for a while before a worthwhile title surfaces.
This project evolved out of an idea for a television series. It began its life as a screenplay for a television pilot — written in 1999 for Scriptapalooza’s first television writing contest, but never actually entered into the contest — and languished in story limbo until this year, when I finally decided it was a story I simply had to write. I couldn’t allow it to gather dust (on the shelf or in my mind) any longer, but this time I wanted to write it as a novel.
Because the idea was originally fleshed out as a teleplay rather than a novel, it needed some serious revamping. A little over seven years ago, I’d written the script for the pilot, along with character descriptions and brief summaries for a full season of additional episodes. Some of those items were “recommended but optional” for entry into the contest, but in the end I was glad I had invested an equal amount of effort into working on the supporting materials. Writing the episode summaries allowed me to demonstrate the story arc and character development that would occur over the course of the first season, with enough read more »
Writers are by nature very visual people. We become accustomed to working through scenes visually in our minds, as if watching them on film. Every nuance of a scene is intricately played out on our mental movie-screen before a single word hits the page.
How better to stimulate your creative mind than with images? Photographs can be an excellent way to trigger ideas, handing your mind the visual “scene” and forcing you to delve into your imagination to provide the written accompaniment for that scene.
One of my favorite Creative Writing instructors used photographs as a basis for our weekly writing assignments. Sometimes the photographs were those she had chosen herself, but often we were instructed to randomly select an image on our own from a book or magazine.
Your weekly writing assignment:
Find a magazine and open it to a random page. Study the first image on the page — even if it’s an advertisement — and write at least a few paragraphs as the basis for a story about read more »
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