Sparks to Light Your Fire!

If you need help getting started with a new story, try my webpage, “Writing Prompts.” There are a few writing prompts of my own listed there, but you may also access the web for more ideas. Just a couple to name:

• Creative Writing Prompts http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

• Creative Writing Solutions http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-writing-prompts.html

One of the creative writing books I studied in the past suggested playing a game called, “What If.” It is a game one can play most any time of the day, depending on circumstances that arise. You’re driving your car and someone pulls out with their car onto the same street, almost hitting them. If you had been looking down, fiddling with the radio or your CD player, looking up into your rear view mirror or watching a person jogging down the sidewalk, you might have hit the car. With the “What If” game, you visualize what might have happened. Playing the “What If” game is easy, but writing your ideas down soon after you think of them is just as important!

• The newspapers or magazines are full of stories that you can alter and use to your advantage.

• Write a quick description of something. Now play the “What If” game, what if this should happen to the item, or that.

• Don’t try for something too bizarre that has never been done before! Readers like to relate to the stories they read, but if they can’t find a niche or a little scratch of something similar with it, they may bypass your novel and bring back their old favorites. Yes, it’s true there are many popular sci-fi reads out there, but first plant the idea in your head so it rings of a sensible tone before attempting it in front of the populace.

If you have any other ideas on ways to prompt your writing adventure, please feel free to promote them here! - Linda