Dust Off Those Story Ideas
by Susan @ The Urban Muse Writer ideasWhether you write short stories, poems or feature articles, you probably have a few ideas that never quite made it into print (or pixels, if you write for the web). Here are some ideas on dusting them off and breathing new life into old ideas.
5 Ways to Use Your Leftover Words to Dish Up New Writing
by Jesaka Long @ AKA Writer ideasWith magazines, blogs and TV talk shows hyping new recipes for using the leftovers from the turkey meals so many of us had last week, I thought I’d share how remnants of your writing can be transformed into a fresh dish.
I keep writing scraps everywhere, from electronic files to tiny notebooks and wrinkled sticky notes. When I need new ideas for my personal writing, I’ll rifle through old drafts, seeking that one snippet that can inspire a new blog post or essay. A former co-worker loved to tease me about my “vintage” email, but I frequently used old messages to find new ideas.
It can work with clients, too.
The Stashing of Ideas
by Laura @ Word Grrls ideasDo you wake up in the morning with the plot for the world’s greatest novel formulating in your brain? Not every morning, but about once a week I do. Often when I’m in the middle of something else: driving, showering, putting away groceries, watching TV, talking on the phone, making dinner, plotting my greatest ever Canadian World Domination… I get the best ideas but have no paper handy to jot them down. I forget a lot of great ideas before I can write them down.
Reading Into It
by Laura @ Word Grrls ideastechniquesHere’s a writing exercise for you: Write a short description of a scene or action with one character in the scene. Don’t describe the character, or avoid as much description of the person as you can.
People Watching
by Laura @ Word Grrls ideasinspirationI don’t think you can really be a writer unless you are also an avid people watcher. I really like to sit with a coffee and watch the people around me. I don’t write stories for them, I just observe and come to my own conclusions about who they are, what they think and feel. Do they seem tired, grumpy, cheery, clever, amused, interesting, rushed or laid back? Are they well dressed or a bit too casual? Does that hair style really suit them? You can go on forever.
Debating Yourself
by Laura @ Word Grrls ideasCould you argue in favour of something you disagreed with? Could you take the side, against your personal beliefs, and come up with a great debate? Debating is a skill. It’s not easy to come up with strong, winning points when you don’t agree with the overall ideas. But, as a writer, that is what you have to do, sometimes.
5 Writing Topics I Don’t Blog About, and Why
by Joanna @ Confident Writing ideasinspirationI’ve been doing a bit of blog stock-taking recently, looking back at the things I write about, the posts I enjoy the most and also the writing that resonates the most with you.
I also started thinking about the things I don’t write about.
There are at least five big writing topics that I know I avoid:
How to break the idea barrier
by George Angus @ Tumblemoose ideasFor most every blogger/writer, there are times when the wind is not strong enough to move your sailboat along your chosen course. You sit at the helm watching as your canvas hangs limp from the mast, hoping for any kind of breeze at all. Instead of throwing your hands up in the air and going below decks for a nap, generate some power-wind with these writing idea starters:
What to do When Ideas Hit You Left, Right and Centre
by Samar Owais @ The Writing Base ideaspaper and pentoolsYou’re sitting in a train on your way back from work, staring out the window feeling tired to your bones. Suddenly, as the train stops at one of its countless stations before yours, the graffiti on the wall catches your eye, making you sit up with a jolt. The colors, the message, the sheer creativity of it has suddenly given you inspiration. Your mind is flooding with ideas so fast you’re afraid you’ll lose them if you don’t catch them. But you don’t want to concentrate on any idea for too long fearing that it will stop the flow of other ideas that are just pouring in!
Freewriting – a Game Your Unconscious Likes to Play
by Bill Henderson @ Write a Better Novel ideasinspirationtechniquesFreewriting is a form of conscious writing that you do for a specific period of time. It’s not trance writing, you’re very aware of what you’re writing. It’s not presentational writing–it shouldn’t be written as though it will be read by others. It can be sloppy, ugly, incomprehensible, ungrammatical, as elliptical as a grocery list: because no one will ever read it, none of that matters. It has only one rule. For the 10, 15, or 20 minutes that you’ve chosen to freewrite, DO NOT STOP.
Finding writing inspiration
by Debbie Ridpath Ohi@Will Write For Chocolate ideasinspirationWhen I was in my early teens, I used to write fan letters to my favorite authors. In retrospect, I’m surprised at how many wrote back; some of them must have received hundreds of letters like mine on a regular basis. Here’s a letter that Stephen King sent to me, for example. I asked Michael Crichton where he got his ideas…proudly thinking at the time, I’m sure, that I was asking an incredibly interesting question he had never received before. To Crichton’s credit, he graciously responded with a handwritten note in which he also thanked me for my letter. His answer to my question about where he got his ideas: They just happen.
5 reasons why you should write what YOU know best
by Shilpa @ Write Easy ideasHave you been writing about automobiles when you actually are passionate about fashion? Or is it the other way round? Not sure about everyone, but there have been so many times when I did something like that and I dont care about reading it again…I just fast-email it to the publisher (as if email can be faster!) and try to forget about it as soon as I can. No matter how much I try, it does not give me the satisfaction of writing from my soul. And sometimes that’s how our clients feel too…
10 things to write on in an emergency!
by Iain Broome ideastipstoolsOnce you abandon your muse and accept the fact that other commitments in your life will sometimes prevent you from writing, you can prepare for the unexpected. When an idea arrives, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, you need to be ready. The truth is, your best ideas don’t always come to you at appropriate times. I used to regularly find myself without a notepad, desperately repeating an idea in my head to make sure I remembered it. It rarely worked. Usually, I’d forget large parts of the idea. Often, I wouldn’t remember I’d had an idea at all. This is my advice:
Four Freewriting Tools Every Novelist Should Use
by Bill Henderson @ Write a Better Novel charactersfreewritingideasAny novelist, any fiction writer, lives under the constant threat of being shut down by one form or another of writer’s block. It’s just a given of the trade. New writers encounter it as an existential crisis. It’s frightening, because it seems to be a cosmic message that we’ve made a huge mistake. We thought we had what it takes, but suddenly, it seems, we don’t. Experienced writers have looked into the eye of the beast and realized it’s just that, a beast, and like any beast, can be successfully grappled with and defeated. In my opinion, anyone can blow writers block out of the water by knowing when and how to use several variations of freewriting. I call them tools because they do what good tools are supposed to do: they make it easier, and in some cases possible, for anyone to build, repair, and speed their work.
Writing 911! 5 Tips to Breathe New Life into Your Writing
by Karen Swim @ Confident Writing ideasinspirationWhether you write as part of your profession, or as a hobby there may come a time when your writing feels flat and lifeless. You put the words on the page and they seem dead on arrival.
You are all out of ideas and procrastinating because you are bored and certain your readers will be too. For those “must do” writing tasks, you may get it done and the mechanics are all there but the magic is decidedly missing. Don’t worry, you can rescue your writing from the valley of dry bones with these 5 tips guaranteed to breathe new life into your writing.
Chasing After Ideas With a Paper and Pen
by Samar Owais @ The Writing Base ideasinspirationtoolsSince my post on recording ideas (in which I practically stuffed a pen in your bags/briefcases/pockets), I decided to add something to my pen carrying habit. Instead of just being satisfied at having a pen in my bag, I decided to make sure to take the pen out every time I had a few minutes.
10 Things to To Do When You Lose Your Blogging Voice
by Joanna @ Confident Writing ideasinspirationtipsThere are times when blogging seems easy. Natural. Maybe even like breathing. Other times though when it’s hard. Awkward. Perhaps you feel like you’ve become a stranger on your own blog. Or that there’s nothing more you can add to the words that pour out into the blogosphere, day after busy posting day. Perhaps it starts to feel like you’re losing, or have lost, your blogging voice.
Top 5 tips for beating blogger’s block
by Joanna @ Confident Writing article ideasideastipswriters blockWe might be staring at a blank screen nowadays but the feeling of frustration is just the same. So what can you do if you get hit by blogger’s block? Here are my top 5 tips for getting your creative juices flowing again:
How Dreaming at Night Inspires Famous Writers
by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen @ The Adventurous Writer ideasinspirationSome successful writers believe that dreaming at night is the heart and soul of good writing – while others can’t remember their dreams at all! Here’s a roundup of how dreams inspire some famous writers…and a dreamy question for you, fellow scribes.
How to Write Sexy Content that Satisfies
by James @ Men with Pens article ideasideasIf you want to be that confident writer who satisfies readers so that they beg for more, look no further than…
5 Ways to Increase Your Writing Income
by Susan Johnstone @ Quips and Tips ideasmoneytipsGoing “commercial” is one way to increase your writing income – and there’s nothing wrong with it – but there are other ways to support yourself as a writer! For more insight into a writer’s life, click on Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons From My Favorite Literary Gurus by Shapiro. And, read on for Johnston’s tips for increasing your writing income…
Coming Up with Fresh Content
by James @ Men with Pens ideasinspirationOne of the largest problems freelance writers might have is creating something new and exciting to generate interest. The Internet makes it easy to find all sorts of information within minutes with just the click of a mouse. The many angles of a topic or subject might already be covered by someone else. Been there, done that. There is a unique twist to everything, and part of the challenge and fun is finding that something special for your material. Stay away from the writing about the same-old that you find anywhere – it’s safe, sure, but why do you want to be the same as everyone else? What will make your material more likely to be picked out, if it isn’t unique? To stand out from the crowd, you have to go that extra mile to find something different and interesting.