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Where
Do You Get Your Ideas?
©
Marilyn Henderson - All Rights Reserved.
It always surprises me when someone asks,
"Where do you get your ideas?" I wish I
could say I order them by the dozen from a shop
around the corner, but I've never found such a
shop. People really want to know how writers
work. Creativity is unique to each of us. Writers
have no more or less than anyone else, but they
learn to use it differently and control it.
Ideas are everywhere They float or race
through our heads constantly. We see them on the
street, hear them in restaurants, read them in
newspapers or feel them at emotional crises. We
store them all but pursue only those that nag at
us until we do something about them.
Many ideas that intrigue us aren't worth a
novel or even a short story. To come up with one
that is, you need to test it before you jump into
chapter one. One easy test is to see if you can
formulate the idea into a Question that doesn't
have a clear answer, one that will provoke
discussion, argument or even hot controversy.
This isn't the story idea, but the underlying
theme or basic premise of the story you want to
tell. Writers sometimes get nervous about their
novel needing a theme, but once you create that
question that doesn't have a black and white
answer, the theme is already there. The idea for
one of my novels, By Reason of, came from a
newspaper headline that asked a trovocative
question that hooked me: Can mental health
experts really determine sanity?
The story below the headline told of a man
convicted of murdering eight people and then
pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. He was
sentenced to a mental institution instead of
prison. After years of treatment, he was declared
cured of the mental illness that had caused him
to kill and was released. In a matter of days, he
committed another murder and continued killing
until he was caught and sent back to the
institution for the criminally insane.
Read the full article here
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Learn
to write mysteries! Click here for information.
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How
do I?
Rob asked: What
is the difference between short fiction
publications and contests that charge a
"reading fee" and those that don't? Are
those that charge to read your work legit?
Answer:
It really depends on which one
you are talking about.
Contests that charge to enter
are generally legit, but it does depend on what
the entry fee is in comparison to the prizes.
For instance, let's pretend the
contest in question has an entry fee of $10. The
first prize is $100, 2nd prize is $40, and 3rd
prize is $20. They only need sixteen people to
enter to recoup their costs. The majority of
contests (even those with entry fees) will have
more than sixteen entries. Imagine how much
profit they will make!
If we now look at fiction
publications, I would say a definite and
resounding "NO!" to so-called 'reading
fees'. In my opinion, anyone who charges a
reading fee for fiction submissions is likely to
be a scam. If the publication is legit, why are
they charging authors to read their work?
Always remember: money should
gravitate TO the writer, not away from him or
her.
Sue wants to know:
How do I know when my story is finished? I
never plan an ending and I let the characters
take me where they will. Is it better to have an
ending in mind? Some have suggested an outline,
but you have to know the ending to do that.
Answer:
Every writer
works in a different way. I’m a
‘pantser’ or seat-of-the-pants writer,
which means I don’t do detailed plots, and I
don’t write extensive outlines. I’ve
tried, believe me, I’ve really tried, but it
just doesn’t work for me.
What I do
though, is know how the story will start, some of
the plot points in the middle, and I always know
how my story will end. But that doesn’t mean
you necessarily have to have an ending before you
start writing. You’ll know when the story is
finished; your characters will tell you.
If
you have writing related question you would like
answered, send it to:
mailto:cheryl@writer2writer.com?subject=How_Do_I
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Check
out TheRomance Writer website!
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Transitions:
From Here to Eternity—or Maybe Next Week
©
Cynthia VanRooy - All Rights Reserved.
Transitions—getting from here to there,
now to then, or her point of view to his—are
really not so tricky. Equipped with a few basic
rules and techniques you can change time, place,
and POV (point of view) easily.
Let’s start with time. Say the inciting
incident (the action where the plot actually
begins) is a meeting between the hero and heroine
and he asks her out for a date the following
week. A lot of new writers think they have to
tell the reader what went on every day until the
date to let us know that a week has passed.
That’s not necessary unless something that
happened during that week is pivotal to the plot.
If the next important point is the scheduled
date, then just take the reader right there. One
simple phrase grounding the reader in the new
time and place is all it takes.
A week later Jake stood at Merri’s
front door clutching the last-minute bouquet of
roses he’d picked up at the grocery store
and suddenly remembered she had said she was
allergic.
This works whether the span of time is ten
minutes, ten days, or ten years. In the case of
an especially long time, I also like to add a
space or a line with three asterisks. It signals
the reader that there is a large gap in the story
and prepares them for a change. The wording is
handled the same way though. Let the reader know
where they are in the story and move on. Say you
have a scene that takes place at a high school
prom. The next scene is ten years later.
Ariel walked into the old high school gym,
surprised at how much the same it looked. The
place should have changed more in ten years. God
knew, she had.
You see, you don’t need to fill in with
boring, inconsequential details just to tell the
reader that time has passed. Go right to the
scenes that matter and get on with the story. You
could do the earlier scene as a prologue or as
the first chapter to set it apart from the
following one. The important point to remember is
to always let the reader know where and when they
are in the story. Aim for clarity. Confusing your
reader is never a good thing.
Read the full article here
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Fact:
55% of all fiction sold world-wide is
romance!
Learn
to write romance! Click here for information.
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