Day: September 3, 2009

Writer’s Wisdom 6

/ inkspeare

“Pick a genre and stick with it, at least at the beginning.”

For those who are planning on making a career out of writing, this is sound advice.  At the beginning, the excitement and inspiration is high, the ideas are floating everywhere, and you feel that you can write hundreds of books in different genres.  You may be able to, but you have to focus your writing.  Read best selling authors in different genres and have a feel for the genre that you identify with the most.  Stick with that genre and start writing.  Write everyday.  Once your first manuscript is finished, send your queries and keep writing.  If you get published, you will start establishing yourself in that genre, and then, later in your career, you may decide if you want to try other genres.  At the beginning of your writer’s career your efforts and focus should not be spread around.  You have a story to tell, and in the future, many readers that will want some more.  So, pick a genre and write, write, write.

How to Fight Writer’s Block

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

With these easy to do techniques, you can say goodbye to the dreaded dark cloud – writer’s block.

  1. The dream approach – Dreams are a great source of inspiration.  Keep a notebook and pen next to your bed; and as soon as you wake up, write down your dreams.  Anything that you remember will become fuel for your writing.
  2. The word approach – Take a word, any word, and play with it in your mind.  Write down the ideas that the word generates.  These ideas will become themes for your writing.
  3. The “throw it out there” approach – This method is fun!  Utilize your email or better, your social networks for feedback.  Just put out a sentence and invite people to comment about it.  Limit their comment to a short sentence.  Their input can generate ideas that can in turn, become excellent topics for writing.
  4. The mind approach – Thoughts are bouncing all the time in your mind.  This process is non-stop, even if you are not aware of it.  Become a watcher of your thoughts, write them down, and use them for inspiration.
  5. The conversation approach – When you are running your errands, standing on line, at a restaurant, or any other place, listen to what people are saying around you.  This is a great source for writing material.
  6. The newsworthy approach – What is going on the news?  What do people seem to care about?  Write about that.
  7. The” from bad to good approach” – Listen to the news and pick up a sad story.  Now, what would that story look like with a happy ending?  Use the inspiration from the story to create your own.
  8. The “what I love” approach – This is simple; just write about themes that you love.  It should be effortless, since you have a passion for the subject.
  9. The “against my grain” approach – Write about subjects that you totally dislike.  This will force you to do some research, you will learn something in the process, and will have plenty of material to write.
  10. The sentence approach – Take any sentence, any, and develop a story from it.

Inspiration is everywhere; you just have to attune your senses.  So, wake up your pen (or your PC), and start writing!