AWAKEN YOUR CREATIVE WRITING MUSE WITH WRITING PROMPTS...
INSPIRING WRITING PROMPTS!
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“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” -
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One writing technique is to make your character’s concerns mimic the real life concerns of everyday people. If you make your characters’ concerns relative to current times and current issues it is even better. Next best is to pick concerns that are universal to men and women of all time periods so all readers can relate. No matter how dramatic or compelling your main story is, remember there is always more than one story going on at any given place at any given time. Take a look at a local daily newspaper. Take note of all the different happenings being talked about in just one issue. Sure you have the big headline, front page stories, which could be thought of as the equivalent to your main story lines. But, the newspaper has a lot of little side stories that they are also reporting for that one day’s news. The Montville Tennessee Gazette publishes 31 pages of local news on average each day once you siphon out the advertisements. That’s demonstrates there is always a lot of diverse stuff happening at the same time, even on dull days in a rural small town setting.
If you are creating a fictional place, your fictional place must not only have as much going on as the real daily paper has but even more. This is because the newspaper can assume their readers know a lot of things already about their community. You, on the other hand are creating a community from scratch. You may have to get into addressing the back story of your place in order for readers to understand why certain things are happening now or why extra significance is being placed on a certain event. Just as newspaper readers are concerned with; political issues such as the unemployment rate, crime rates, health issues, human interest stories, the weather, sports, death, fashion…so shall your fictional characters want to discuss the same types of real life issues. Of course if you are going to all the trouble of creating a whole new world or an imaginary community then you would also want your fictional world to have some unique issues and characteristics of its very own going on too. After all, why bother to create a whole new world if utilizing a nonfiction place that already exists, somewhere in time, would easily serve your purpose just as well.
If you want to become an effective creative writer, stop thinking of fiction as fake and nonfiction as real or fiction as make believe and nonfiction true. In literature, art as well as in life, things are not that cut and dry. Nonfiction may be a more historical style of depicting events but fiction is often the artistic portrayal of real ideas that evolve out of real life events. And fiction, a lot of times, can be the best and only technique to get right to the truth, especially for authors working in an oppressive society. Art and the artist usually find a way to break through the barriers to bring the truth as well as the whole story to light. By telling a fiction tale an author can sometimes skirt political correctness under the guise that it is all make believe and just entertainment. While, all along his mission is to expose or give voice to some aspect of a dark truth that he feels has been left out, neglected or suppressed. And thus fiction can take on much more complicated issues than nonfiction, whose authors are bound to only take into account events that happen at a specific moment in a specific place, in the precise fashion they happened. While the fiction author, with shackles off, can fully explore the issues at hand and thus perhaps uncover some new truths about the same age old issues or concerns. In this way, great fiction, though totally imagined, speaks of real truth, exposes real truth and can more thoroughly interpret the whole truth than non-fiction.
Well written fiction, can expand a subject in directions nonfiction is barred from going. A fiction author can expound heightened meaning, spotlighting otherwise trivial aspects of a similar nonfiction story. The creative fiction writer is not bound by historic fact so he can explore with his story, ‘what if’s’. He can take an underlying theme and blast it to the surface giving it spotlighted importance. In this way the creative fiction writer can bring a truer truth to issues and ideas by being able to expose the subject matter from infinite angles. Great art always seeks to expose the hidden blemishes as well as the uncommon beauties of life. A sculpture can speak volumes more than a living breathing person. A painting can bring tears to our eyes. A song can; give us goose bumps, make us shiver, touch our heart. Yet they all are not real. They are usually dramatized depictions of episodes of real life. But, art can never hope to capture all that is happening at any given real life moment. Art cannot replace life. The best the artist can do is pick one view point that he feels is important enough then try to capture the essence of that view point so it can be shared and cherished by others who were not there. Great fiction writers strive to do this with their creative writing.
Yes, great creative authors use their imaginations to weave fantastically entertaining tales. They, create new astonishing worlds and fantastic character personalities because, in part, they can create them. And, more importantly, because they know these places and people they are creating cannot be found in any history books and probably never ever will be found in real life history. They want to show us what is possible, what could be. Give us something higher to strive for. Oh yeah, make no doubt about it, they are preaching to us! But we forgive them and put up with their scorn because they are doing it in such an unobtrusive, entertaining way. Instead of badgering us from the pulpit, for an hour and a half or more, pointing out all our weaknesses and sins; they tell us a tale about other people, make believe people, not us. In this way we can buy into the story, watch it progress objectively and not feel like we are being condemned, judged or persecuted ourselves. We can laugh at those people. And, we can learn from those make believe peoples’ mistakes.
Sure we feel bad for those people from another galaxy who have polluted their planet to the point that they must now board space ships and blast off into outer space in search of a whole new planet to live on. We care because we can relate. Don’t we have the same issues here and now on earth? Of course the author is writing about us; warning us what might happen if we don’t get our act together. That’s what gives the story enough value for us to pay it any attention at all. The fact that one of the main alien characters is pregnant engages our emotions even more. We all know someone who is or was pregnant or perhaps we were pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant. We all can relate to the issue of wanting to create a better world for our children to grow up in than we had. We understand the emotions of a parent wanting to protect their child. We get it; all the guilt that is brought on by the uncertainty of whether they are making the right choice for their unborn child.
The key to creating believable characters and fictional societies is to always remember ultimately you are writing about us, all of us. Your story, no matter how farfetched and how far removed it seems from reality, is really always about your readers. At some point during the read, your main character stops being a walking talking big fat Brown Bear with a Fox for a best friend and the bear becomes your reader. Yes, your reader zips on the fur of that big black bear and becomes your hero for the duration of the story. Your reader steps into the phone booth on the corner then comes out wearing a mask and a cape and he or she is able to bend steel and fly. Now, it becomes a state of life or death for you as author because every word you write has to be well thought out. Your reader is going to experience your hero’s every move intimately. Have your bear do something out of bear like character now and you’ll lose your reader forever. Your reader must say to himself. “Yes if I was a bear, this bear, I could see myself climbing that tall tree to see what was causing the smoke in the sky.” The reader should also feel, “Yes, I had a friend once who resembles the fox in this story.” And “Yes, fires do happen in the wilderness so this is a believable, possible, even a probable story.”
Creative writing prompts can be found everywhere. Newspaper articles, magazine articles, art, music, other fiction stories, a graffiti statement spray painted on the wall of a neglected building all can spark writing ideas. Poetry, song lyrics, theatrical presentations on stage, television, movie productions, political speeches all can inspire the creation of new fictional characters. An overheard argument while travelling on a crowded bus may become the basis for a tale spun around a theme of racial prejudice.
Get creative. Put a different twist on an old scenario. Challenge yourself to tell a tale from an unusual perspective. Experiment! Imagine how a popular story would develop differently if you changed the gender of the main character from male to female or if you changed their age from 14 to 55 or changed the place or time the tale took place in.
Just be sure the characters you create are believable and the worlds you perceive don’t blatantly violate any obvious, known laws of existence, even if your story is set in a galaxy billions of light years away and your main character has the ability to become invisible at will.
When you are writing fiction, making things up as you go and dealing with stuff that is in essence make believe, the only law is you have to play fair! Fair, means being consistent and staying true to the parameters you as author set. You are all powerful. The story is yours to take wherever you wish to go. So, have fun, show off. It is your baby. Certainly try to go where no writer has gone before. But, never let the power go to your head. Once created, you must stay true to the characters and the settings you’ve set in motion. If in scene one you create a villain who is a jealous, possessive, manipulative, cold hearted bastard, unless you spend the time it takes to show him going through a metamorphosis, he must continue to react based on the personality you gave him. Don’t show him doing something sweet, four chapters later unless he has an agenda behind it. Readers don’t like to be tricked! Sure, you want to develop more than one or two dimensional characters and fictional characters just like real people are complicated with many different sides. But remember, your readers have to be able to follow along. Readers love to be surprised and enlightened and we reward innovation with worshipful praise. But Readers don’t like to be talked down to or played for fools. I know, it is a fine line for a fiction author to walk but get it right and you’ll quickly build a fan base that lavishes you with loyalty.
If you are creating a fictional place, your fictional place must not only have as much going on as the real daily paper has but even more. This is because the newspaper can assume their readers know a lot of things already about their community. You, on the other hand are creating a community from scratch. You may have to get into addressing the back story of your place in order for readers to understand why certain things are happening now or why extra significance is being placed on a certain event. Just as newspaper readers are concerned with; political issues such as the unemployment rate, crime rates, health issues, human interest stories, the weather, sports, death, fashion…so shall your fictional characters want to discuss the same types of real life issues. Of course if you are going to all the trouble of creating a whole new world or an imaginary community then you would also want your fictional world to have some unique issues and characteristics of its very own going on too. After all, why bother to create a whole new world if utilizing a nonfiction place that already exists, somewhere in time, would easily serve your purpose just as well.
If you want to become an effective creative writer, stop thinking of fiction as fake and nonfiction as real or fiction as make believe and nonfiction true. In literature, art as well as in life, things are not that cut and dry. Nonfiction may be a more historical style of depicting events but fiction is often the artistic portrayal of real ideas that evolve out of real life events. And fiction, a lot of times, can be the best and only technique to get right to the truth, especially for authors working in an oppressive society. Art and the artist usually find a way to break through the barriers to bring the truth as well as the whole story to light. By telling a fiction tale an author can sometimes skirt political correctness under the guise that it is all make believe and just entertainment. While, all along his mission is to expose or give voice to some aspect of a dark truth that he feels has been left out, neglected or suppressed. And thus fiction can take on much more complicated issues than nonfiction, whose authors are bound to only take into account events that happen at a specific moment in a specific place, in the precise fashion they happened. While the fiction author, with shackles off, can fully explore the issues at hand and thus perhaps uncover some new truths about the same age old issues or concerns. In this way, great fiction, though totally imagined, speaks of real truth, exposes real truth and can more thoroughly interpret the whole truth than non-fiction.
Well written fiction, can expand a subject in directions nonfiction is barred from going. A fiction author can expound heightened meaning, spotlighting otherwise trivial aspects of a similar nonfiction story. The creative fiction writer is not bound by historic fact so he can explore with his story, ‘what if’s’. He can take an underlying theme and blast it to the surface giving it spotlighted importance. In this way the creative fiction writer can bring a truer truth to issues and ideas by being able to expose the subject matter from infinite angles. Great art always seeks to expose the hidden blemishes as well as the uncommon beauties of life. A sculpture can speak volumes more than a living breathing person. A painting can bring tears to our eyes. A song can; give us goose bumps, make us shiver, touch our heart. Yet they all are not real. They are usually dramatized depictions of episodes of real life. But, art can never hope to capture all that is happening at any given real life moment. Art cannot replace life. The best the artist can do is pick one view point that he feels is important enough then try to capture the essence of that view point so it can be shared and cherished by others who were not there. Great fiction writers strive to do this with their creative writing.
Yes, great creative authors use their imaginations to weave fantastically entertaining tales. They, create new astonishing worlds and fantastic character personalities because, in part, they can create them. And, more importantly, because they know these places and people they are creating cannot be found in any history books and probably never ever will be found in real life history. They want to show us what is possible, what could be. Give us something higher to strive for. Oh yeah, make no doubt about it, they are preaching to us! But we forgive them and put up with their scorn because they are doing it in such an unobtrusive, entertaining way. Instead of badgering us from the pulpit, for an hour and a half or more, pointing out all our weaknesses and sins; they tell us a tale about other people, make believe people, not us. In this way we can buy into the story, watch it progress objectively and not feel like we are being condemned, judged or persecuted ourselves. We can laugh at those people. And, we can learn from those make believe peoples’ mistakes.
Sure we feel bad for those people from another galaxy who have polluted their planet to the point that they must now board space ships and blast off into outer space in search of a whole new planet to live on. We care because we can relate. Don’t we have the same issues here and now on earth? Of course the author is writing about us; warning us what might happen if we don’t get our act together. That’s what gives the story enough value for us to pay it any attention at all. The fact that one of the main alien characters is pregnant engages our emotions even more. We all know someone who is or was pregnant or perhaps we were pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant. We all can relate to the issue of wanting to create a better world for our children to grow up in than we had. We understand the emotions of a parent wanting to protect their child. We get it; all the guilt that is brought on by the uncertainty of whether they are making the right choice for their unborn child.
The key to creating believable characters and fictional societies is to always remember ultimately you are writing about us, all of us. Your story, no matter how farfetched and how far removed it seems from reality, is really always about your readers. At some point during the read, your main character stops being a walking talking big fat Brown Bear with a Fox for a best friend and the bear becomes your reader. Yes, your reader zips on the fur of that big black bear and becomes your hero for the duration of the story. Your reader steps into the phone booth on the corner then comes out wearing a mask and a cape and he or she is able to bend steel and fly. Now, it becomes a state of life or death for you as author because every word you write has to be well thought out. Your reader is going to experience your hero’s every move intimately. Have your bear do something out of bear like character now and you’ll lose your reader forever. Your reader must say to himself. “Yes if I was a bear, this bear, I could see myself climbing that tall tree to see what was causing the smoke in the sky.” The reader should also feel, “Yes, I had a friend once who resembles the fox in this story.” And “Yes, fires do happen in the wilderness so this is a believable, possible, even a probable story.”
Creative writing prompts can be found everywhere. Newspaper articles, magazine articles, art, music, other fiction stories, a graffiti statement spray painted on the wall of a neglected building all can spark writing ideas. Poetry, song lyrics, theatrical presentations on stage, television, movie productions, political speeches all can inspire the creation of new fictional characters. An overheard argument while travelling on a crowded bus may become the basis for a tale spun around a theme of racial prejudice.
Get creative. Put a different twist on an old scenario. Challenge yourself to tell a tale from an unusual perspective. Experiment! Imagine how a popular story would develop differently if you changed the gender of the main character from male to female or if you changed their age from 14 to 55 or changed the place or time the tale took place in.
Just be sure the characters you create are believable and the worlds you perceive don’t blatantly violate any obvious, known laws of existence, even if your story is set in a galaxy billions of light years away and your main character has the ability to become invisible at will.
When you are writing fiction, making things up as you go and dealing with stuff that is in essence make believe, the only law is you have to play fair! Fair, means being consistent and staying true to the parameters you as author set. You are all powerful. The story is yours to take wherever you wish to go. So, have fun, show off. It is your baby. Certainly try to go where no writer has gone before. But, never let the power go to your head. Once created, you must stay true to the characters and the settings you’ve set in motion. If in scene one you create a villain who is a jealous, possessive, manipulative, cold hearted bastard, unless you spend the time it takes to show him going through a metamorphosis, he must continue to react based on the personality you gave him. Don’t show him doing something sweet, four chapters later unless he has an agenda behind it. Readers don’t like to be tricked! Sure, you want to develop more than one or two dimensional characters and fictional characters just like real people are complicated with many different sides. But remember, your readers have to be able to follow along. Readers love to be surprised and enlightened and we reward innovation with worshipful praise. But Readers don’t like to be talked down to or played for fools. I know, it is a fine line for a fiction author to walk but get it right and you’ll quickly build a fan base that lavishes you with loyalty.
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Keeping Your Creative Writing ideas Flowing
by Stu Leventhal
So it’s your lunch break and you’re sitting on a park bench, legs crossed, enjoying your peanut butter and jelly sandwich which you made yourself this morning, heavily, lavishing on the gooey, orange, apricot jelly. Yap! Yap! Twenty yards in front of you, an un-groomed, black, curly haired, little but spry dog chased a fast squirrel across the lawn then up a tree. Yap! Yap! Yap! You smiled. The scruffy pooch turned around then trotted back proudly towards its owner, a tall, thin, stooped over, old man leaning on a cane. You took a quick nibble of your sandwich then turned your attention to the young boy shouting something unintelligible from the top of the sliding board as he pounded on his chest like Tarzan. A splash sound to your right steals your attention and you twist at the waist to look. Some teenage boys are tossing rocks the size of softballs into the lake. You take another bite then as you are chewing you suddenly feel a strong inspiration for an idea for a fiction tale forming in your brain.
Strangely, the story idea has nothing to do with the park or any of the people or animals you’ve been watching for the past twenty or so minutes. Yet, somehow, something or someone here sparked your imagination into overdrive and you are quickly realizing your mind is coming out with some things that are interesting and just might have some real value to them. You toss the remainder of your sandwich into the garbage can a few feet away, rub your hands together to brush off the crumbs then dig your left hand into your pants pocket. You whip out your trusty note pad, which all great creative writers carry with them at all times, just for these occasions. You pull the pen out from behind your right ear as you slink forward. You start jotting down your fleeting thoughts as quickly as you can, using your own brand of shorthand and symbols, scribbling frantically as you attempt to block out all sound around you so you can concentrate.
You close your eyes trying to drift into a Zen like mental meditation state which you hope will keep the inspiration going. You open your eyes to write then close them to think. Write then think, open then close. The process repeats for a good half hour before the flowing words suddenly screech to a halt as mysteriously as when they first started. You look up then glance around to find you are the only person still in the park. The wind is picking up and dark clouds to the northeast are drifting closer, fast. You close the note pad take a deep breath then stand up smiling, satisfied. You know you have accomplished something of value. You glance at your wrist watch then start walking down the dirt path. You have a meeting back at the office in seven minutes.
The muse they say strikes at mysterious times. Great writers take advantage of those times. They’ve learned to cultivate those moments and cherish them. After all, for a writer, these inspirations that arise out of thin air are like gifts from the heavens. Tonight, at home, you will re-view what you wrote. You will decipher your scribbling and symbols then evaluate, re-write and re-arrange. You will think long and hard, before you throw anything out and you will come up with new stuff to add. You will walk away from the writing for a moment to clear your head. Partake of a slice of pie and perhaps some coffee then come back and rewrite and revise some more as you try to shape your sudden inspiration into something others can understand and take some delight in.
Eventually all great writers will run out of steam. We write and write and write and find that we have written our self into a dead-end situation. We tax our brains but nothing comes that is of any use. We take a break, distance our self then come back but still can’t think of another thing to write. Is it writers block? I personally don’t believe writers block exists but you can call it what you like. I’ll just say you are at a standstill. The question is; what should you do?
First realize this is an occupational hazard that happens to every writer. Next, realize the problem is not that there is nowhere else for this story to go but most likely the error is somewhere in the portion of the story you’ve already written. The muse, your unconscious, is telling you to go back and fix something that will allow you to continue moving the story forward. Don’t get caught up in trying to think of a crafty way to continue when you get stuck. Instead, go back and reread. Ask yourself what is missing? What haven’t I made clear enough? What feels strained? When you fix what is wrong with the back story, what to write next will become obvious.
Many writers don’t finish stories that they’ve started because they come to a road block or a stumbling point then begin second guessing themselves. Is this story even good enough to be written about? Am I wasting my time with this idea? The reason you are stuck is not because your story or idea isn’t good enough or strong enough to be made into a piece of literature that is worthy of others to read but that you aren’t a good enough writer...Yet! The art of writing is just that an art. And any art like any craft or skill takes practice. Many people take for granted that if they can speak they can write. This may be the case but you can’t expect yourself to be able to write as well as an accomplished writer who has been studying writing and practicing writing for many years. Even if you are an accomplished writer that does not mean you can write well in any genre or in every writing style.
Stories, especially fiction, tax our imaginations to the fullest. Fiction takes us places that are out of this world. You have to realize you will find yourself and your story in uncharted waters now and again. But, this is the place you want to be. Navigate us home and you will have created a new masterpiece. No one is saying it is going to be easy. But you have to keep challenging yourself as an artist if you are going to grow into your full potential. You can’t dazzle your reader playing it safe!
The best way I know of, to help spur a trapped writer into coming up with new ideas for moving a stalled story forward is to use the news reporter method. This is when the author stops trying to move the story forward and instead re-looks at what he has already written from the point of view of a newspaper reporter. A lot of time we get caught up in our own rambling story writing style. We let our style dictate where the story goes next. When we find our self, stuck we need to re-read with a focus on finding pieces of the story we’ve left out in our haste to keep the pace of the story fast.
By thinking like a news reporter rather than a fiction author we can easily recognize the gaps in our tale. What would your readers need or demand to know if your story was a front page news article? What would your editor cut out? What would your readership be interested in finding out more about? Pretend you are a person at home reading this story out of your local newspaper. What would you be expecting to read about in a good newspaper article that hasn’t been touched on yet in your fiction story? There is always an angle you haven’t hit on. Perhaps you need some collaborating opinions, perhaps a conflicting point of view. Look towards deepening your story and you will naturally open many avenues for your story to head down as it moves forward.
Still stuck for ideas? Act as if you are a news reporter on assignment, sent out to interview each of your characters. Take a break from writing your fiction tale and have an ‘off the record’ conversation with each of your characters. Find out what’s really going on inside each of their minds at this stalled moment by asking them each some tough interview style questions. Of course, you might not actually use their answers in the actual telling of your fiction story but taking the time to develop and understand what each character would really be feeling can open doors for you to take the story through. Ask questions that a real reporter would ask your characters then try to answer those questions while staying true to the personality traits you’ve already developed for your characters. The answers your characters give may surprise you. Now decide how you can expose these hidden sides of your characters in your fiction story.
Strangely, the story idea has nothing to do with the park or any of the people or animals you’ve been watching for the past twenty or so minutes. Yet, somehow, something or someone here sparked your imagination into overdrive and you are quickly realizing your mind is coming out with some things that are interesting and just might have some real value to them. You toss the remainder of your sandwich into the garbage can a few feet away, rub your hands together to brush off the crumbs then dig your left hand into your pants pocket. You whip out your trusty note pad, which all great creative writers carry with them at all times, just for these occasions. You pull the pen out from behind your right ear as you slink forward. You start jotting down your fleeting thoughts as quickly as you can, using your own brand of shorthand and symbols, scribbling frantically as you attempt to block out all sound around you so you can concentrate.
You close your eyes trying to drift into a Zen like mental meditation state which you hope will keep the inspiration going. You open your eyes to write then close them to think. Write then think, open then close. The process repeats for a good half hour before the flowing words suddenly screech to a halt as mysteriously as when they first started. You look up then glance around to find you are the only person still in the park. The wind is picking up and dark clouds to the northeast are drifting closer, fast. You close the note pad take a deep breath then stand up smiling, satisfied. You know you have accomplished something of value. You glance at your wrist watch then start walking down the dirt path. You have a meeting back at the office in seven minutes.
The muse they say strikes at mysterious times. Great writers take advantage of those times. They’ve learned to cultivate those moments and cherish them. After all, for a writer, these inspirations that arise out of thin air are like gifts from the heavens. Tonight, at home, you will re-view what you wrote. You will decipher your scribbling and symbols then evaluate, re-write and re-arrange. You will think long and hard, before you throw anything out and you will come up with new stuff to add. You will walk away from the writing for a moment to clear your head. Partake of a slice of pie and perhaps some coffee then come back and rewrite and revise some more as you try to shape your sudden inspiration into something others can understand and take some delight in.
Eventually all great writers will run out of steam. We write and write and write and find that we have written our self into a dead-end situation. We tax our brains but nothing comes that is of any use. We take a break, distance our self then come back but still can’t think of another thing to write. Is it writers block? I personally don’t believe writers block exists but you can call it what you like. I’ll just say you are at a standstill. The question is; what should you do?
First realize this is an occupational hazard that happens to every writer. Next, realize the problem is not that there is nowhere else for this story to go but most likely the error is somewhere in the portion of the story you’ve already written. The muse, your unconscious, is telling you to go back and fix something that will allow you to continue moving the story forward. Don’t get caught up in trying to think of a crafty way to continue when you get stuck. Instead, go back and reread. Ask yourself what is missing? What haven’t I made clear enough? What feels strained? When you fix what is wrong with the back story, what to write next will become obvious.
Many writers don’t finish stories that they’ve started because they come to a road block or a stumbling point then begin second guessing themselves. Is this story even good enough to be written about? Am I wasting my time with this idea? The reason you are stuck is not because your story or idea isn’t good enough or strong enough to be made into a piece of literature that is worthy of others to read but that you aren’t a good enough writer...Yet! The art of writing is just that an art. And any art like any craft or skill takes practice. Many people take for granted that if they can speak they can write. This may be the case but you can’t expect yourself to be able to write as well as an accomplished writer who has been studying writing and practicing writing for many years. Even if you are an accomplished writer that does not mean you can write well in any genre or in every writing style.
Stories, especially fiction, tax our imaginations to the fullest. Fiction takes us places that are out of this world. You have to realize you will find yourself and your story in uncharted waters now and again. But, this is the place you want to be. Navigate us home and you will have created a new masterpiece. No one is saying it is going to be easy. But you have to keep challenging yourself as an artist if you are going to grow into your full potential. You can’t dazzle your reader playing it safe!
The best way I know of, to help spur a trapped writer into coming up with new ideas for moving a stalled story forward is to use the news reporter method. This is when the author stops trying to move the story forward and instead re-looks at what he has already written from the point of view of a newspaper reporter. A lot of time we get caught up in our own rambling story writing style. We let our style dictate where the story goes next. When we find our self, stuck we need to re-read with a focus on finding pieces of the story we’ve left out in our haste to keep the pace of the story fast.
By thinking like a news reporter rather than a fiction author we can easily recognize the gaps in our tale. What would your readers need or demand to know if your story was a front page news article? What would your editor cut out? What would your readership be interested in finding out more about? Pretend you are a person at home reading this story out of your local newspaper. What would you be expecting to read about in a good newspaper article that hasn’t been touched on yet in your fiction story? There is always an angle you haven’t hit on. Perhaps you need some collaborating opinions, perhaps a conflicting point of view. Look towards deepening your story and you will naturally open many avenues for your story to head down as it moves forward.
Still stuck for ideas? Act as if you are a news reporter on assignment, sent out to interview each of your characters. Take a break from writing your fiction tale and have an ‘off the record’ conversation with each of your characters. Find out what’s really going on inside each of their minds at this stalled moment by asking them each some tough interview style questions. Of course, you might not actually use their answers in the actual telling of your fiction story but taking the time to develop and understand what each character would really be feeling can open doors for you to take the story through. Ask questions that a real reporter would ask your characters then try to answer those questions while staying true to the personality traits you’ve already developed for your characters. The answers your characters give may surprise you. Now decide how you can expose these hidden sides of your characters in your fiction story.
