writers block – Rosepoint Publishing

A Great Source of Writing Prompts

Writer’s Block—ugly words–but something that happens to most who would be authors. So it is that I am always looking for “prompts,” those lovely little ideas that would prompt an article, story, or more. It was when I downloaded “The Authors Publish Compendium of Writing Prompts“ by Emily Harstone that I finally thought I’d found Nirvana.

This was a free for the download fount of prompts and is divided into a number of different categories:

Quick, simple prompts
Classic prompts
For novelists
For poets
For creative non-fiction writers
Focused on craft
For groups

Rose Point Publishing

The first group includes ideas such as first sentence, last sentence and a 10 word short story.

The prompts are laid out in a clear, easy format, describing the location, character(s), and possible action scenarios. For instance, the prompt for “Castaway” (classic prompts #2 above) sets a main character on a small island with only three items. How the character ended up there is part of your own idea as well as whether the focus will be escape or survival. Continue reading “A Great Source of Writing Prompts”

Writer’s Block? Not Again?!

DAY 7 PROMPT: Do you ever experience writer’s block? What do you recommend to help overcome writer’s block? Any foolproof tricks that always work for you?

Oh man, nothing like a prompt that totally smacks you up side the head! Writer’s block? Who doesn’t get writer’s block? Just this prompt gave me a serious pause–or maybe writer’s block. Ah, so the definition of writer’s block then would be the lack of ideas, put to paper, for one hour? One day? A week? Serious writer’s block set in with the anthology–it was eventually solved in two ways:

I took a page from NaNoWriMo which holds to an interesting concept–50,000 words in 30 days. That translates roughly into 1,667 words per day. NaNo doesn’t read, doesn’t edit, doesn’t critique. It’s a count of words. The whole idea is to GET THE WORDS ON THE PAPER. Doesn’t really matter how many typos or whether it good prose. But getting it down, even bad sketches, can sometimes, later, be the forerunner of a brainstorm. THEN you can refine, edit, critique.
AND, you can take another credit from NaNo, in that a specific deadline (in their case 30 days) usually works wonders for me. If you’ve set yourself a deadline for the debut great–but even self-imposed you have to use that aforementioned discipline. It’s a deadline–it has to be finished; ready to submit. Or perhaps the deadline is for a chapter–doesn’t matter. A time line can work.

Sometimes something as simple as getting away from it for a period of time will help–and don’t think of it! When I still had my motorcycle, a good ride always cleared the air. There is something about riding that pastes a grin on the face, lowers the blood pressure, and goes about gently resetting the attitude. The wind in the face (or in the hair for states that allow choice), the feel of the power of the bike, the smells (you can’t get those in a cage); guaranteed you won’t be thinking of the novel. If you don’t ride, see the two suggestions posted above. Sorry.

I’VE SEEN THE COMPETITION–AND IT’D BE ME!

Writer’s Block or Lack of Goal Setting?

Is lack of goal setting setting you up to satisfy the self-fulfilling prophesy of failure? I need to finish my work by [supply date], but just can’t finish/edit the manuscript because:

I’m a daughter/mother/wife/grandmother with lots of household duties and they always seem to take precedent to the real work at hand.
I’ve hit a major snag and can’t seem to get past it–now I just don’t want to work on it at all.
I know it takes two hours to really get my head into the project, but I’m just not in the mood or right frame of mind right now and know there is not sufficient time today.

It was mentioned some time ago that I joined the Idaho Authors Community in the hope of finding new avenues to help with the promotion and marketing of my grandfather’s manuscripts written some 80+ years ago; most regarding the years he spent sailing the North Atlantic. You could say that’s a specific niche market and it doesn’t help that I’m crippled by working with another’s manuscript, not my own. That’s favorite excuse #1, made even more difficult by being unable to work in the head no longer available to me who actually experienced the infamous nor’easter of 1900; bow dipping well below the horizon and rolling to starboard before pointing three masts skyward again.

The last meeting dealt with goal setting and I realized that the goal I’d set for completing the project had already passed me by. But why? How? Continue reading “I’VE SEEN THE COMPETITION–AND IT’D BE ME!”