by Jill Williamson | Sep 18, 2020 | Brainstorming, Characters, First Drafts, Learning from Other Authors, Plot, Story Beginnings, Story Ideas, Story Structure
Brainstorming: Idea and Genre My stories always begin with a kernel of an idea. Something I’m intrigued by or curious about. When I’m in that early brainstorming phase, I tend to carry a notebook around with me everywhere. I try to come up with an original premise,...
by Jill Williamson | Aug 19, 2020 | Creativity, Encouragement, Guest Posts, Learning from Other Authors, Story Beginnings, Story Ideas, Writing
Do you worry that your stories might not be original enough to stand out to agents and editors? Are you afraid to retell that fairy tale you love so much, or to write about a certain setting, time period or type of character, because it feels like too many authors...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 15, 2020 | Author Life, Brainstorming, Mailbag, Story Ideas, Writing, Writing Life
Happy Friday, friends! Today, we’re answering a question that showed up in our mailbag. You know you can send us questions, right? There’s a form just for that purpose right at the bottom of our homepage. Feel free to drop us a line and, if we’re...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 14, 2019 | Story Ideas, Writing Exercise
Hey, writers! If you participated in the story idea challenge this last week, how did it go? I was pretty good about not censoring my ideas, so I walked away from the week with four “story sparks.” There was nothing so amazing that I thought “I have...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 7, 2019 | Creativity, Story Ideas, Writing Exercise
I realized recently that I have a lot of story ideas that I dismiss immediately. I’ll feel a bit of curiosity about a topic or a question, I’ll allow myself about 30 seconds to ponder “What if?” but then I start shutting the idea down with...
by Stephanie Morrill | Aug 19, 2019 | Productivity, Story Ideas, Writing Life
Back in December, I wrote about seasons of creativity and creative winters. Creative winters are seasons when might you find yourself unable to come up with a decent idea for a story, regardless of what you do. Or maybe the ideas are simmering, but with all your other...
