THE EXCITING JOURNEY OF Writing
a Fictional Book
"IT'S A LUXURY BEING A WRITER,
BECAUSE ALL YOU EVER THINK ABOUT IS LIFE."
AMY TAN
BECAUSE ALL YOU EVER THINK ABOUT IS LIFE."
AMY TAN
HERE'S AN IDEA-WRITING PROMPTS
11/19/2017
You're stuck no ideas are coming to you for any kind of new story. What are you going to do? In a previous post I alluded to the fact that writer's block is no more than a state of mind. If you ever are sitting with a writer who tells you he has nothing to write, he has given up. Why, because there are too many ideas floating out in the world waiting to be kick started.
Here are some examples I found interesting enough to write short stories with. I will do so in the coming weeks, but let's look at them.
1. This wasn't the first time I had been trapped inside a _________ , but it was the first time I had to escape in order to save a life. Here's what happened. My first thought was a refrigerator, then I thought about trapped in a car that fell into the river. There are several words that would be good. Try one and see what happens. 2. Write a story about a character who finds out that he or she is dying and has been knocking things off his/her bucket list and has finally reached the last item. I think this will be very interesting. My first thought is that the last item is almost impossible to complete, but it can be done. Is there enough time that is the question? 3. You find a pen that can forge anyone's signature. Science Fiction or Fantasy at its best. Easily a short 2-5,000 word story. 4. "My dad gave me three life rules to live by: 1. (fill in the blank), 2. (fill in the blank) and 3. (fill in the blank). The first two were easy, but the third one proved difficult all because of a cheeseburger. Let me explain." I don't know, for me this one is the most challenging, but worth the effort if for no other reason than for the exercise. It all started with me typing "writer prompts for writers" and the game began. I stumbled across Pinterest where I found these four prompts. Go on and try it, test yourself and get into thinking about writing. #writing,#writing prompts,#short story,#writer's block,#how to get out of writer's block THE LARGEST RESEARCH LIBRARY IN THE WORLD
11/12/2017
One night last week I was editing my next book, "Layers of Deceit," a crime novel. I had written a scene where detectives have been called in because a body had been discovered in an apartment fire under suspicious circumstances. The first draft had the detectives questioning a man as the body was being brought out on a stretcher. Then I wondered if I had made a mistake. I had. If a body is found and foul play is suspected a special arson investigator is called to the scene. I ended up adding a scene where the arson investigator along with the homicide detective examine the charred body in a burned out bedroom. What happened? It enriched the story even though it was a grizzly couple of paragraphs. It enriched the dialog and the story because one of the detectives immediately suspected the boyfriend who denied the accusation. The other detective wasn't so sure. HENCE: Conflict What did I do? I went on The Web via the Internet and typed; "What is procedure if a body is found in an arson?" The results led me to an online Forensics Magazine and gave me the information I needed to enhance the scene, the characters, improve the dialog, and the story. For those of us who are still Neanderthal's as I am with regards to the information highway let me help those people specifically. There is The Internet and then there is The World Wide Web. The Internet is a massive network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols. The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access Web documents called Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video. Every writer I know is constantly going through " a process," in which they are growing and improving their craft. For me, this is book number six. Personally, an improvement over my first book published eighteen months ago. I wrote the outline of this upcoming book first and left it alone for several months. When I revisited the story I wrote the story, 51,000 words in two months. Walked away and now after publishing two other books I have begun editing and refining the story. Any question I have I turn to my research library, The Web, and usually find the answers I need. If you are not using it, please do so. It is a massive amount of information at your fingertips. As a writer it is invaluable. I would not be exaggerating when I say you could write a whole novel with just ten questions. Go ahead, think of a story and ask ten questions and then go to the Web. (Examples: Settings, names of characters, time periods, personality traits, procedures, weapons and tools, clothing styles, weather, inventions, science fiction.) The list, as we all know, could easily be five times that number. I write fiction not "How To," books. That means my audience wants to be entertained, which means I am a constant work in progress attempting to deliver the best stories I can write. I think of myself as entertainer working the small clubs. This is where we learn the most. The beginning while we are struggling. #The Internet,# The World Wide Web,#research library,#Writing fiction,#Writing,#Arson Investigation,#Become a writer, FREE FOR 3 DAYS-"MY BEST FRIEND IS"
11/5/2017
LIVE FIRST, WRITE SECOND
11/5/2017
“To all the talented young men, (I substitute people), who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a laborer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of his or her efforts they can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes their writing will not seem to them futile.”  As one's life marches forward in time, it fills up with a library full of experiences. Some good and some not, however, each one is a story. What better research than to write about something experienced firsthand.
It could be something as simple as a family outing buying their first dog or a day at the beach. It could also be an experience of hiking and becoming lost in the wilderness, shipwrecked, breakups, first dates, love, hate, disappointment, training for a marathon, or war, dealing with illness, college life, corporate life, afterlife, panning for gold, risking it all on one roll of the dice. The list is endless. Even when you think have nothing to write about how many people have you met in your life? Ask questions, listen to their stories. I once talked to a Homicide Detective, and it was fascinating. I listened to a man who has been in the United States for less than ten years, emigrating from the Middle East. His first job was five miles from his where he lived and because he needed money to take care of his family, to save, he walked to and from work six day's week, every week for one year. Most of the time during the night to get to work at 6 AM. I knew a woman once who was a successful stage entertainer and now works in an office as a bookkeeper. Everyone that you meet has memories, both sweet and bitter. As a writer it is your job to tell those stories, whether fiction or non-fiction. Of course the longer you're walking around the more you experience. When you sit in front of your computer and think you have nothing to write, read stories on the Internet. Filter through the "fake news" or not, but never think you have nothing to write about. THE ONLY REAL WAY TO BECOME A WRITER IS TO WRITE #Bertrand Russell,#imagination,#writer's block,#live life,#life's stories,#short stories,#dream,#Possibilities |
AuthorRobert Stephen. Archives
July 2018
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