WHERE DO YOU FIND IDEAS?

When looking for a subject to write about, ideas are everywhere. Sitting on a bench in the park you have sights and sounds. Take a notebook with you wherever you go and use all your senses to capture the world around you. See the child sliding down the slide: capture the dialog and jot it down. What are people doing and saying around you? What about their mannerisms? How they walk, talk, look?

There are many things to look for when trying to find a subject matter. Look in the newspapers. Is there something that jumps out at you and captures your attention? Possibly a murder, or someone missing. Write about the search party; someone in the search party. Make the person interesting. Does he/she have anything to do with the missing person? Do they know this person? Just read the newspaper and see what you can come up with. Change the story to meet your needs.

Watch the evening news. Watch online news and events. What’s going on in the world that disturbs you and you want to write about it?

There are thousands of writing prompts online (google). Something might jump out at you and beg to be written.

I’ve always been interested in women’s issues, especially in other countries. For instance: kidnapping, female genital mutilation, child labor, unequal pay, beating of women, child & women abuse, elder abuse, animal abuse. I could go on, but you get the idea. There is so much going on in the world we could write about passionately.

Read and study about things you are interested in and start writing in your own words.

There’s a saying to not mix politics and religion together. Why? Because they are controversial issues. So, I say, write about it. How do you feel about how America has changed since you were a child? Is it better or worse? What changes have you seen? What improvements would you want to see happen? And religion. Why do you think there are so many? What’s the purpose of so many? What is the right one? How would you go about changing the views of those around you?

There is a plethora of things to write about, whether right or wrong. Someone will have a negative opinion about it anyway. But you will stir up interest. That’s what makes a good writer into a great writer.

Have you watched any good movies lately? How about an old movie…can you see a better ending? How about changing the protagonist to the opposite sex? Maybe change the storyline. Bring it up to date for today’s time.

Watch movies and read books you’re interested in. Can you see something entirely different than what the author wrote? Does your imagination take you on a diverse journey? Good! Go for it.

What about dreams. I know everyone has dreams that are dark or silly. Why not weave them into a story? Better yet, write an entire story and fill in the part of the dream that wasn’t there. Complete the dream. I’ve had some wild dreams about planes crashing around me, or bombing me. They were quite vivid and still remember them years later.

I don’t mind buying books that might help me with prompts. I bought one called, The Writer’s Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts. There are over 1001 prompts to start your imagination flowing. I used to run a writing group from 2001 to 2012. I used prompts in this group of writers to come up with a story each month and then we would critique: grammar, story, use of the senses, conflict and resolution and lots more. This book helped in keeping our creative juices flowing.

So, wherever you are, you can be sure to find something interesting to write about. Just keep your eyes and ears open. Your senses will pick up something interesting for your next story.

Let the journey begin, and have fun.

Article formerly posted on: Writers on the Move

BIO:

Linda Barnett-Johnson is a virtual assistant for authors, former editor, former assistant editor of Long Story Short ezine. Published many articles, short stories and poetry.

www.lindabarnett-johnson.com 

Your Writing Career: Up Your Credibility and Exposure by Writing Professional Reviews

Excerpted and expanded from the recently released 415-page book in Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically

Writing great professional reviews (as opposed to writing more casual reader reviews which I also cover as part of my newest how-to book for writers!) will probably entail tackling a slight learning curve. It isn’t as steep, however, as the curves required when you switch genres from, say, experimental genres to literary or poetry. With a few basic guidelines, you can write reviews to be proud of for your blog or other online review entities. Different media outlets have different style guides.

Here is why you might choose writing reviews as a way to give your writing career a nudge (you can read that market if you want to!).

§  1. Writing reviews is fun. It is, after all, writing. And it allows you to market by doing what you like to do.

§  2. Writing reviews will help you network with all kinds of editors, authors, and others in the publishing industry who may be in a position to help you market your own books.

§ 3.  Amazon and its links to your author’s profile page are waiting for you! Each review you post there contributes to your exposure on the one place in the world where the most readers and writing professionals hang out.

§  4. Your reviews lend to your credibility in the publishing world.

Here is a style guide similar to Midwest Book Review’s guidelines for their reviewers:

• Your review should begin with metadata including:

• Title.
• Author.
• Publisher.
• Publisher’s address.
• Publisher’s Web site address (if they have one).
• Publisher’s e-mail address (if they have one).
• ISBN.
• Retail price.
• Page count.
• Your name (that would be you as the
  reviewer).
• 
  
• To write an engaging review, consider:

• Including why you selected this particular book for review. Perhaps it relates to your work, hobby, avocation, a particular area of interest, your expertise, or just for fun.
• Adding how the author uses language and structure, illustrates his/her points, develops characters. Use brief quotations from the book to support your observations, opinions, and comments. When writing poetry reviews, include an excerpt from a poem that illustrates a point; when writing a review of a cookbook, include a recipe that appeals to you.
• Who the book is intended for. Address how well the material relates to that audience.
• What the author is trying to accomplish? Entertain, instruct, persuade, inform, train, teach, alarm?
• suggestions for the author to consider next time his or her work appears in print.
• Including a bit about the author’s background, credentials, or other titles.
• Including relevant titles that might interest the readers of this book.
• To submit a review to journals, follow their formatting guidelines. Lacking those, type your reviews in single spaced paragraphs with double spacing between the paragraphs. The review can be a few paragraphs or a few pages—take as much space as you feel is necessary to say whatever you want to say, unless you are writing for a specific journal, blog, or review website. In that case, follow their suggested word count.

Above all, have a good time putting your thoughts and opinions down. The best reviews are those that you would like to listen to while driving along in your car or chatting with friends over lunch. I interpret this as meaning that this journal would prefer a casual tone rather than too much formality.

Here’s one of the most important guidelines for authors who choose to review for the good of their careers. Do you remember what Flower, the skunk in Disney’s Bambi said? “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” We’ll just amend that to, “If you can’t find anything nice to say, don’t write a review.”

If a book is badly written or not worthwhile, send the book back to the author with a polite explanation that you are not a match for this book rather than slash and burn. It will look a little like the rejection notices we authors must become accustomed to in the submission process.  This doesn’t mean you can’t include some criticism. You should. Studies show that a review that is tempered by critique sells more books than rave reviews because they are viewed as more credible. Further, just as a critique group can make a difference in an author’s technique, so can a critical comment from a reviewer.

Hint: If you plan to pursue reviewing for pay, I recommend you read Mayra Calvani and Anne Edwards’ book, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing or Magdalena Ball’s The Art of Assessment. It turns out that some writers carve entire careers out of reviewing. And others manage to make enough money from it to support their poetry or fiction habits until they become rich and famous.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as an instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor. They won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. She is celebrating the release of the third, How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically in the series.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Achievements with Essays and Flash Fiction by Patricia Crandall

An editor requests an essay. First of all, to me, essays were a dreaded school assignment. Admittedly, being forced to write an essay in grammar school was the beginning of my writing career. And meeting that first critical deadline proved I could produce a 

worthwhile written piece. My demanding but fair English teacher, Sister Emma Jane Marie, an Academy of the Holy Names nun clothed in a full black and white habit, discovered I could write creatively before I knew I could. Once she took me under her wing, I wrote for the school newspaper and published many of my class writing assignments in newspapers and various magazines.

Hundreds of essays later, I am still intimidated by the request for a particular essay. How do I start writing on that blank paper or computer screen? First, the ideas flow. Then word binges and thought flashes follow. The process is similar to a horse race. Ready. Set. Go! And I am amazed that words written in a ‘tight’ order can be produced so easily once the creative juices surge. And in a reasonably short time, a finished piece is ready to send to an editor.

Essays can be read in minutes – on a train, on an Uber ride, on a plane, or on a lunch break. They may entertain, instruct, and improve one’s health and well-being. It may be a reflection of our fast-paced world, however, essays are ‘in.’ Dig in the files, writers, for reprints to update into essays and flash fiction. 

As a writer, I prefer to work on short stories and novels, however, presently mainstream, ezine and small press magazines require more essays and flash fiction of 500 words or less. Even simple thoughts are sought after. Not too long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive in the mail, a $50.00 check for an ‘idea’ a popular woman’s magazine printed in its 'Indulgences' page. As a result of this success, I have had acceptances of additional three or four line ‘bits.’ Due to these favorable results, I bring a pen and tablet wherever I go – doctor’s waiting rooms, on vacation where thoughts stream generously and on the playground while my three grandchildren are having fun burning high energy. Their energy ignites my energy and I am on a roll.  

Essays can be read in minutes – on a train, on an Uber ride, on a plane, or on a lunch break. They may entertain, instruct, and improve one’s health and well-being. 

It may be a reflection of our fast-paced world, however, essays are ‘in.’ Dig in the files, writers, for reprints to update into essays and flash fiction.

THIEF AMONG THE VEGETABLES by Patricia Crandall (poem)

Dratted rabbit

interferes

with my planting/hoeing/spraying

for the season,

Scat nuisance!

I plant onions

circling round the garden

and smile fatuously.

That little brown cottontail

will never pass

through this barrier again

I have been told.

Lo and behold ...

my rich harvest of radishes,

lettuce, green beans

and squash ,.. cucumbers

ripe for plucking

pilfered, stolen,

nibbled away by

that long eared, bushy-tailed

vegetable thief!

by Patricia Crandall