Different ways to get your story started

Writers (of fiction, non-fiction, online, print, and so on) know that beginnings are important. Without the right beginning, the chance for retaining a reader declines rapidly.

So, what type of beginning is best? There’s no perfect answer, of course, but do you have a habit of starting stories, articles, or blog posts the same way? If so, or if you’re unsure, now is a good time to evaluate your writing and see if there’s a way to refresh your beginnings.

Exercise: Pull out a few stories, articles, or blog posts you’ve written recently. Note how you started them. Did they start with the same part of speech? Do you lean on nouns, verbs, pronouns, or adjectives every time?

If not, you already have variety in your beginnings. Bravo!

But if you notice a tendency to open with a certain part of speech  (I favor starting with ‘The’), consider trying something new with the next piece you write.

Here are some examples of ways to start a sentence:

• Adjective – Bright lights can show more than you want seen.
• Article – The best way to manage your time is to schedule it.
• Adverb – Sometimes clients know what they want, but not what they need.
• Conjunction – But you may not find the answers if you don’t ask the questions.
• Gerund - Crossing your arms is a sign of disagreement.
• Noun - Jess made her way to the stage to accept her award.
• Preposition - On the ropes, the boxer glanced at his girlfriend and winked.
• Pronoun - She bought the antique clock after taking its measurements.
• Verb - Start now and celebrate the milestones.

Practice opening your sentences in different ways to see if anything new works for you.

Give it a shot, there’s nothing to lose, and only refreshed writing to gain.

Lisa J. Jackson loves working with words in her own work and with businesses. She also loves New Hampshire and is focused on completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch consistently. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Hands-on research for local journalists and mystery writers

If you write about your community, or if you’re a mystery writer, a great resource (if you have it) to gain insight and make contacts is to take advantage of a local citizen’s police academy.

Last fall I participated in a 10-week program in my current town. I’ve also participated in 2 prior academies in a town and city I lived in before. The experiences and connections are priceless.

I’ve found that academies are generally offered in the fall, but depending on the size of the community(ies) the academy is focused on, there could be multiple offerings during a calendar year. A neighboring city offers them twice a year, for instance.

Start with the Web: visit your local police department’s (PD) website to see if there is an academy. If you don’t find any information, give the department a call on its business line and ask.

Procedures vary, of course, but I’ve always had to go to the PD to fill out an application. Each time it has been a regular job application that wants high school, college, areas of study, job history (complete with start and end dates and hourly wage) – you know the type – 4 pages with lots of boxes to fill in. Applying can be intimidating if you over think it. Filling in the basics is good enough, since you are not applying for a job.

You also have to sign a form allowing the PD to perform a criminal background check.

Academies are generally capped at about 30 people, depending on the size of their conference room I think! But, most academies like to offer hands-on classes and want to keep the classes manageable. The last academy I attended only had 11 participants. The earlier academies had 30-35 participants. It’s great to have a small class because it gives everyone more time for hands-on work (there is usually a lot of show and tell) and also more time to ask questions.

All academies I’ve participated in have been no cost to participants, are offered one night a week for 8-12 weeks, and run for 2.5-3 hours each evening. It’s common for participants to volunteer to bring in goodies each week to go with the PD’s offering of coffee, water, and candy – one academy always had Dunkin’ Munchkins on hand.

During the weeks of the academy, you will meet officers at all levels of experience: newbies as well as those ready to retire. You’ll meet beat cops and detectives, lawyers, child advocates, emergency responders, volunteers, clergy, and more. You’ll learn various behind-the-scenes procedures and processes, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, get to participate in ride-a-longs with an officer on duty.

I particularly enjoy learning forensic processes (small towns don’t have a lot to work with), meeting canine officers and seeing how they work, and I love going to the shooting range for target practice. (That’s me during my 2002 class.)

Citizen police academies give you a different perspective of your community and can add depth to your non-fiction or fiction writing.

Have you ever attended a citizen police academy? 

Lisa J. Jackson partners with businesses seeking to express themselves with words. She loves New Hampshire and is completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She wasn’t a runner until now, and is thinking that someday she wants to complete the Alcatraz Triathlon. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Tackling a 24-hour short story contest entry

I like to enter writing contests now and again, and in general prefer not to enter any that have a fee. I tend to like money coming to me for writing rather than away, which I’m sure you can relate to.

But there’s a short-story contest that caught my interest a few years ago that I like to enter, even though it has a fee. It’s the Writer’s Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest and it’s put on 4 times a year. The fee is $5 to enter.

There are a few reasons why I like this contest:

• There are more than 85 prizes available
• Top 3 prizes include cash amounts of $300, $250, or $200; and publication. Incentive!
• It’s limited to 500 participants — 17% of total participants can win something (but, not all 500 submit by the deadline)
• I don’t know the topic or word length until the bell rings – no stress over the prep
• All participants have the same 24-hour period in which to write and submit
• The rules are spelled out in detail and communicated on the website, in a downloadable PDF upon registration, and again at the start of the contest
• Even though a prompt is the base of the contest, you don’t have to use it verbatim
• There’s a lot of writing freedom
• No specific genre
• Encouraged to think outside the box
• Tips are shared (i.e. it doesn’t impress the owner to have a character with her name or location in your story; put a title on the story; put your contact information at the end of the submission, and so much more)
• If I end up not submitting, I don’t feel guilty over the $5 spent
• I have time to write a draft and then step away from it (usually sleep on it), and then refine the piece before submitting
• There are more than 85 prizes available (oh, am I repeating myself?) That’s a LOT of opportunity to win something!
• It’s been around for quite a while
• It’s always on a weekend (Saturday 1PM EST to Sunday 1PM EST)
• The contest date It’s always announced weeks in advance, so I can schedule the time
• When winners are announced, a summary of all entries is shared – common themes and endings – as a learning tool
• It’s fun!
• It’s a great break from ‘regular’ writing
• I’ve placed in the contest a few times – and continue to strive for Top 3 at least once.
• It’s good exercise for the muse
• It’s a milestone to look forward to
• Winners are announced when promised (generally within 6 weeks)

Okay, so that’s more than a few, but I haven’t come up with any reasons not to enter. There’s really nothing to lose, and only some spur-of-the-moment writing-to-a-prompt experience to gain (at a minimum).

My method for tackling the entry is: read the prompt and word count limit as soon as the e-mail arrives. Scratch out initial thoughts. Go out for a walk or get lunch and think about the prompt – think about what the ‘typical’ responses might be (the 1st 6 or so that come to mind should be ignored or twisted into something new). Do a free write without worrying about spelling or word count. Pull the nuggets out from the free write. Write a ‘real’ story. Step away from it. Read it. Step away again. Tweak it. Sleep on it. Make final revisions and submit a few hours before deadline.

This past weekend was the Spring contest. The Summer contest is going to be on July 13, and is now open for sign ups. Yep, I’ve already reserved my seat.

Do you have a favorite contest, or one that you find worthwhile? I’d love to hear about it.

Lisa J. Jackson makes a living helping businesses express themselves with words and writing about NH. She has decided to complete several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She drinks iced coffee year-round, and needs a stash of Peppermint Patties in the fridge at all times. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Hanging out with writers is exhilarating…and exhausting

Writing can be a solitary life, right? Even when working in a noisy cafe, I can encapsulate myself as I focus on my work – be with/around people, yet still alone.

So when I purposely join a group of writers for a couple hours or more, it’s a bit of a emotional overload. I go from my own thoughts to learning about other writers, what they’re passionate about, what they enjoy reading and writing, and what they are currently working on.

And at those times, I wish I was a sponge and able to absorb *everything* and review it later. I do the best I can, of course, and scribble notes when I have the chance.

I attended a full-day writers’ conference on Saturday and am still recovering. I got there early and met several people right away.

• A neurologist who writes about addiction and recovery; he blogs and speaks to people who need his expertise – turning medical terminology into layman’s speak. And he’s 2/3 of the way through a book on the same topics he speaks about.
• A career-long technical writer adjusting to writing historical fiction and finding it challenging to shift away from linear writing with rules to the freedom that fiction allows.
• A newly published author who was attending the conference for the second time. Last year, her book was in process and after last year’s workshops and networking, the book has been published with a second scheduled with a publisher.
• A local radio personality who enjoys meeting people and coming out from behind the microphone is now transitioning into the writing world.
• An almost-MFA-graduate who was there to practice pitching a YA fantasy novel and to hopefully find leads into teaching opportunities.

Andres Dubus III was the keynote speaker. I’m not familiar with his work, but after hearing him speak, I want to learn more about his work. He was very down to earth and direct. I found it refreshing and motivating.

The workshops I took gave me new ideas for works in process and works not yet drafted. My workshops focused on characters, YA (young adult) & MG (middle grade) fantasy writing, and using maps as stories.

I also got to network with people in my area. It’s so nice to find local-to-me writers interested in getting together for coffee, or better, a writing group. It’s hard to find each other when we’re at home hiding behind our screens!

Bottom line is that I came away from the conference exhilarated with an abundance of information to evaluate. I recorded the workshops, but not my conversations, and it’s usually the conversations that have the priceless ‘nuggets.’

Back to my sponge analogy: after days like this, if I were a sponge, I could wring my thoughts into a bucket and take time to see what I captured. As it is, I usually need food to re-energize, and then quiet time to let everything settle — keeping a notepad and pen nearby to write down the thoughts that bubble to the surface.

Do you take time the same day to capture your ideas/thoughts after going to a workshop or conference? Or do you give yourself a day or more to let things settle?

Lisa J. Jackson makes a living helping businesses express themselves with words and writing about NH. She has decided to complete several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She drinks iced coffee year-round, and needs a stash of Peppermint Patties in the fridge at all times. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Writer-In-Progress

If you want to know what someone believes, look at how they behave. We can all say we believe anything at all, but our beliefs are expressed in our actions.

I’ve been saying for years that I want to write more. that writing is a priority for me. Until two years ago, I wasn’t walking my talk. Not that I didn’t write at all, but it wasn’t a priority. Except for November, 2008, when I won NaNo for the first time. That was cool, but not sustainable.

But for the last couple of years, I notice that I’m writing more. Daily, even. I’m finally walking my talk. Of course, my definition of “writing” has also gotten a little looser. But that feels good, too.

None of my writing is wasted, not even the silly emails I send my family about my day. I usually write these in the middle of the night when I can’t settle down from the events of the day. I consider them “writing” as  I rewrite and edit them, making them as funny as I can. Anything that allows me to practice my craft qualifies as writing these days.

If you read my life coaching blog, you’ll see that I recently wrote about Self-Love. Part of my path to kindness and compassion toward myself is allowing myself to make mistakes and allowing myself to call myself a writer, even though I haven’t published the great American novel (yet!)

While I don’t want to delude myself by calling myself a writer after writing a two line email, I also can’t wait until I’m published by Random House to do it. There’s a middle road that I choose to walk. I’m a busy mom and life coach—and writer.

In the past two years, I’ve made tremendous progress as a writer. One of the reasons this is so is because I’ve allowed myself to be a writer-in-progress and stopped forbidding myself the title of writer just because I don’t have an agent and a publisher.

Almost twenty years ago, after four years of medical school, I graduated with the degree of medical doctor. Then I worked as a resident for three years and took care of patients under the watchful supervision of more experienced physicians. But I still called myself a doctor. I see my journey as a writer in the similar way. I’ve gained enough experience and expertise (I’ve sat my butt in the chair enough hours and produced enough words) to call myself a writer. But I’m still a work in progress. I’m still putting in my 10,000 hours.

Did you write today? Then you, too, are a writer. Let yourself believe it.

Diane MacKinnon, MD, Master Certified Life Coach, is currently a full-time mother, part-time life coach. She is a Master Certified Life Coach, trained by Martha Beck, among others. She is passionate about her son, her writing and using her mind to create a wonderful present moment.  Find her life coaching blog at www.dianemackinnon.com/blog.

Read Full Post »

Seven Ways to Write Better Stories by Failing – a guest post by John Yeoman

Seven Ways to Write Better Stories by Failing

a guest post by John Yeoman

Help! They’ll hate my story. I can hear them now. ‘It’s lovely and so… you!’ Yes, they hate it.

Even if they say they don’t, can we believe them? At least, the verdict we get from an agent or competition judge will be honest. But honesty is cruel. No wonder new writers shudder when entering a major contest.

Since 2009, many of the 3500+ contestants in the Writers’ Village fiction award have asked me ‘Please be kind!’ Their terror is real. Why? If readers reject our story, they stamp on our soul.

Here are seven defences against the terror of rejection.

1. Join the club!

Virtually all authors who have left an enduring legacy were scorned in their debut years. It took Agatha Christie 23 attempts to get her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles into print. Every publisher in London laughed at William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies.

Tell yourself ‘early rejection is the sign of fame to come’. Logical? No, but often true.

2. Blink away the fairy dust.

Few novels get published today by writers who want to ‘express themselves’ or ‘write their lives’. If you set out to write solely for yourself you will write garbage. Write what the market wants then you can be as individual, within those constraints, as you wish.

Salman Rushdie didn’t start by writing Literature. He honed his skills as a copywriter for the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather. Only then was he qualified to embark on Midnight’s Children, which won the 1981 Booker Prize.

Be realistic about what publishers today will publish.

3. Welcome rejection as a free lesson.

A failed story is a great story if it teaches us something about our craft. If our writing hasn’t succeeded yet, it’s because we haven’t failed enough. What’s more, early success is dangerous. Next time, our novel might not earn out its advance. And our confidence collapses.

But if we have lived with failure for seven years, we sigh. We carry on. It goes with the territory.

4. Know the odds – and play the game regardless.

Can pessimism be a positive emotion? Yes, if it encourages us to persist against the odds. And the odds of a new writer being accepted by a reputable agent are around one in 2500, or so a top agent Luigi Bonomi once told me.

Accept the odds and soldier on.

5. Start with low-risk projects.

Don’t embark on a novel from day one. Chances are, you won’t finish it. Learn your craft with short stories. That’s how Joyce and Hemingway did it. Enter them systematically in short fiction contests. In each one, try out a new technique.

Soon you’ll get a feel for what judges look for – and agents too. Every submission teaches you a new craft skill.

6. Be content with small successes en route to stardom.

When you do embark upon that novel, agents will be genuinely impressed if you’ve won a dozen major awards. Your first paragraph might actually get read. But if a story fails to impress a contest judge, improve and submit it elsewhere. Eventually it will win, because every submission has refined your  skills.

7. Keep yourself motivated by reading the latest best sellers.

Stephen King once gave this advice to newbie writers: ‘Read the latest best seller. Then ask yourself “How come this garbage was even published?”’ With some notable exceptions, popular novels are not distinguished by literary talent. Only by the persistence of their authors.

Those authors succeeded because they learnt, early on, that Failure is a Good Thing. But persistence is better.

John Yeoman

Dr. John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. He has been a successful commercial author for 42 years. You can find a wealth of ideas for writing stories that sell in his free 14-part course at:

http://www.writers-village.org/story-course

cwriting@btinternet.com

Read Full Post »

Saturday Edition – What We’re Writing and Reading

Welcome to this Saturday Edition of What We’re Writing and Reading.

We’re taking a little detour on the weekends now to share some of what we’re up to with our writing (when we’re not here) and what we’re into with our reading (around the web). We’ll also pull back the curtain a little to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what went into a piece.

We hope you enjoy this little diversion and encourage you to share your own posts and picks in the comments.

Happy writing! Happy reading! 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Jamie Wallace:

What I’m writing:

In case you missed it, punk/cabaret musician Amanda Palmer (more commonly known to some writer geeks as Neil Gaiman’s wife) recently gave a kick ass talk at TED on the “art of asking,” I watched the talk several times and enjoyed it very much, but I felt that a big piece of the give-and-take equation was overlooked: the giving that made Palmer’s asking to effective. Her approach to developing and marketing her brand is a study in authenticity, crowd sourcing, social networking, and the innovative new business models that are of great importance to artists of all kinds. Her talk is worth a listen, and I hope you’ll give my post, The Other Side of Amanda Palmer’s TED Talk a read as well.

This week on the Fans of Being a Mom blog, I waxed a little nostalgic for the days when my daughter was just a babe in my arms in a brief essay, I want to go back. It’s difficult to avoid occasional trips down memory lane, replete with the requisite angst and regret. My daughter is an only child and I do not expect or plan to have any more children, so for me those memories are that much more bittersweet. I know that, because of my first-time mom jitters, I missed a lot. I was too busy worrying about the “right” way to be a mom. I wish I had those days to live over. I would do things so differently.

What I’m reading…
Online:

• Mermaids… a brief little story accompanied by a beautiful and whimsical watercolor painting. Both story and illustration by my artist friend, Barbara DiLorenzo.
• What to do when you’re stuck with a blank page by @sarahjbray with an assist from Hemingway’s widsom.

Offline:

• Here at the New Yorker by Brendan Gill. The story of why I’m reading this is noted in my recent guest post, Should Life Be Serious?
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I will finish it this weekend!

.

Lisa J. Jackson

What I’m Writing:
This week I’ve been pulling my calendar together for my series on owning/starting your own writing business that I’m publishing here on Mondays. I’m working with a non-profit on writing a strategic plan, and a start-up on writing a business plan. It’s very exciting. (And I’m finding time to work on that novel I mentioned last week.)

What I’m Reading:
Fiction: This week included a couple of novels by Brett Battles, and now I’m finishing a novel by Charlaine Harris (that has been partially read and sitting in my TBR pile for months), “From Dead to Worse.”

Online: Here are some blogs I enjoy: Susan P. Cooper’s Finding Our Way Now which includes little personal stories, great recipes, and posts about wine (I love trying new wines). Donna McNicol’s My Write Spot where she talks about her writing and other writing. And Married with Luggage – posts from a couple who sold everything in order to travel the world and found they love the lifestyle.

Susan Nye:

What I’m Writing:
I’m a skier, thankful for the recent snow and warmer weather so this week I wrote about spring skiing. You can find the story on my blog Around the Table. Since it is a food blog, I’ve added my recipe for my Decadent Mac & Cheese. The recipe has been kid and adult tested and passed both with flying colors.

Every Thursday or Friday, I create a seasonal menu with links to the recipes. This weekend it is comfort food with Mac & Cheese, some comfy starters and brownies for dessert.

What I’m reading:
I follow a couple of photoblogs. If you like architecture, design and photography, you might like one of my favorites: Hovercraftdoggy.

Out & About:
And just like that, I have the audacity to create a new category. Why? Because I’ll have little time for writing or reading on Saturday. I will be out and about judging chocolate at Chocolate Fest. Chocolate lovers are invited to stop by and enjoy a sweet taste or twelve. It’s all happening at Colby-Sawyer College in New London on Saturday, March 9th (that’s today).

photo: M. Shafer

.

Deborah Lee Luskin:
For me, the big event of this week was neither reading nor writing but moderating my town’s annual meeting, where we vote on our budget. Those with curiosity and/or insomnia can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage by going to brattleborotv.org.  Watch Local  Shows on Demand (upper right) > 2013 Town Meeting Day > 2013 Newfane Town Mtg. That took up most of Monday (preparation) and Tuesday (execution and recovery); Wednesday I worked a freelance job for pay, and Thursday, I traveled out-of-state to research something for my current novel (Ellen). Friday, I sat down and worked on Ellen.

Read Full Post »

Fencing Off Your Writing

Of all the graduation speeches I’ve ever heard, the most meaningful one was at the ceremony for a friend who had just become a rabbi. The speaker exhorted these new clerics “to build a fence around their Torah.” He told them that even as they ministered to their congregations and fulfilled their pastoral duties, raised families, and pursued outside interests, they would need to carve out time and space for their own spiritual practice and study.
I’m not religious in any conventional sense and belong to no organized group for spiritual communion, nor do I subscribe to any particular religious orthodoxy. I do have a deep and rich spiritual life, however, one that is nourished by my writing. But putting words on a page doesn’t always put food on the table, money in the bank, or deliver children to soccer practice.
During those years of working outside the home and then driving all afternoon from soccer to ballet to karate with mad dashes to the orthodontist and the grocery store in between, finding time to write was difficult, even with a room of my own. For years, the room I had was unheated, but it was nevertheless where I sought refuge – wearing head to toe polar fleece. On days when I could arrange to write fiction during business hours, I’d be thwarted by phone calls, household emergencies, or simply distracted by keeping an eye on the clock for when I had to start the afternoon driving. So I started getting up early.
Writing while my family slept and before the telephone could ring was the perfect fence to keep out distraction, to allow me the time and space to pursue this writing gig, which keens in me whether I like it or not. I wrote most of two novels in these perfect, early, undisturbed hours when I could focus entirely on my work, because I knew exactly where my children were, and that they were safe – and unconscious. I was not distracted even by maternal worry.

 

And then one day the kids were grown. I retired first from my management job and then from all but the most interesting and/or profitable freelance gigs. My husband built me a heated studio away from the house, with neither telephone nor internet. It’s perfect, and when I’m out there, nothing exists but the words on the page. It’s just like Anne LaMott says in Bird by Bird: I’m really just listening to the characters in my head and taking dictation.
Even so, some days there are daytime distractions, also known as responsibilities, most of which require a telephone and/or internet access during business hours. These include not just the things we all have to do, like prepare our taxes, but also the things we choose to do, like public service as an elected town official, and a juicy, part-time job spearheading a special project for VPR. As much as I fantasize about writing all day every day, the truth is I do many other things as well, some of which I have to schedule during prime writing time.Lately, there’s been a spate of these things, from the ordinary, like taking the car in for service, to the delightful, like traveling out-of-state to dig into special archives  for my current novel. But all these interruptions take a toll.
Writing a novel takes me a long time. I develop characters and situations and settings, writing pages and pages and pages of what I call a first draft but is in truth a messy collection of really good notes. I keep writing, sometimes desperate to discover how to tell the story, and sometimes with faith that I will discover the path.
Faith prevails: I’ve just mapped out the path. I’m ready to rewrite. But the parts I have are so scattered that I must concentrate hard and clear to decide what stays, what goes, and what else has to be added. I can’t do it while waiting for the guy to come fix the furnace; it’s not the sort of writing I can do while waiting for an oil change.
I can and do often write in the odd corners of the day; I think it’s important to be able to write in a noisy cafe and an airport lounge. But at this stage of a 100,000-word book, I need a protected space – a space both physical and temporal, where I will not be disturbed, where I can journey into the heart of the story, the dark places of my characters’ lives. And no one can protect that space for me. I have to build my own fence around it.
Since my daytime responsibilities won’t go away, I have to start getting up early, hours before it’s polite to use the telephone, long before the normal hours when appointments are kept. Early, as in before dawn. Early, as in four-thirty, maybe five.
In order to do that, I have to get to bed on time and sober. I have to turn down evening entertainment, night-time hilarity. I have to be sharp and rested. This is my fence.
A sturdy fence keeps distractions out and concentration in. It requires deeply dug fence posts, which are the pillars of my day, and five – often six – days a week, this means organizing my life so that I can enter that fenced-off place early every morning and write.

photo: M. Shafer

Deborah Lee Luskin is an essayist, radio commentator, and novelist. Learn more at www.deborahleeluskin.com

Read Full Post »

Crafting a story from scratch

Everyone has a different process, but I thought today I’d share how I create a story from scratch.

Sometimes I use a phrase, a feeling, a color, a photo, anything that crosses my mind or line of vision does the trick. This examples uses a word prompt — my favorite word, “ponder.”

When using a word prompt like this, I visualize my favorite snack, a s’more.

The graham cracker, the crunchy shell of the treat, is the prompt (in this case, “ponder”) and it can be both the start and end of the story, or either. The marshmallow and chocolate melt together and like the inside of the treat, the words that come from this exercise are the delicious melted insides of the story. So, here is a look at how I would take this prompt and run with it.

Here is my stream of consciousness thinking on “ponder” today:

• Ponder — popular with Winnie the Pooh — Pooh Bear likes to ponder whatever he encounters before it ends up getting him in trouble — ponder is fun to say — I’m pondering what to write — what if Mickey Mouse were to ponder? Can trees (or any plants) ponder? If I were a tree, would I ponder what it would be like to live on the other side of the street, the other side of the hill, in a different country?
• It would be a strange world if trees (or any plant) could actually ponder anything. Now the trees come alive. They have feelings. Is this a science fiction world coming into the forefront? Is it cartoonish? Maybe I’m pondering a cactus instead of a tree. Or how about a car (any vehicle) having the ability to ponder. Now I’m in the world of Transformers.
• I loved Beast Wars:Transformers, a cartoon where the robots transformed into animals. The Maximals and Predacons certainly pondered a lot of things. Rattrap certainly had ‘tude and was always certain he was going to die. I had a bit of a crush on Cheetor – he was just handsome as all get-out and knew how to flirt. He was also a bit naive and innocent and that attracted me too.
• I’m going to draft a story about a character similar to Cheetor and see where it takes me.

So that was how I worked with the prompt of “ponder” today (I’ve done it a few times and it’s different each time).

The brainstorming helped me get to a story idea and so, from here I would set a timer for 20 or 30 minutes and write. No editor, no thinking, just writing what comes to mind to develop the story idea.

That’s how I go about creating a story from scratch.

On a walk I had the other day I found a penny and a marble, in two separate locations, but during the same walk. The question bubbling around in my head since that walk has been “what do these two things have in common?” I’m going to go capture my thoughts now…story ideas just keep coming!

What do you do to start a story from scratch?

 

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region writer and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Read Full Post »

Gratitude and goals

It’s still January, and I’m still pulling my 2013 goals together. But I have quite a few writing-related ones that I’d like to share.

If I make them public, I’ll be more accountable to accomplishing them. They are are doable, I haven’t figured out a WIG (wildly improbably goal) like Diane has, but I’ll get there.

For now, my writing goals include:

• Query at least 12 magazines (regional and national) for articles
• Continue writing for my favorite regional magazine, NH ToDo
• Post at least every other week on this blog
• Double my business writing (white papers, case studies, ghost blogging, etc.)
• Participate in an every-other-week critique group for my fiction
• Submit to at least 6 short story contests
• Submit to at least 6 anthologies
• Create e-books for writers and small businesses
• Journal daily

As you can see, not every point is specific (yet), but I’m getting there.

I also plan to read 1 non-fiction book per month – business related or for personal development.

I have more goals, but I’m still figuring them out.

The title of this post include gratitude, and I just want to say thank you to you for reading. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share a part of my writing life with you and hope you find snippets of inspiration that you can adapt into your own writing life.

A freelance writing life is absolutely possible if you want it enough.

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Read Full Post »