Do you constantly seek story prompts that you can use to practice your writing skills? Do you ever have trouble coming up with story ideas? Do you sometimes need ideas to help you develop scenes or to create interesting situations for the book that you\u2019re writing? Here are a few prompts that might help:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tSign up for Google Alerts using your name. Contrive what comes up into unique stories. You ought to see some of the strange alerts that show up related to my name\u2014and very, very few of them have anything to do with me. http:\/\/www.google.com\/alerts<\/a><\/p>\n \u2022\tGo people-watching. I knew a writer who used to sit on the local pier watching the variety of people who walked on, fished from and otherwise hung out there. I remember her writing into a story once that her character watched a piece of newspaper cartwheel along the boardwalk in the ocean breeze. That came from her astute observations while people-watching and while paying attention to the detail around her.<\/p>\n \u2022\tListen to what people say and how they say it. Not every character in your story will speak using the same gestures, inflection, vocabulary, level of emotion, etc. Let real people influence your characters. <\/p>\n \u2022\tThe more groups you belong to, outings you take and activities you participate in, the more opportunities you will have to observe people and their gestures, dialect, way of speaking, thought processes and experiences\u2014all things you can incorporate into your characters and stories. <\/p>\n \u2022\tRead, read and read some more. Study books in your genre and on your topic. It is surprising how many authors never bother to follow this advice. I guess some of them fear they will lose their voice if they try to copy another author. I\u2019m not asking authors to imitate other authors, but to learn from them. <\/p>\n Train yourself to be more observant and open-minded and you\u2019ll pick up ideas everywhere you go, in every situation, on every cereal box, billboard and magazine cover. You\u2019ll discover potential aspects to your characters and your story on the freeway, in the airport, at your family Thanksgiving celebration, in the doctor\u2019s office, on the soccer field and even on TV.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to hear about some of the unusual prompts that have enhanced your characters and\/or stories. Leave your comments here.<\/p>\n In the meantime, whether you write fiction or nonfiction books, be sure to order my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.<\/em><\/strong> Read it from cover to cover and then leave it close at hand so you can reference the self-editing section, the chapter on choosing the right publisher\/agent for your project, the pros and cons of pay-to-publish companies, distribution questions and helps, how to locate an appropriate and legitimate agent, how to establish a platform and tips for devising your marketing plan, for example. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html<\/a><\/p>\n This might be a good time to take an online course. Check out those I offer on writing a book proposal, establishing a freelance article-writing career, book promotion or how to set up your own publishing company. Let me walk you through the difficult terrain. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/courses.htm<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you constantly seek story prompts that you can use to practice your writing skills? Do you ever have trouble coming up with story ideas? Do you sometimes need ideas to help you develop scenes or to create interesting situations for the book that you\u2019re writing? Here are a few prompts that might help: \u2022 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t