Story Prompts and Inspiration

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses, Writings about Writing by

Story ideas can come from anywhere. A photo, a song, a snatch of overheard conversation, a stroll through a garden, someone else’s book cover—the smallest thing can often prompt the germ of an idea. 

I don’t usually use story prompts—at least, not the type of story prompt that’s an actual premise. Nothing against that sort of story prompt. A hundred awesome books by a hundred different people can come from a single sentence prompt. Books, blogs, and online generators can be a great help to anyone who wants to try something new or even just needs help getting unstuck. 

I’ve had my share of getting stuck on projects, and for me, one of the best ways to prompt myself into writing again is to look at pictures. I also use music as inspiration a lot, but a picture can usually give me more concrete ideas. 

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Research Tips for Your Story Writing

Posted in Writings about Writing by

So we all know about doing research for a non-fiction book, or for any sort of accurate historical fiction tale, right? But what about other types of storytelling? Basically, anything besides memoir/autobiography or fiction-loosely-based-on-your-personal-experiences requires research. Yes, even the highly fictional genres like science fiction and fantasy. 

How writers often feel doing research

Why Research? 

Details matter when it comes to worldbuilding for a story. The more little details that are woven throughout a tale (spread throughout the story, not info-dumped all at once), the more real the world of the story will feel to your readers. 

Details like food, clothing, buildings, climate, entertainment—all of these things exist in our lives and we use and are affected by them everyday. In a believable story (yes, even sci-fi/fantasy), the same should be true of your characters. 

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How to Wish Writers a Happy New Year 

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It’s that time of the year again, when everything is a clean slate. It’s the time when we think about the past, plan for the future, and hopefully don’t get the side-eye from our neighbors for still having our Christmas decorations up in January. 

It’s still cool to greet people with “Happy New Year!”, for a couple of more weeks, at least. Goals and resolutions are often a topic of conversation right now. And even though some people have given up on their New Year’s resolutions by January 2nd, others are sticking with it. If you are a writer, or you know someone who’s a writer, goals and resolutions might be a potentially sticky subject, however. So how can you give a genuine “Happy New Year!” to the writers in your life? Here are some suggestions: 

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Christmas Books

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses by

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I have numerous favorite Christmas books, just like I have a list of favorite Christmas movies (White Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol are two that I have to see every year).

I wrote a post a few years ago about some of my favorite Christmas books. This post is similar – just a showcasing of some beautiful holiday stories that I like to display and read at this time of year.

I hope you enjoy! Have you read any of these books? What are some of your Christmas favorites?

A display on top of one of my bookshelves

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The Journey of a Book

Posted in Writings about Writing by

I wrote a post a few months ago about part of my growth and journey as a writer, and how part of that process was letting a book project sit for over a decade. Over ten years ago, I was inspired by the Finnish folktale epic The Kalevala, my favorite fantasy stories, and all things Scandinavian, and I began building an elaborate fantasy world. The result was a long, wandering epic fantasy tale that I completely pants (that is, I “wrote by the seat of my pants,” also known as “being a pantser.” Normally I am a plotter – I like my outlines.) 

The finished 200,000 word story needed some polishing, and I produced two highly-revised drafts. I also got inspired to make a trilogy, and started writing the second book. Then life happened, other ideas happened, and I started feeling a bit burnt out by my Finnish mythology-inspired fantasy world. 

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