In Today’s Journal
* What to Write Next
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
What to Write Next
In today’s Of Interest, an article from Writers in the Storm provides advice on how to come up with what to write next.
It’s actually a pretty good article. But in one paragraph, the author, Julie Glover, writes
Some writers have more ideas than they can write in a lifetime. How can you decide which ideas get the red flag, and which get the go-ahead?
That’s been my experience. I have more ideas than I can write. They come at me almost constantly. That’s the result of having a fiction writer’s mindset.
I’m wide open to story ideas (story starters) in every waking moment. Everything I see, hear, smell, taste, or feel (physically or emotionally) and the catalyst for that sensation have the potential to be a story idea.
Or sometimes a character pops into my head with a line of dialogue, sometimes directed at me personally and sometimes directed at another, unseen, character.
Writers who complain about not getting many story ideas are often expecting the ‘idea’ to be a fully formed story. It isn’t.
Most of those writers can hold a full short story (or most of it) in their head, but you can’t do that with a novel. You just have to believe in yourself and trust your characters and plunge ahead.
That’s also why so many writers can write a short story ‘into the dark’ but falter when the story wants to run into a novel: They don’t trust themselves yet.
If that’s you, go on writing short stories for a while. But if you’re interested in writing a novel, eventually one of those short stories will want to keep going instead of wrapping.
When that happens, take a deep breath, believe in yourself and trust your characters, and run with it. You won’t be sorry.
After all, the only difference between a short story and a novel is that the story is about One Event. The novel is about a bunch of events that somehow (you come to realize as you write it) are interrelated! Gasp!
Anyway, those of us who get too many ideas to be able to write them all know that story ideas are just that: They’re ideas. They’re story starters.
But when I’m deluged with ideas, instead of asking myself the questions the author poses in her article, I just write whichever one grabs me. That is, whichever one interests me the most at the time.
I don’t worry about the other ideas. I don’t write them down, etc. If they’re any good, they’ll be back another time. And if they aren’t, no big deal.
Then I put my fingers on the keyboard and start typing. And yes, I give the characters free rein. After all, they’re the ones who are actually living the story.
Some things I DON’T consider:
- the market or what’s popular at the moment
- what readers (or anyone else) suggest I should write
- how long it will take to write the story or novel
None of that matters to me. All that matters is running through the story with the characters as the story unfolds around us. And of course, to do that I have to put new words on the page.
I’m so eager to get to tomorrow’s rebuttal to a control freak who backs up his points with half-truths and outright lies I was barely able to get through this and keep myself from posting tomorrow’s post today.
Stay tuned. Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Writer’s Dilemma: What To Write Next Write whatever comes. Just put new words on the page.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 610
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 610
Writing of Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level
Day 1…… 2035 words. To date………… 2035
Day 2…… 2217 words. To date………… 4252
Day 3…… 3751 words. To date………… 8003
Day 4…… 2218 words. To date………… 10221
Day 5…… 2181 words. To date………… 12402
Day 6…… 1673 words. To date………… 14075
Day 7…… 1972 words. To date………… 16047
Day 8…… 2081 words. To date………… 18128
Day 9…… 2694 words. To date………… 20822
Day 10…. 2712 words. To date………… 23534
Fiction for December……………………… 23534
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 778181
Nonfiction for December.………………… 18470
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 284600
2025 consumable words………………… 1055212
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 122
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29