Creative Writing Prompts to Get Your Story Going Again!
The following creative writing prompts are broken down into seven simple prompts that will help you develop the ideas that tend to pop into your head out of thin air. Whether they occure during your sleep, while in the shower, or while you are driving in your car, you must know exactly how to capture and develop those ideas right away in order to build on those ideas. Use the following prompts to help you develop ideas you already have or that flash into your mind into best selling novels: Creative Writing Prompts #1: Write your ideas down! For some reason, thoughts that flash into your mind at any given time tend to disappear as quickly as they formed. Details of those ideas begin to fade the moment you shift your attention to something else. Anything will do as a means of transfer from your brain to a more permanent source of recollection: Toilette paper, receipts, pay stubs, scrap paper, writing journals, and whatever else is available to jot down your ideas at the given moment. If you have a voice activated recorder, this works as a great storage device for your ideas. Why is this so important? Because trying to remember something as brief as a thought is like trying to find a needle in a haystack; it just isn't going to happen unless you write your creative ideas down in some shape or form! It's so easy to lose an awesome idea amongst all of the other thoughts rolling around your brain, so write each idea that comes to mind down before you forget it! Creative Writing Prompts # 2: Use Details! More importantly in the recollection process is to be as detailed as possible when you set your ideas into words. Describe every little aspect of the thought, from the sounds you heard, the colors around you, and exactly what the thought was about. There's nothing like writing down an idea and then forgetting some of the specific details of the thought such as the particulars about a scene such as the weather, if it is night or day, and it happened in the woods or in a car. Maybe some of the character's features such as height, weight, build, hair color, eye color, skin color, attitudes. Plot distinctiveness or the who, what, where, when, why and how of the plot is a must. What exact action is happening or any key elements of the idea help a great deal as well. Be sure to also write down what you were doing at the time the idea came to you. The last one, writing down what you were doing, is so you can recall the situation you were in when this thought came to you to possibly extract even more details from your subconscious mind during the writing process. Just think back to that time and place and what you were doing to recall additional details while you are writing.
Creative Writing Prompts #3: Don't Lose Your Ideas! If you write something down, you must put it somewhere special with all of your other writing ideas. Creative writing ideas are hard to come by. My novel writing tips recommend you be organized with all of your writing information and ideas at all times in order to not lose anything. I know this is very difficult at times since creative people are disorganized by nature. I know this because I am very disorganized with everything except my writing. For some reason I keep all of my writing ideas in their own place and I haven't lost a thought in 26 years. One suggestion is to treat your writing as if you are running a business (even if you don't know how to run a business, common sense applies) and keep everything dealing with your writing separate from everything else personal. Creative Writing Prompts #4: Get to Work Developing Your Ideas as Soon as Possible! Don't let your idea sit in a box for a year before you pull it out to write about it. The longer your idea sits idle, the harder it will be to make the idea come to life. Hook up those jumper cables within a day or two (the sooner the better) and start writing while the idea is fresh in your mind. Writing down your idea helps considerably, but starting to write about the idea while it is fresh in your mind will enable you to produce a better work of fiction. The longer it sits, the more details are left out that you must struggle to build later. Creative Writing Prompts #5: Brainstorm Your Idea! Once you have something down on paper like your opening paragraph, start brainstorming your idea. Brainstorming techniques help you unleash your full creative potential. Here's the brainstorming area you will need to focus on during this step: When brainstorming your idea, start with a pen and paper. Write down the key concept word or phrase your story is based upon. This could be a word or phrase like "pirates" or "murder mystery". Write the key plot of your story. This could be a word or phrase like "battle for treasure amongst pirates" or "murder of a school teacher". (Sorry if you are a school teacher or a pirate; just something that came to my mind at the moment). Take your paper to a secluded room away from any and all distractions like kids, dogs, husbands, wives, television, and telephone and set a stopwatch or alarm clock for 7 minutes. Start the timer and start writing. Write down everything that comes to your mind about your key concept for the first 7 minutes, then repeat this for the second 7 minutes. Write down your character's name. Do the same for each of your characters, writing down as much information about them as you can. Remember, this is brainstorming; write down whatever comes to your mind. Don't limit this process. Just write it down. You can also use this technique for brainstorming scene layout and entire chapter content. The sky's the limit with these creative writing prompts. Creative Writing Prompts #6: Arrange Your Brainstorming Results! Take all of the brainstorming information you've gathered and organize it using a Mind Map. Check out The Brain if you don't know what a mind map is or how to use one. The home or center of the mind map will be your concept word or phrase you used to brainstorm with. As you organize this information, new ideas will probably pop into your head. Write those ideas down as well, otherwise you will forget them. Creative Writing Prompts #7: Start Writing Immediately! This time, don't stop (well, except to do your normal everyday routine)! Write continuously until you either reach a stopping point or can't think of anything else to write about for that idea or subject. If you ever run out of new ideas for books, or can't come up with anything else to add to your content (this happens way to often too), good creative writing prompts can be expanded into new idea generation! If your ideas run dry, this is a great place to get them going again. The preceding steps should help you grasp the ideas your subconscious mind gives you at any given moment. Use those steps to assemble your fiction Best Seller!
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