Marathon Writer: Riding the High

Picture taken by my bored and frustrated son.

Well, I just finished probably one of the most intense writing sessions ever since the writing bug bit me a little over 6 years ago. I can hardly believe it, but I managed a whopping 45,000 words in one week on a new novel idea. Yep, 45,000 in ONE week. The most I ever wrote in a stretch was 50,000, which was over a full month for the NaNoWriMo in 2010, so for me this is HUGE deal.

The Missing Muse Part 2: Rediscovering the Magic

Part one of this series talked about the Muse or magic and how it can slip away on us at the most inopportune times, but here are some ways to get that creativity back. Nothing inspires inspiration more than other’s creativity, so that is why the first 4 suggestions are listed first. All the asterisks are the things I do on a regular basis to help stimulate the Muse. As you can see, it usually takes more than one way to keep the Muse strong. It's about overlapping the inspiration to what works best for you and creating a lifestyle that the Muse feels stimulated to stay in.

The Missing Muse Part 1: Where Did the Magic Go?

Have you ever found yourself writing without a muse? One minute it's there and the next it's gone just like a puff of smoke. You do everything but stand on your head to try to get it back and your muse laughs as it plays the elusive game of hide and seek, taunting you in a devilish manner. This seems to be a common problem for me, in fact I have gone weeks, even months without a muse. I write anyways, but the writing is more force and even unnatural. I begin to wonder why I started writing in the first place. 

Writing Prompts: What If

How to Develop and Finish Stories 

Find a story that you are stuck on. Next write in the top of a blank page What If. Now write five ways of continuing that story, not ending the story, but continuing the story to the next event, scene, ect. Let your imagination go wild. Loosen up your thinking about the events in the story. Your what if’s can be as diverse as your mind can make them. More than likely, one of the what if’s will feel right, organic, to your story and that is the direction in which you should go. Sometimes you will have to do several groups of what if’s per story, but that’s okay as long as they keep you moving forward.

Exercise from What If Writing Exercises for the Fiction Writer by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter