Good web sites for writers
No Comments »7th August, 2008; Category: Writers
There are literally millions of web sites about writing on the internet. (Don’t believe me – type ‘writer’ into Google.) All are clamoring for your attention. How do you sort the good from the not so good? How do you avoid the downright useless?
The well respected Writer’s Digest magazine has compiled its annual 101 Best Sites for Writers. This is a good starting point if you are searching for information to help you on your way with your writing career.
And if none of them satisfy your needs – you can always come back here.
In fact – I wish you would.
Good writing.
Where do you get your ideas for writing?
People starting out in the writing life sometimes ask this question.
Where do ideas come from?
I seem to have no trouble coming up with ideas for writing. They just seem to be everywhere. I usually have far too many story ideas to use myself – that’s why I often feature short story starters here on my blog.
My problem is having enough hours in each day to use all those ideas that just pop into my head. Then there are those things I see or hear or read that immediately present themselves as story ideas. The writer in me always has the “writer’s antenna” finely tuned for an idea. Here are some examples:
- While watching television recently there was a short item about giraffes. One short sentence gave me an idea for a children’s picture book. I can’t tell you here – I haven’t written the story which I think would be great so I don’t want anyone to steal the idea. (Sorry)
- I wrote a children’s novel once from inspiration received during a sermon at church.
- While travelling in my home state of South Australia we drove past a paddock full of lambs. From this came the idea for a children’s picture book.
- The phrase “Barney goes Berserk” popped into my head during a writing workshop. Who was Barney? Why was he going berserk? From that idea came the idea of a fish called Barney. I wrote a children’s picture book with that title – I’ll be sending it off to a publisher very soon.
- Some time ago I was thinking about my friend Harry. What if life had dealt (a fictional) Harry a severe blow? What would his life be like? A short story came from that idea.
None of these ideas may sound earth shattering at first. Each of them stayed with me long enough to germinate into a story. Sometimes that germination takes days or weeks, sometimes it may take years. When talking to an elderly relative four years ago I heard the voice of a character and knew that here was the idea for a novel for adults. At this point it is only an idea with merely a few sentences written down. One day I hope that this will blossom into a three or four hundred page novel.
Just one warning: when you have an idea for a story, jot it down. Unless you do that the idea may be lost forever.
Find an Ideas place
I recently read of one writer’s special place for getting ideas for writing. This author always had his ideas in the shower. So that he didn’t lose any ideas, he bought a waterproof notepad and pen from a scuba diving shop. If an idea comes during a shower he immediately records the idea. Brilliant.
Good writing – and may all your ideas turn into great stories.
What are you prepared to sacrifice?
Think what you you are prepared to sacrifice. Writing a novel takes many, many hours, and those are hours you could spend planting roses, raising children, earning money – or even just having a nice life. What, in your life, is going to disappear, to allow you the time to write a book?” Louise Doughty in A Novel in a Year.
Ouch.
That hurts. It is also the reality about writing a novel or a non-fiction book. It takes time – lots of time. Some books can take hundreds – even thousands – of hours of research before even a single word is written. Do you have what it takes – the discipline to see it through day after day, month after month? Do you have the time away from all the other demands on your life?
Sacrifice
For most people attempting to write a novel, something has to give. Will it be your social life? Perhaps you need to give up television, or going to parties or going to see a film. Is it the garden you will totally neglect – or the cleaning, ironing, washing and dishes? Something will need to be sacrificed.
Alternative method:
Of course, you may not be prepared to make any sacrifices at all. You may take the easy road and only write when you have a spare hour here and another there – perhaps an hour or two a week. In that way you should be finished your masterpiece in ten or fifteen or even twenty years. The choice is yours.
Good writing.