Out of My Head and Onto the Page

So how do I do it? Get ideas out of my head onto the page? I can only give you tips from this wordsmith on what works for me. Here's hoping it brings something to the table that works for you too.

Use Your Imagination All. The. Time.

First off, a wild imagination helps if you are writing fiction. Even when I'm not sitting at an official writing session, my mind is firing off about everything around me. Use your imagination all.the.time! People-watch and make up stories. Take a friend, or several, take your writing journals, pick a target and GO! By target, I mean pick a random person or thing from the area around you to be your prompt. Set a time to write. When finished read the results to each other. This exercises your imagination.

If you have children or grandchildren, do Round-Robin story time. Each person adds something to the story, building on what has been said before. It builds children's imaginations before life crushes it out of them, and, from the mouths of babes can come some very intriguing ideas. Do this with your writer friends, too. Create an email chain where each one builds onto what was sent to them. The last person in the chain, after adding their part, sends the finished story back to everyone in the chain.

Always Be Prepared to Capture Your Musings

Always be prepared to capture your musings when they flow. Pen and journal was traditional, but now we have cellphones. Whip out your phone and jot a note to save. Or use the dictation-to-text function and speak your musings. My phone is loaded, I'm just saying. And my phone is always with me so it is nothing to see its middle-of-the-night glow as I am typing in whatever muse has awakened me. That last thing I want to do is miss out on the gift my brain was giving me because I wasn't ready.

Know What Audience You Are Writing For

Know your audience and make certain your writing is absorbable by them. Yes, I know we write for ourselves and for the love of crafting beautiful words. But if our audience doesn't connect to it, we will lose them. This is important if you aspire to profit from your efforts. So be certain to write your works to the level you are reaching for. Higher intellects may read down if the content is engaging, but it is harder for a lower level reader to read up. They will get frustrated if the prose is too proliferated with words they need a dictionary to understand. If you want to make it as a professional writer, the wider your target audience, the greater your chance of success. I offer the Harry Potter series as example in support of this stance. But then you have J.R.R. Tolkien that skews it. However, duly note that it was long after his death before his works escalated to the heights we know today after being transformed into a media consumable by a wide and varied audience. I want my accolades and profits now, please and thank you.

Incorporate Snippets from the Real World

Never be afraid to thread real world events or issues into your stories. Either straight up or veiled in an alternate world. Weave tidbits drawn from the world around you into a collage that becomes a cohesive story.

Anything you see, hear or feel is fair game for fiction. Pay attention to different views about topics. You will most certainly need that knowledge to develop characters that oppose one another.

Create A Hook With Your Title And Opening Lines

They say you don't get a second chance with first impressions. This is true with the pieces we write. Your title and first lines will, in my humble opinion and experiences, be the single most important part you write. If you can't get them to click the link or open the cover, what's inside doesn't matter. Dress your works to kill with a hook of a title and opening lines.

Show - Don't Tell

We hear this mantra alot: Show - Don't Tell. But it is sage advice. Let your readers experience the story instead of providing it to them like a recipe. This was a hard one for me. In the beginning what I wrote as a story, my published friends in writer's guild told me was just a synopsis. It was the bones of my story but it wasn't my story. They didn't know my characters or what made them tick. They weren't immersed in my characters' saga. I had given only superficial access to the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of my characters. My writing felt like a recap of something I had watched. I took their counsel, slowed my roll, and fleshed out my story and characters.

Create Relatable Characters and Stay On Point With Them

We get told a lot of things about creating characters. For me, they become real to me. I know everything about them and what makes them tick. But none of that matters if I can't convey it to the reader. Use what you know about your characters to motivate what they do, think, say, what they feel AND their why. You never want your readership to pause and go, "wait...what? Why? That's not right?" You want to keep your readership in the know and in the flow --- unless of course, it is intended to be a mystery or puzzle to be solved.

Don't Get Deviled in the Details

Don't waste words on unimportant stuff. I used to labor over describing every detail about a room. Furniture, curtains, flooring, decorations, wallpaper etc. But unless that mattered for purposes of the plot line, it was pointless. Hit some highpoints and let your reader fill in the minutiae. They are intelligent and they will see things in their mind's eye and that freedom to imagine it immerses them more deeply. Now they don't have to remember to see what you told them to, they now see what their mind had made for them as they propel themselves ravenously through your paragraphs and pages.

Understand and Choose a Point of View

This is actually one of the very first choices you have to make regarding your piece. Pick a point of view (POV) that is manageable and appropriate for your story and won't confuse your reader. For short stories of 600 to 2000 words like here on Vocal, I like first person. It let's me get into my character's head and flow. I AM my character for that piece. But in first person, nothing can be told that your character doesn't know or hasn't seen. And you need to keep the story consistent with their personality. A child wouldn't say 'commiserate' but a business man might.

Reinvent the Wheel If You Must

Never discount a plot line as "over done." You have all the control. Tell it from a new perspective. Give it an unexpected twist. Update it. We are living in a time of retelling of old tales in new, more modern ways. Many are quite delightful. And if you are contemplating a creature that has rich lore and readership expectations, don't be afraid to break out and set yourself apart. Make it a hybrid, a freak, or a new creation by design. Set it out early on so your readership knows where things are heading. After all, Stephenie Meyer brought vampires out the dark of night and into daylight and made them sparkle in the sun. She threw in some teenage angst, a handful of forbidden love, a touch of indecision and you have her Twilight series. Diehard vampire fans were aghast. Stephanie Meyer was able to disregard the flap and laugh all the way to the bank as a willing readership made her books fly off the shelves and movies were launched.

Write What You Know or What You Love or Both!

If you are in this as a profession, write what you know, or what you love or some combination of both if you can. Draw on your expertise to write articles that help pave the way for others. This can be how-to articles, reviews of products or entertainment. If there is a genre you love and have immersed yourself in, then write what you love. Your writing will be more enjoyable to you and it won't feel like the drudgery of work.

Don't Be Daunted By Larger Works - It IS Doable

Many writers have that unfinished novel lurking somewhere that never quite seems to come together. Longer pieces, of course, afford more challenges. I'm still working on systems for that since I have yet to conquer the conclusion of a full blown novel myself. However, I have written pieces with a common theme and compiled them into a book, "Bristow Spirits on Route 66." It is a collection of stories about my paranormal experiences in a town I used to live in. Another way to write a larger piece is in "episodes" for a series. Think of any shows with seasons on Netflix or cable tv and determine what their style is. Is it an ongoing drama that flows from one episode to the next? Or, do the episodes stand alone as a complete story that's part of a larger story? Or just have the same main characters that are involved in something new and fresh each time. There is always a way to write a novel. I'm currently contemplating which of these ideas I'm going to engage. So, I am confident it IS doable and I plan to get it done.

The More You Do It, The More You Are Able To Do It

This may not be true for everyone, but for me it is. The more I write, the more I am able to write. When I am honoring myself as a Wordsmith, which I confess I set aside for too long a while, I find that I can write as rapidly as I can get pen to paper, or keystrokes pressed. I am a strong believer that what we put our minds to, our minds will do. Why put my mind to worry and stress, when I can feel blessed and joyful writing? And so, by persistence, I remap my brain to a path it readily falls in love with, writing. I believe it is because it is my true passion and so it is like coming home. Don't let life get in the way. Consider it a form of meditation by action. Do it! I can't stress enough that the more you write, the easier writing will become. Writer's block will become a rarity rather than a bane.

Save Everything You Write

Every snippet you write may be the words you are seeking later that splices perfectly into a piece you are working on. Or it is a nugget you can massage later into a full blown story or article. SAVE EVERYTHING! FOREVER. You are investing in your wordsmith bank for your future. (Yes, I'm passionate about this statement.)

DON'T Be Harsh On Yourself

Last, NEVER, and I mean never, allow yourself to be intimidated by other writers or compare yourself or your works to another. You are not them and they are not you. There is an audience waiting for your words. Craft them, publish them, share them and let them take root in the minds and hearts of a readership that is waiting for them.

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These are just some of the things that serve me well in bringing my stories to life. I hope there is something here that helps you to do the same. Whatever our style, we are writers and we need to get our stories out of our heads and onto the page.