10 Tips for Finding Writing Ideas #amwriting

Or...Tips on how to wake a sleeping writing muse

Are you a writer struggling to come up with the next unique story or series? Or an aspiring writing trying to come up with her first book idea. I think when your right brain, or creative side, kicks into gear, the creative energy and imagination flows. Some may call it the writer’s muse.

I’m equally amazed by the imagination writers have, and often wonder myself where they come up with ideas for so many clever stories.

These creative people shouldn't surprise me since I’ve been writing since I was a kid, and I’ve been published in fiction since 2004. Ideas truly come anywhere and at any time to writers.

Here are a few tips that might help, along with some examples, if you are a writer struggling to come up with the next best-selling book, or at least the next book you’re dying to write.

Tips for Finding Your Muse:

1.   Slow down and be aware of your surroundings. Writers tend to notice details that the average person doesn’t. They’ll notice a person who is dressed unusually, something that looks out of place, a strange object, a fine detail of a beautiful scene that others didn’t see, a subtle detail in a movie that foreshadows an upcoming event, subtext in a book, overhear a piece of conversation, notice an animal about to cut across the road, smell fresh cut grass or the scent of a fire.

2.   Read tons and tons of books in and out of your genre. This is probably the best tip for finding ideas. Not only for coming up with book ideas, but for understanding how stories come together and are plotted out.

3.   Travel to new locations for story ideas. You don’t have to travel to far off places to come up with story ideas. While jogging in the cemetery at the end of my street, I came up with a connecting story for my current vampire series. Vacations or day trips can help kick in that right brain for idea for settings or atmospheres.

4.   If you’re a visual learner, try viewing photos or movies for ideas. I do tend to be a visual learner. I can search various picture on Instagram or Pinterest and come up with some ideas. One book idea came to me while standing in line for a Disney ride. I saw a fantasy picture on the wall and a story instantly started running through my mind. The book became a futuristic/dystopian novel. It’s out of print now, but I hope to publish it again soon.

5.   Brainstorm with other authors. My writers’ group gets together in the summer for a plotting pool party. We each get a turn to talk about a book we may be having problems with, or share the spark of an idea for a new story. The other writers will toss out ideas for possible plot points which gives lots of ideas. Sometimes you can brainstorm with non-writer people. I was talking with my husband about coming up with a new book idea. I wanted it to be sexy and intense. I was having dinner out with hubby and he said: How about ‘Bondage in the Whitehouse.’ That one line stirred up ideas for a series with Red Tape and Red Tape Protector. They’re a romantic suspense series with BDSM elements.

6.   Writers Brainstorm Kit or other GMC Method. Sometimes I’ll use a book The Writer’s Brain Storming Kit by Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite. It might not be in print anymore. But there are others like it. This system had cards too. You can begin by focusing on a character’s personality traits, goals, motivations, conflicts. Then think about what type of situation you’d like to place this character. Make it a situation where the character has to make difficult choices.

7.   Dream and meditate. It’s hard to be creative when daily life invades your thoughts. Day job and family demands, household chores, email, etc. Sitting in a quiet place and shutting off the external and internal ‘noise’ may help kick you muse awake. Jot down unusual dreams or thoughts. Perhaps they’ll lead to a story down the road.

8.   Change of scenery. Similar to traveling, sometimes taking a walk, going for a hike and getting out in nature, going to a museum or library, shopping, going to a restaurant, exercise. Talk or interview people with unusual jobs. Some ideas come while showering, cooking doing other creative projects.

9.   Listen to music. Calming the mind, hearing the words of a song or just the music can spark ideas.

10.  Or just start writing. Pick a scene, a character and start asking questions: Where am I? Who is this character? Why is he/she here? What do they what? What is their problem? What if….?

Do you have any special methods for coming up with a book idea?

Find out about Kathy Kulig

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Story Potpourri ~ Writing in Sub-genres #Romance #Craft #Humor

Happy Leap Year day, everyone! While you're enjoying this extra day in our 2016, I want to spend this bonus time giving a shout out to The Naughty Literati... I really do, yes, and a loud shout, at that.

Here's why:

At the end of 2014, while endeavoring to have my story rights returned to me by my former publisher, I was in the same leaky boat as a lot of authors I know - fairly bursting with ideas of all sorts but under contractual agreement to give right of first refusal of the next story to the very publisher from whom I was in the throes of separating. I couldn't see waiting, lingering, standing by, delaying - you get the idea - proceeding with my stories until my contractual release deigned to arrive. There was a real chance it would never come. Then what? 

Dire Wolf at the Door accepts CASH only!

The good news was that the Writer's Block from which I'd been suffering for ages suddenly vanished. The bad news: I was in Writer's Limbo, located just around the corner from Writer's Block and maybe even in a little worse neighborhood. You see, with Writer's Block you WANT to write and are ABLE to publish, but you CAN'T write for the life of you. When you're in the Seventh Circle of Writer's Limbo, you're DYING to write and you CAN write, but you CAN'T show it to anyone you want to. At least not for money. And the mercenary dire wolf that scratches perpetually at my door demands that writing be a cash-on-the-barrelhead kind of endeavor rather than something non-lucrative, like knitting (seriously, you should see the sweater I've been trying to make for the past five years; NO one is going to pay me one thin farthing for that cashmere piece of crap.)

Meantime, while I was dawdling, lollygagging, meandering, and loitering in Writer's Limbo, my pen was practically leaking heroes with bulging, er, muscles, and lurid, hot-as-Dante's-hell sex scenes all over the place. I was scribbling down hawt plot ideas wherever they struck me and on whatever surface I could find. I have an insatiable need to hand write all my stories in their germinal phases, the computer won't do. I'm a tactile writer and I love hearing the soft scratch-scratch-scratch of quill tip on parchment (or Bic to spiral notebook paper, gum wrapper, whatever's handy) and watching my fingers manipulating the bleeding pen to form the letters of each word using my muddled Southpaw clawmanship that rivals a doctor's handwriting. Seriously everyone besides Mom and me needs an Enigma machine to decrypt the eccentric flow of my cursive.

To stop my thumbs from twiddling whilst haunting my inbox for Ye Olde Reversion of Rights Letter to pop up in my email queue, I filled up all my notebooks with outlines and ideas. When I ran out of blank pads of paper, nary a Post-it note or damp cocktail napkin was safe in my proximity. I was sullying the inside leafs of telephone directories with my hero's slaked sexual thirst. I was doodling post-coital dialogue on the insides of both my forearms (I'm ambidextrous in a pinch).


The problem was growing inconvenient. I had to hide my forearms and the telephone directory from my mother when she'd visit. I was running out of random, available writing materials to the point where rolls of toilet paper were on the line. 

Show me the Fancy Feast and no one gets hurt, see?

Evil Feral Cat was not amused by my preoccupation since it often meant I was scribbling on the back of a barroom coaster while plumb forgetting it was Fancy Feast o'clock already. Do we see the issue here? I was getting worried.

I knew I wanted to indie publish in order to have more control over my own intellectual property without anyone telling me what I could and could not write. I wanted to write in any and all genres that I love to read myself. But for the time being back then, I was contractually able to write only stories under 10k words. My publisher didn't care about seeing any of my work under 10k. It's not very lucrative to publish those, so what was the point? My dire wolf at the door howled in agreement.

Remember those other authors in the same leaky boat I made mention of before? Well, this is where they enter stage right and we all decide to start bailing and paddling together. The Naughty Literati was formed in a romance writers' Yahoo Group and suddenly I found myself roosting in a new literary nest where I could write anything I wanted... as long as it was no longer than 9,999 words in length. The plan was we'd all publish our high heat level short stories together in a few bundled box sets per year.  It would keep us writing and keep our fan bases stoked until our other contractual obligations were resolved.

And just like that, I was released from Writer's Limbo. The only thing left to decide was which of the many stories I'd squandered a mountain of Post-its, napkins, and TP on would be first story up.

"Shifter!" The dire wolf at my door howled. Yes, I had a shifter tale outlined but it wasn't really a winter holiday themed story, which was the only loose perimeter for our first boxed set, Naughty List. The title How the Alien Stole Christmas took up residence in my head and refused to be evicted. It was seasonal and featured a sexy-as-hell alien hero who realizes the Earth woman of his dreams with whom he's lustily engaged in cybersex for months is in trouble alone on a deep space station. He's determined to be the intergalactic calvary and, while he's at it, steal her for his own. Before you could say, "Close encounters of the hot kind," I'd written not only my first sci-fi/futuristic romance but my first romance short story, to boot. I created a Naughty List book trailer if you wanna peek!

Next, I always loved Somewhere in Time and The Lakehouse and wanted to write a period time travel romance set around Valentine's Day. Valentime, about a contemporary woman who finds a Valentine addressed to her from over 150 years in the past sealed up inside the antebellum plantation house she's renovating fit the bill for our Valentine's boxed set, Naughty Hearts. Voila! I'd written my first time travel romance.


Since everyone knows in the spring a vampire's fancy turns to finding his blood mate I wrote How to Blackmail a Vampire for Naughty Flings, our spring antho. When your cousin has been brainwashed by a sleaze-bucket vampire, what do you do? You find the richest, most powerful (and drop undead gorgeous!) vampire around who also happens to be your boss, and blackmail his sexy ass into helping you! Before you could say "Vlad the Impaler" I'd written my first vampire romance.

"Shifter!" my dire wolf reminded me. To appease him, I wrote not one but two (2!) sexy twin shifters vying for the passionate love of an amnesiac she-shifter stranded together on a deserted island in The Bermuda Love Triangle for our summer boxed set, Naughty Escapes. This wasn't my first shifter romance, but it won't be my last. There's a follow up to this one coming soon, because my readers tell me in insistent tones that BOTH of these sexy shifter brothers deserve to find the hot she-wolf of their dreams!

And there you have it, how I came to write whatever the hell I wanted in multiple romance sub-genres while lifting myself out of Writer's Block and Writer's Limbo whilst appeasing the grumpy dire wolf at the door. All in a rather large, picturesque nutshell. I have The Naughty Literati to thank for that. Big time.

For my one year anniversary with The Naughty Literati, I compiled all of my NL stories into one handy collection, ABSOLUTELY ALPHA  ~ now .99 on Amazon!

"If you are a paranormal romance lover then this is a must read collection! ...Each story is a masterpiece!" ~ Roxie's Romance Reviews 

Four magical romances from Belle Scarlett's enchanted quill. 

Alien Seductions: How the Alien Stole Christmas EXCERPT
On board a deep space station Capt. Christmas Trent learns her sexy cyber lover, who may not be human, wants to steal her for his own. 

“Our heroine is a willing submissive engaged in cybersex with an alien. Beautiful imagery, fascinating premise. I’ve always wondered why there isn’t more good science fiction romance. This story is good.” ~ Lizabeth S. Tucker, Geneflections 


Timeless Lovers: Valentime EXCERPT
Valerie buys a South Carolina plantation and discovers a Valentine addressed to her from a previous owner who bids her to return to him in 1865. 

“I loved this hot and romantic time slip tale and with not just time but danger threatening I was willing the couple to find their HEA. Super read.” ~ Tina Williams, A Reader’s Review 


Blood Mates: How to Blackmail a Vampire EXCERPT
In the spring, a powerful vampire’s fancy turns to the blood lust mating hunt. A pretty, human blackmailer becomes the object of his thirst, but she’s not into vampires. Yet. 

“Hot and steamy. Couldn't put it down.” ~ Kristi Cisneros, Amazon reader 


Pack Masters: The Bermuda Love Triangle EXCERPT
Castaway in the Bermuda Triangle, Trista finds herself torn between two (2!) sexy shifters. Neither will share her so she must choose between them. Decisions, decisions… 
Note to reader: This story is not a ménage tale. 

“Quite the steamy read.” ~ MAustin, Amazon reader 

Note: All stories were previously published in The Naughty Literati anthologies ~ Naughty List, Naughty Hearts, Naughty Flings, and Naughty Escapes. 

***

PLUS! I'm thrilled my former publisher did eventually revert my rights back to my very first romance! My dire wolf howled in delight...

WHAT IF THE BIG BAD WOLF... WAS THE GOOD GUY?

Red Riding Hood never had it soooooo good...

Enchanted Lovers Book 1: THE WOODSMAN

Get THE WOODSMAN for only .99!

Watch the book trailer

Ciao, bellas! Please don't forget to leave reviews on Amazon for any book you enjoy ~ it's the nicest thing you can do for any author!

Happy reading, 
Belle

Connect with Belle Scarlett:

Website: www.bellescarlett.com

Blog: http://bellesobligatoryblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scarlettwoman1

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/BelleScarlettAuthor/

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1463246.Belle_Scarlett

Belle is also a proud member of The Naughty Literati ~ www.naughtyliterati.com 

Inspiration

As a writer, ideas come from all sorts of places.

Two weeks ago, my husband Mark went from having chest pain at work, to an ER visit, to an inpatient stay, to a cardiac catheterization, to bypass surgery. Most of this took place in the span of six hours, and then the change from catheterization to “needs bypass” to surgery taking place was less than two days. As you can imagine, I was completely overwhelmed.

Thank goodness, my husband is doing much better and is healing well.

It was a very long day when they did his surgery, starting with a rush to the hospital when they bumped his surgery up in the schedule, and ending that evening at his bedside. I brought a book, but couldn’t read at first, and I found myself looking at the other people in the family waiting area, and imagining their stories. Who was the loved one in surgery? How did they get along? What did they do in their everyday lives? That middle-aged man. Was he waiting for news about his sister? Mother? Wife? Was he alone because they didn’t have family nearby?

Strangely enough, wondering these sorts of things was a bit therapeutic for me. There was no way I had the concentration to put words on paper, but I was able to let my mind wander, focusing on something else beside my husband’s surgery. And I may have collected the gossamer threads of a story from those mental wanderings.

When Mark was moved to a room and seemed more like himself, my guard came down and creativity sparked. One of his nurses had a unique name and I asked her if I could use her name in a book. She said absolutely, and another gossamer thread of character added itself to the plot, another layer.

I have no idea when I’ll write this story, as the events are just too close to the surface right now. Still, I can’t deny that my imagination provided a very welcome respite from the stresses of the event.

And that book lingers on the creative horizon.

A Few Words About Writing Erotica by Suz deMello (#iamwriting #erotica #writingcraft #MFRWAuthor)

Writing erotic fiction is much like writing other fiction, but unfortunately it isn’t always viewed that way, possibly due to what we could call the Playboy/Penthouse effect. In these magazines, we rarely find quality erotic fiction, but instead are subjected to snippets of empty, dull sexual encounters that might, like a one-night stand, satisfy us for the moment but do little to feed our hearts or minds.

image USN via Wikimedia Commons

Most people need love, not just sex, and find that sex plus love is much more satisfying than just sex. Erotica minus romance is porn. Erotica minus the essentials of good storytelling is boring garbage unworthy of anyone’s time, especially since so many quality entertainment options are available these days.

So neglecting the essentials of good writing might get an aspiring author a sale to Penthouse Variations letters but never a book contract or even an indie-published novel with decent sales—unless you offer it for free. A freebie here and there may stimulate sales of your other books, and that’s good, but eventually a writer must gain the skills s/he needs to garner paid sales, if s/he aspires to be a professional.

What are the essentials of good erotica? They’re the same as the essentials of any good story. In brief: likable characters who resolve interesting conflicts in a setting that heightens the emotional content of the story.

Let’s look at an example: Anne Rice’s Exit to Eden. Set in a BDSM-focused resort, Lisa, the Dominatrix manager, finds herself attracted to and then falling in love with Elliott, who has come to the resort to experience true submission. Lisa and Elliott are undeniably likable, relatable characters even though their desires may be foreign to many readers.

But their conflicts aren’t. In her twenties, Lisa has it all: a cushy job at an island resort where everyone bows to her will, plus wealth and beauty. Nevertheless, she feels separated from reality and can’t understand why she’s drawn to vanilla sex and normalcy. Thrill-seeking photojournalist Elliott desires to explore his darkest sexual self for the undeniable danger enslavement presents.

Exit to Eden is a BDSM-laced, sexy, sensual read that no one would ever call porn due to its excellent craftsmanship. I’ve written in my writing primer,

Plotting and Planning, that the writer must know his or her characters down to their souls. It’s clear that Rice knows Lisa and Elliott, and by the end of the book, we know them almost as deeply.

However, erotic writing must include sex, and a lot of it. How can we get a lot of sex into our writing without it being gratuitous, as sex is in porn?

Step one is creating likable characters with interesting conflicts. Those conflicts have to be the sort that doesn’t keep them apart physically, so they’re less romantic or external conflicts than they are internal conflicts. Let’s look at Lisa again. Her conflict isn’t with Elliott—it’s with herself. She has everything but can’t understand her discontent. This conflict pops up frequently in modern literature. As our lives have become more comfortable, fewer external conflicts, such as getting our next meal, are the subject of books. When writers examine modern life, they often analyze our dissatisfaction in the midst of plenty. In fact, one of Freud’s most famous works is Civilization and its Discontents.

Step two is getting your likable but conflicted characters naked as soon as possible and as frequently as possible within the limits of the story. In Exit to Eden, Rice does this via the setting as well as the characters. The setting allows Lisa to choose and use Elliott as her personal sex slave. This takes place early in the book and is preceded by several sensual scenes, including the unloading of the new batch of naked slaves delivered to the resort she runs. And it’s followed by many erotic scenes as the characters’ pasts are shown to the reader and the course of their romance is related.

So, in order to load erotica with a lot of sex, start with a sexy premise, which will lead naturally to a lot of sex-filled scenes, without the lovemaking seeming forced or the sex shoehorned into the book just to give the reader a chance to get off or, worse, to increase the word count.

Another tactic is to begin a story in the midst of a relationship. Here’s the beginning of one of my short stories, Gypsy Witch:

Ben propped himself up on his elbows to better see the naked woman beneath him. Sheened with sweat, Elena’s lush curves glowed in the reddish half-light of her bedroom, curtained in exotically patterned swaths of gauze and silk. A curl of smoke from a lit incense stick scented the air with sandalwood. Otherworldly New Age music flowed out of a boombox in the corner, irritating the hell out of him.

Not only did I start off the story with a bang (pun intended) but there’s quite a bit of characterization and even a little conflict—and this is only the first paragraph. We see that Ben is very “feet-on-the-ground” while Elena, his lover, is exotic and New-Agey. So character is described, setting is related and the romantic conflict is shown.

Step three is developing the plot so that the characters’ romantic relationship grows along with their sex life. Sex may be an everyday occurrence, and even mundane to many, but if you’re a character in a book, having sex will change your relationship. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t belong in the book. Nothing belongs in your story except events that move the tale along. The entire purpose of a romance—which is usually the fiction genre that erotica falls into—is to show growth and change in the characters as they grapple with their conflicts and gain their happily-ever-after, or at least, happy-for -right-now love. If you’re at all tuned into the basics of plot, you’ll place those life-changing events right where they should be—at turning points in the story or perhaps at the midpoint.

There’s more, of course...  Enjoy the journey!

Here’s where you can find the books I wrote that are referenced in this blog:

Gypsy Witch https://www.ellorascave.com/product/gypsy-witch/

Plotting and Planning, included in About Writing: 

http://tinyurl.com/deMelloAboutWriting   

About the Author:

Best-selling, award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written seventeen romance novels in several subgenres, including erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery and suspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. A freelance editor, she’s held the positions of managing editor and senior editor, working for such firms as Totally Bound and Ai Press. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, won a contest or two, attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

 

A former trial attorney, her passion is world travel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints working overseas. She’s now writing a vampire tale and planning her next trip.

Check out Suzie's site: http://www.suzdemello.com

And her blog: http://www.TheVelvetLair.com