Month: July 2017

Writing Prompts – Mystic Parks

This week’s theme is city parks. Most of the prompts feature magic or the supernatural.

  1. The protagonist finds a picture of someone at the park. It’s just a photograph, but the protagonist feels a connection to the person. Write about the thoughts and dreams the character has. Later, they bump into each other. Does the person live up to the protagonist’s dreams?
  2. A haunted park. Legends speak of ghosts that haunt the park. Is it true? Were people murdered there? Is the ghost of children from a horrible accident? Is it the ghost of a witch out for revenge? It all depends on the truth of the park’s history.
  3. A lost city park. It’s down a side street, nobody seems to know it exists, and the houses are strange with shady people. It’s protected by some strange magic, or exists in a pocket dimension that makes it difficult to notice. Who cares for it, and what secrets does it hide?
  4. The park is the last refuge of a clan of faeries. Their domain is beneath a hill in the city park. When conditions are right, a portal opens to their home. There are stories of strange music and lights at night, especially around certain nights of the year. There are people who have disappeared for days, with no memory of what happened to them.
  5. The park is a safe zone from nightmares that engulf a small town. Perhaps it is holy ground, but the nightmares can only reach the edge. The park might also hold the answers to stopping the nightmares.
  6. There is a lady of the park who chooses a new king of the park. But king of what? And what other duties are required?
  7. A child goes missing at the park, right under the parent’s nose. After months go by, other kids say they hear the child’s voice around the park.

Like them? Have inspiration? Did you use any of them? Let me know in the comments.

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How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

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Do you want to write but don’t have anything you’re excited to write about? Missing that something that makes you want to put your butt in chair and get started? Do you have writer’s block?

Goal: To come up with 10 story ideas every day.

For a month.

At the end of a month, choose your favorites for future writing.

Ready? Grab your journal. Let’s do this…

Break each day into a different theme, something you are genuinely interested in and want to write about, or include in your current work in progress.

Themes can be zombies, mermaids, dystopian setting, whatever. Choose a subject that you can conceivably come up with multiple story ideas.

To find out more themes: What’s your favorite book? TV show? Movie? For example, if you are into Game of Thrones, come up with a list of ideas to write your own dark fantasy filled with political intrigue and backstabbing. If Star Wars is on your list, come up with ideas for a Space Opera setting, filled with numerous worlds and unique alien species, with a powerful enemy out to rule the galaxy.

Since I write in multiple genres, I make a category for Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy, and then apply my theme of the day to each category.

Try to do this every day, for at least a month.

Write out a concept for each idea, so when you revisit it in the future, you’ll have an idea of what you originally came up with.

If you struggle with coming up with 10, can you come up with ideas to apply to, say, a romance arc? Or an antagonist story arc?

Some days, take a break from writing fiction ideas and try a day of marketing ideas.

Choose your one or two of your favorites each day, and add it to a second list, one of your best ideas that you’re excited about and want to actively pursue.

Don’t throw out the other ideas.

Can they be combined with your favorite ideas for other story arcs, whether for the main story or for secondary characters?

Can they be made into short stories?

This was not by any means something I came up with. I found it on another website that was written primarily for blogging, and found it works great for fiction development.

 

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The Return of the G.S. Wright Elusive Monday Update

Back to Writing

Yes, it’s been awhile since my last Monday update, mainly because life. It’s difficult to do an update when I feel I am not moving forward fast enough.

For the most part, my word count for the year is only 128k, and here we are in July. Most of my time has gone to other things, and working elsewhere. As far as accomplishments? I published all of Spilling Blood Season 3. All 4 episodes are up on Amazon, of course, 14 books in total for the entire series.

With that, this week’s goal is to get Season 3 in a single volume, for those of you who prefer to read it as a novel and not as a serial. So that’s coming soon.

As far as other writing goes, my next book is a zombie romance. More coming on that later. It’s in the revision phase, and with a little luck, I’ll make a lot of progress this week.

So, not much of an update, except I’ve got some projects coming along.

Goals

I’m not going to look back at this year’s goals, except to get as many words as I can out before the end of the year. At this point, I’ll be happy if I hit 200k. If I get a good week of writing in, maybe I’ll rethink everything, see where I’m going.

Blogging

And I’m going to try and blog again. Like, here we are, right? Yesterday I did a writing prompt based on ideas I generate fairly frequently. Basically, I’ve got more story ideas than I’m ever going to use, so I thought I’d share some with you for awhile. Watch for another batch next Sunday.

Last Week’s Adventures

I spent quite a bit of time this week with friends visiting from California, though they’re not going to be Californians any longer. They’re moving to Washington. My friend Denny is an amazing guitarist, so I’ve had the opportunity to hear some incredible playing. Incidentally, his wife Jennifer happens to be my amazing cover artist for the plethora of my books.

I got dread locks on Thursday.

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Picture courtesy of Snapchat GoT filter.

I and the fam spent yesterday in Gooding, Idaho at a Basque Festival. I’m not Basque, but it’s still a good time.

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Sounds like I’m heavy into cultural appropriation, doesn’t it?

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Writing Prompts Week of 7-16-17

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Welcome to a new, possibly weekly feature of my blog… Writing Prompts! Each week, I’ll share 7 writing prompts. Use one a day, or choose your favorite to develop into a full-fledged novel.

Week One’s Theme, Returning from the Dead. Whether as a zombie, revenant, or ghost, death cannot stand in the way of your character’s desires.

  1. Write about a protagonist that has just died. The catch? He/She had just met his/her soulmate. And death won’t stand in the way.
  2. Write about a protagonist raised from the dead by science, returned to his/her family. The catch? He/She doesn’t remember them and wants to enjoy his/her second chance.
  3. Write about a dead assassin brought back by a necromancer for a second chance. He/she better not fail again…
  4. Write about a group of friends during a zombie apocalypse, trying to live normally and deal with life, jobs, and love.
  5. Write about a revenant vigilante, trying to clean up the crime in his/her town. The catch? His targets must die for him to live.
  6. Write about a parasite that reanimates corpses. The reanimated seem normal, at first…
  7. Write about a group of strangers brought back from the dead for a fight. The last zombie standing gets to return to the world of the living.

Like them? Have inspiration? Did you use any of them? Let me know in the comments.

 

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