Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Elizabeth Huhn (my preferred handles are thesparkinside and angeliz2k), a college student and creative writer. I currently don't have anything published, but let's not let that slow us down, shall we? I haven't let it stop me yet. I at least have an agent working on my first really serious novel, titled Britannia. I like to write historical fiction mostly, and some fantasy. I do not write short stuff, at least I don't very often. So that's a little about me.
Let me say a little about my intentions for this blog. I intend to write in it every week, preferably on the weekend. I will be discussing creative writing topics. Think of it as a sort of newsletter, with some helpful tips or writing prompts, links, book recommendations, and maybe a bit of my own creative writing for your perusal. I hope that you will enjoy! So let's get started, hmm?
Most writers will tell you that the hardest thing about writing is figuring what exactly you're going to write. I know that half-formed ideas are rampant in my own mind. But half-formed ideas simply won't do me--or anyone else for that matter--any good. The question is how to get that pesky idea developed into something a little grander. A short story, a novel, a poem, whatever it is, can grow out of this germ. It just needs a little attention.
My first recommendation would be to sit on it. Not literally, because that might kill it, but figuratively will do just as well. Just give it time. I've often found that while driving in the car or taking a shower I'll have a sudden intuition. A plot point will suddenly erupt in my mind, or the web of my plot will suddenly have one more thread to tie it together. It isn't always possible to predict when these ideas will come to you, so don't panic if it doesn't come right away. Give it time.
Secondly, if you have some downtime, consciously turn your mind toward what you're working on. If the story isn't churning right beneath the surface of your thoughts, then make an effort to put it there. I will oftentimes have the story right behind my conscious thoughts. But if I'm stopped at a red light or sitting on the can (ahem) then I may not be thinking about it. Bring it to mind, and it might start working itself out. Allow your thoughts to wander. Your imagination will fill in gaps that perhaps you wouldn't if just thinking about it with a pad of paper and a pencil in front of you.
That being said, my third recommendation is to actually sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper every once in a while. It's all good and well to keep this all on your mind, but at some point you have to set it down in some cogent form. You may have many wonderful ideas in your head, but it will be an enormous help to simply grab a notebook and try to put them together so you have some idea of how to put those wonderful ideas into actual literary practice. Case in point: I've been mulling over a particularly difficult section of the story I'm working on. I had an idea of where I wanted it to go, that I wanted my character to be pregnant, that I wanted to man to ignore her, and so on. These were just ideas of what would happen though and when I sat down to write it, I felt a bit lost in the ideas. So I decided it was time to make a list of all the plot points that needed to be hit. Then I carefully put them in order--this part first, then that other part, etc. Then I got down to the actual writing. It was a big help to get through the rough spot.
For anyone writing a novel, I would highly recommend several things. First, I would recommend a list of characters--traits like eye color and hair color and their disposition. It sounds silly, but I know I've been guilty of saying a character had blue eyes only to say in a later chapter that he had dark, brooding eyes. Another thing I recommend is a list of what you've written. Whatever you feel is more or less complete, write down in a list what it is. I did this with chapters for Britannia, which was a major help since there were quite a lot of chapters. If you tend to write a lot and throw out half of it, this can be a huge help to keep track of what you've actually decided to keep around. And if you ever need to go back and check what you've written, this will be invaluable. I also highly, HIGHLY recommend a trash file, that is a file holding all the discarded bits that you've written. Even if they're all short and very bad, don't just delete them forever. They could spark an idea later or you might decide that you want them after all. I usually have a separate file with the same name as the original except with "pieces" or "bits" at the end.
Another recommendation is to read a good book or watch a good movie. Get motivate. Being a college student, I've been guilty of reading six or seven nonfiction books at once and no fiction books at all for months at a time. This can be a real drain on the creative juices! It certainly is on me. My writing gets a little stiff and stodgy, as though I'm writing a textbook myself. If you tend to emulate other writers, try to keep up on at least one fiction book at a time. And a good movie never hurts; there are great stories being told in movies, and if that great movie gives you that little spark to want to write, then take that and go with it. If you just finished a great book or movie and suddenly feel the urge to write, then WRITE. Just do it, that feeling might fade. Sometimes you can glean some real great ideas just by keeping in touch.
It's also important to keep some kind of end in sight. Whether it's the form or overall message of a poem, the arc of the short story, or the plot of a novel, one little idea itself does not a poem, story, or novel make. You have to have a goal for what you're trying to accomplish. Is your idea going to fit into a frame that can create a poem, story, or book? Is that idea a frame, and if so, do you have the material to fill it in? If your idea isn't enough to create the whole work around, expand it, give it time, try to define what you want it to turn into. I'll give an example to illustrate. My idea for Britannia was to take a mystery from history (what happened to Boudicca's daughters?) and turn it into a book. My idea: the girls were twins and one became pregnant by a Roman (I'll try to keep this at a PG level). But that really isn't quite enough for a novel, is it? I had to expand on that. Where to begin? Where to end? Who were the other characters, what were their roles, and how did this all fit into a plot arc? It may seem like a lot, and technical, but it's important to keep the big picture somewhere in mind.
My final recommendation is to write down your brilliant ideas. I know that I said earlier that it's not always best to sit down with pencil and paper to try and come up with ideas, and that's true. But, if you're in the shower and an idea comes to you, or you're in the car and have a flash of inspiration, then you have to write it down pronto. There's nothing worse then thinking how amazing that idea was, and then forgetting it completely the next day. I also would recommend keeping a sheet of paper by your bedside. I've lost more than a few ideas because I thought of them while falling asleep and couldn't remember them when I woke up.
So I hope that this is a help. I'm not trying to come up with places to go or things to do to get ideas, because everyone is different in that way. I get ideas from reading history books; other people might get it from walking in a park or getting a sandwich at a deli. What I hope at least a few people will get out of this is how to cultivate that idea into something useful.
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