Get Creative with Prompts – Week 3

September 6, 2018October 10, 2018 F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

Welcome back to my nine-week creative writing lessons. This is your third lesson to help get you writing and to improve your writing style. So far you answered questions and written a letter to yourself. This time you are going to be writing an actual story.

Today’s less is writing prompts.

Writing prompts are little ideas that help to jumpstart a story. These prompts could be a single sentence, a paragraph, or a picture, but they are meant to inspire a story. These types of prompts are great ways to help you when you feel stuck for ideas.

You can spend ten minutes writing on a prompt, and then return back to the book you’ve been working on with new inspiration. It works by stimulating your writing process. Google can provide you with a whole host of writing prompts, but I’ve got a few for you.

You’re enjoying your favorite show when you notice that the window is open. You know you didn’t raise the window, and you live along. Who could have opened the window? Are they still in your house? What are you going to do?
You wake up in the morning excited about the day you have planned. Out of nowhere, you are hit with a blinding headache. As quickly as it hit, the headache is gone, but now you can’t remember anything. Who are you? What happened? Where are you going to go? Can you get help?
You’re walking along the beach when you trip over something. You inspect the ground where you tripped and find a hidden staircase. Will you explore it? What’s down the stairs? Is anybody there? Who will you tell?

If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. – Toni Morrison

10 Ways to Find Writing Inspiration

August 22, 2018October 10, 2018 F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

Being a writer isn’t as easy as some people think. It takes time. You have to come up with ideas. Then ultimately you have to write it down into a cohesive manner. After a while, you will find it hard to find inspiration. Inspiration has evaded me before, and there have been times where I had to make myself write. I don’t like feeling like I’m being made to do something, and I’m sure most of you are the same way. If you’re looking for some inspiration to help you get motivated to write, I’ve got a few tips for you.

Books

What better way to find inspiration that with a book. You don’t even have to go with inspirational books, but you can. Any type of book; fiction, non-fiction, young adult, fantasy, horror, whatever your favorite type of book is. That book might just hold that piece of inspiration you’ve been looking for. Stephen King’s book IT helped me figure out how I wanted to organize my book.

2. People Watching

This is my favorite. I’ve always been a fly on the wall type person. Or a wallflower. Whatever you want to call it. So sitting around and watching other people has always been entertaining, and it’s the perfect way to get inspired to write.

3. Brainstorms

Sit down with a pen and paper and start writing things down. Write the different ideas you’ve been playing. Don’t worry about organizing anything, just write. Something on that paper could end up becoming your next big success.

4. Writing Journal

This is great for any writer. It’s not something you have to write in every single day, but it’s there for you if inspiration strikes. You can write down quotes, snippets, plot twists, characters, or dialog. All you need is a simple spiral bound notebook.

5. Dreams

This may not be very easy, but keeping up with your dreams may give you some ideas on what to write about. There was one morning I woke up and I could remember a dream I had that night, and I wrote it down because I thought it would be a great plot for a story. I’ve not used it yet, but I still have it written down and ready if I ever want to write it.

6. Exercise

Breaking a sweet is a great way to find inspiration. There’s something about physical exercise that gets the brain working.

7. History

It’s amazing but looking back at history can give you inspiration. Look back at some of the greats like Leonard di Vinci, Helen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Gandhi.

8. Nature

Tired of staring at a blank screen? Take a walk outside. Spend some time and nature and let your mind relax. Appreciate the things around you. Notice the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. You’ll be amazed at how well this will help you find inspiration.

9. Friends

Have real conversations. Spend time with people you like and just talk to them. You never know what’s going to come up, and it might just inspire something inside you.

10. Music

Find some music that inspires you and play it while you’re writing. This could be classical, hard rock, metal, whatever gets your mind working.

That’s my tips for you today. I hope some of these help you to find inspiration the next you are stuck. If you have some tips to help people find inspiration to write, please share them in the comments.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The Killer of all Great Writers

August 14, 2018August 14, 2018 F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

Today we are going to talk about the biggest killer of all writers.

Writer’s Block

Calm the screaming. I know, it’s scary, but it doesn’t have to end your career. There are ways around it, and I’m sure I will write many more posts on the subject. There’s no need to feel bad. Every writer gets it. Even the best most famous writers have to deal with writer’s block. I’ve got 14 ways to help you work through writer’s block.

Before we get into how to combat writer’s block, let’s look at what could be causing the block.

Timing – Maybe it’s not the right time for you to write. Maybe you need to let your ideas stew a little bit more before they can be written down.
Fear – A lot of writers will struggle with fear when it comes to actually putting their ideas down on paper. They are afraid of sharing a part of themselves. They are afraid of being criticized and judged. They are afraid that it will be the only thing they write. I know fear has been what has slowed me down on getting my first book out.
Perfectionism – For a writer, the book is never done. Even once its gone to press, you’ll still be thinking about how you could have changed something. At some point, you have to be finished with it. Perfect doesn’t exist. It’s only an excuse.

While dealing with writer’s block is tough, here are some things you can try to break through the wall.

Find some inspiring quotes and read them for inspiration.
Make bullet point lists of ideas.
Call somebody you haven’t spoken to in a while.
Spend some time with a person that lifts you up.
Come up with a regular schedule.
Make some coffee.
Listen to music.
Freewrite.
Read a book.
Switch up your environment.
Play.
Exercise or do something that keeps your blood pumping.
Get rid of your distractions.
Take a walk.

The important thing is to create some momentum to get over that wall.

If your still not sure what to do, here are some things that you should not do to try to overcome the block.

Refusing to write until you are inspired.
Wallowing in self-pity.
Making excuses or procrastinating.
Watching TV.

If you’re looking for that magical fail-proof way to overcome writer’s block, here it is:

WRITE

Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you. – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The Journey Begins

January 30, 2018August 9, 2018 F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

Thanks for joining me! I started writing my first novel in high school. My best friend at the time inspired me to start writing, and we planned out the book and the subsequent series together. Nearly ten years later, I have just finished writing that first book. I had no clue what I was doing when I first started writing. Hell, I hated taking the writing tests we had in school. I loved English class, but I never fancied myself a writer. But for some reason, Leslie convinced me to write.

I know, ten years to write a book seems like a long time. It is. But I wasn’t focused at first. I used to only write the book while at school. When I had free time, or during study hall. Sometimes during class when I was supposed to be working on a project. Then I would stop. I would either get bored with it, forget about it, or something. I’d stop writing for a week or months at a time. Then when I would come back to it, and I would start making major changes to the characters and plot.

Then I graduated high school and started college. The book fell to the wayside for a year or more. It stayed in the back of my head, and I would think about it from time to time. Leslie would sometimes ask about it. I knew I needed to get it out, but I didn’t have the gumption. Then I had a bit of free time, and I pulled out the book. I had taken a creative writing specialization on the website Coursera, and as I read through what I had written, I hated it. I still loved my story, and what I had planned out with Leslie, but the way I had written was completely awful. I scrapped what I had written, and started from scratch. Again, I would get distracted from time to time, but I wrote the book this time.

Between my ghostwriting job, and life, I was able to finish the book in about two years. That included writing and proofreading it. It felt so good to finish that story, and I will always love it because it was my first novel. Now, it’s not published yet, but it will be. I’m trying to go the literary agent and publisher route, instead of self-publishing it, so it’s going to be a long journey. That is what has led me here. Loved by Death is my first novel and the first book in my Wolfsbane Chronicles series.

I hope to share that book with you all one day, and the books that follow it. For now, you can read my short stories I write, and possibly some poems. So, let the journey begin.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton