When Ideas Won't Come

by June Shaw

What do you do if you're an author, and ideas won't come?

For about the two thousandth time, I am about to find out.

Normally when I don't know what words to type on the page it's because I'm at a place in the plot of a novel where something important and unexpected needs to happen. When that occurs, I often sit back, look at what I'd written thus far, and consider what twist might pull the reader along so that he or she won't close the book.

That's not what's happening now. Right now I'm setting my fingers on my laptop keys and creating one word after another, but I need to admit -- I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

I'll blame it on others. Twice within the past week I needed to create blogs for other people (of course I could have done them sooner, but -- I digress.) Possibly I could start thinking of something clever to write in our group blog here like so many of the other authors do. I could set lots of attractive pictures in my posts (if I could figure out how to do that.)

I write a quarterly column for our area's Chamber of Commerce. The same thing happens there. Ideas come at the last minute. I'm not sure who I'll write about until the editor shoots me a reminder that my column is due in a few days.

I don't put off writing on a work-in-progress almost every day. My routine is set: rise whenever I wake up, read my Daily Word and say quick prayers, grab my coffee and get to the computer. Of course my fiction might increase faster if the Internet wasn't connected.


So what do you keep writing about? And how do you do it on time? I'd love to know how others keep up with all of the things they're trying to write.

http//www.juneshaw.com

Writers Are Stories in Themselves

By Jackie King

Even though I write murder mysteries, just the thought of a haunted house puts shivers down my spine. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in a time when kids entertained themselves by telling ghost stories around a campfire in the dark. Or maybe I’m just a natural born coward. For this reason I have the highest esteem for anyone who cohabits (and cheerfully, too) with ghosts. Being a writer, most of my friends also write, and a couple of them, a mother-daughter team, live in an honest-to-goodness haunted house. They even have a blog where they share ghost stories about their home and other spooky places.

Needless to say, these women are my heroes. (Heroines?)

Let me introduce you to Lynn Somerville and her talented daughter, Katie Somerville, co-authors of SCARY MONDAYS-VOLUME I.

http://tinyurl.com/d6ggwo6

This collection of short stories were first published on their blog, http://lynnsomervillefiction.wordpress.com

Lynn and Katie Somerville

This blog features a weekly ghost story guaranteed to make you shiver. I asked Lynn how she came up with so many ideas in this genre, and she said one story came about because of her hearing disability. Read on:

Inspiration for A Black Confession

By Lynn Somerville

As writers we’re often asked where our stories come from. Where do we get the ideas for our tales? And the answer is, anywhere and everywhere. Here’s an example of what I mean. It’s a little embarrassing, but it’s a great illustration–the seed of a story can come from the strangest places.

I wrote a short story called Black Lace, published in my anthology Scary Mondays Volume One. It’s about a widower who’s dead wife is taking possession of him. I got the idea from a song by Soundgarden. Now I’m hearing impaired, so the words I heard Chris Cornell singing was, “I put on black lace.” That conjured in my head the image of a man dressing as his late wife at her direction. Her ghost tells him to wear her favorite black dress and put on make-up just as she did, all so she can live again inside him.

The funny thing is, being hearing impaired, I heard the words of the song incorrectly. Cornell wasn’t singing “I put on black lace.” The lyrics are “I fell on black days.”

Black Lace is one of my favorite short stories and it’s one inspired because I heard the wrong words to a song.

And that’s where stories come from!

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Lynn Somerville and Katie Somerville are a mother and daughter writing duo. Lynn writes a weekly blog, Scary Mondays, http://lynnsomervillefiction.wordpress.com. Follow Lynn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsomervilleinOK or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lynnsomerville author

When Katie Somerville is not writing about zombies and ghosts, she plays bass and guitar and sings lead vocals. She is a college freshman and loves to bake. Both Lynn and Katie live in Oklahoma.

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I’ll bet you’re as impressed with these brave gals as I am.

Cheers,

Jackie