Are You Stuck in the Middle of Your Novel? Try My 7 Creative Writing Prompts to Get You Going Again!

The following creative writing prompts are broken down into seven simple prompts that will help you develop the ideas that tend to pop into your head out of thin air.

Use the following steps to prompts help you develop ideas you already have into best selling novels.

Creative Writing Prompts #1:

Write your ideas down! Anything will do as a means of transfer from your brain to a more permanent source of recollection: Toilette paper, receipts, pay stubs, scrap paper, writing journals, and whatever else is available to jot down your ideas at the given moment.

Why is this so important? Because trying to remember something as brief as a thought is like trying to find a needle in a haystack; it just isn't going to happen unless you write your creative ideas down! It's so easy to lose an awesome idea amongst all of the other thoughts rolling around your brain, so write it down!

Creative Writing Prompts # 2:

Use details! More importantly in the recollection process is to be as detailed as you can when you set your ideas into words.

There's nothing like writing down an idea and then forgetting some of the specific details of the thought such as particulars about a scene (weather, night, day, in the woods, in a car...), character features (height, weight, build, hair color, eye color, skin color, attitudes...), plot distinctiveness (the who, what, where, when, why and how of the plot), what exact action is happening, any key elements to write about...), and what you were doing at the time the idea came to you.

The last one, writing down what you were doing, is so you can recall the situation you were in when this thought came to you to possibly extract even more details from your subconscious mind during the writing process.

Creative Writing Prompts #3:

Don't lose it! If you write something down, you must put it somewhere special with all of your other writing ideas. Creative writing ideas are hard to come by. My novel writing tips recommend you be organized with all of your writing information.

I know this is very difficult since creative people are supposed to be disorganized by nature. I know I am!

Act like you are running a business (even if you don't know how to run a business, common sense applies) and keep everything dealing with your writing separate from everything personal.

Creative Writing Prompts #4:

Get to work developing your ideas as soon as possible! Don't let your idea sit in a box for a year before you pull it out to write about it. The longer your idea sits idle, the harder it will be to make the idea come to life.

Hook up those jumper cables within a day or two (the sooner the better) and start writing while the idea is fresh in your mind. Writing down your idea helps considerably, but starting to write about the idea while it's fresh in your mind will enable you to produce a much better work of fiction. The longer it sits, the more details are left out.

Creative Writing Prompts #5:

Brainstorm your idea! Once you have something down on paper like your opening, start brainstorming your idea. Brainstorming techniques are available to help you unleash your full creative potential.

Here's the brainstorming area you will need to focus on during this step:

When brainstorming your idea, start with a pen and paper. Write down the key concept word or phrase your story is based upon. This could be a word or phrase like "pirates" or "murder mystery".

Write the key plot of your story. This could be a word or phrase like "battle for treasure amongst pirates" or "murder of a school teacher". (Sorry if you are a school teacher or a pirate; just something that came to my mind at the moment).

Take your paper to a secluded room (away from all distractions like kids, dogs, husbands, wives, television, telephone) and set a stopwatch or alarm clock for 7 minutes. Start the timer and start writing.

Write down everything that comes to your mind about your key concept for the first 7 minutes, then repeat this for the second 7 minutes.

Write down your character's names. Do the same for each of your characters, writing down as much information about them as you can. Remember, this is brainstorming; write down whatever comes to your mind. Don't limit this process. Just write it down.

You can also use this technique for brainstorming scene layout and entire chapter content. The sky's the limit with these novel writing tips.

Creative Writing Prompts #6:

Arrange your brainstorming results! Take all of the brainstorming information you've gathered and organize it using a Mind Map.

Check out The Brain if you don't know what a mind map is or how to use one.

The home or center of the mind map will be your concept word or phrase you used to brainstorm with. As you organize this information, new ideas will probably pop into your head. Write those ideas down as well, otherwise you will forget them.

Creative Writing Prompts #7:

Start Writing Again! This time, don't stop (well, except to do your normal everyday routine!) Write continuously until you either reach a stopping point or can't think of anything else to write.

If you ever run out of new ideas for books, or can't come up with anything else to add to your content (this happens way to often too), good creative writing prompts can be expanded into idea generation! If your ideas run dry, this is a great place to get them going again.

The preceding steps should help you grasp the ideas your subconscious mind gives you at any given moment. Use those steps to assemble your Best Seller!

 

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