How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part Three

Following on from How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part One & Two I thought it high time I looked again at the suggestions and prompts I made in those two articles – this will be the last one on the theme. Each writer uses their own tried and tested – successful, even – writing prompts. Some come along as merry as the blossom in May, others have to be forced into being like overdue lambs or calves. Let’s move on from the nature/farming analogy…

Please refer to How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part Two where the suggestions 1-6 below were my take on the way your inner critic stops you writing.

Have you tamed your Inner Critic yet?

How do you get that IC to cease hindering your writing? Do you find yourself thinking negative, non-productive thoughts? Try shouting (aloud, if possible) your answer in a more positive train of thought. The best mind games are those that get you writing. Here’s my suggestions.

• 1: “that’s rubbish, no one will read this”
  Answer 1: “they will read it but I cannot control who will love it – so there!”
  
  
• 2: “I wonder if I could change to another topic…”
  Answer 2: “I am writing about this subject today – it might not be good writing, but it is far better than me not writing – so there, again!”
  
  
• 3: “maybe I am not meant to write today – or ever!”
  Answer 3: “I’ve chosen to write, I enjoy writing… perhaps I will never be an overnight, runaway success story, but I will write, when I want to, and nothing imaginary is EVER going to stop me.”
  
  
• 4: “perhaps I should stop for coffee…”
  Answer 4: bring the coffee machine or kettle into your writing space or fill a flask in advance. Try not to flit in and out of the room, finding excuses to do something else.
  Ignore the urge to be elsewhere. Set yourself a reasonable timespan or word limit, and write until you reach it.
  
  
• 5: “what’s on the TV / shall I finish that book / phone my mate”
  Answer 5: unless your TV has a prearranged lifespan, or your book is overdue at the library, or your mate is about to fly to the moon, your writing time is NOW.
  Don’t let other ideas – that is all they are – take your dream away from you. Read the word “dream” as wish, story idea, storyline, last chapter, ANYTHING you want to get done. Do it.
  
  
• 6: “I will leave this to another day”
  Answer 6: I must admit, this one is my stumbling block. I sit in my cosy armchair, in the lounge and I consider the idea of writing. Then I put it off.
  
  What happened today to bring me to my keyboard… by email, I received several examples of other authors’ excellent writing. One story, the 11th in a line of 12 Christmas Stories at Choc Lit, and a poem, writer unknown so I cannot share it here, except to say it is about the year 2020, and recognises that many more people who will be alone for Christmas. It reminds us that there is still hope.
  
  
  My reaction was, rather than put off my own writing until New Year’s Day, and so-called resolutions, I’m here now, adding another post to Later Writer because it is my dream.

Post by post, page by page, writing builds into a blog or book, for just yourself or for wider publication

Referring back to How Markets Can Prompt You to Write: Part One , I suggested that you look at what potential markets exist, and what they are looking for now (or for future publication – magazines work 3-6 months in advance whereas newspapers and websites are more immediate).

Choosing one potential market/competition, and deciding what to write for that market, is a good way of starting out. Later Writers might feel as though it is too late …oh no, it isn’t! All that experience, all that knowledge and imagination… do not, dear reader, let that go to waste.

Try to react positively (as above, 1-6)

Study the craft of writing if you want to learn some technique… I am not going to discuss the nature/nurture theory. My belief is that the urge or calling to write is a natural part of our make-up.

How well we communicate our ideas, whether for information of creative fiction, is a new topic and I will discuss it in my next post… first, it’s Christmas at the Time of Cholera, sorry, I mean, Covid!