Fiction Writers: Enlighten Me! Call to Action!

"What do you do to keep motivated?" Nothing much. I just read everything that the Creators here publish and that kinda helps me I guess. "How do you keep the creative juices flowing? And most importantly, what do you do to keep consistent?" Honestly, I don't do anything 🤣🤣🤣🤣 And that's why I'm not consistent with my publishing and publish very little. "How do you think of all your twists and turns?" It just pops up in my head. "Is fiction something that comes to you and you note it? " Yes. "Or do you look for it, explore the deep corners of your mind and etch it out of the linings of your brain?" Nope. "Do your ideas come running to you, or do you have to drag them out?" They come to me but not by running. They walk. Sometimes crawl. Lol "Do you utilize the common phrase "just write" or do you plan? Do you antagonize? Or do you just let your mind relax and let it flow?" I have to let my idea stew for as long as it needs, be it days or weeks, until the whole story is formed in my head. Then I write and let it just flow

For me, the process goes in reverse (mostly). When I get an idea for a story or try to tackle a prompt, I first imagine the ending. How does this idea end? What morals (if any) do I want to convey? And what characters do I need to include to tell the story? Building up to that ending is the challenge. Making it believable is crucial to that WOW moment the reader will hopefully get. But most of all, creating something that people can feel as they read determines success for me. You've now touched someone through words, hoping they remember the story, leaving them wanting more. Fiction to me is the best writing exercise for stretching the imagination. Creating something from basically nothing is amazing to me. When done right, it can change or enhance perspectives, which leads me to what I need practice with the most - the literary quality. For me this means using words in different ways to convey what is usually a straightforward meaning or painting pictures in unusual but concise ways. The lessons continue... Motivation happens when I fall for the story/concept. Once I love it, there's no turning back until it's finished. I've put projects aside because they just weren't working for me, but I rarely trash them. I would rather wait until the right time to revisit them to see if any new ideas surface that will help the story. There are no bad ideas. They are all good, some just executed poorly, lol. I'm no stranger to that but stand by my work, it can only get better. Thank you for sharing this. It's a great conversation starter.

Hi Belle! Great post and great questions here. My advice would be to never force yourself to write when you’re lacking motivation or just straight up don’t want to. The ideas and the creativity and the pull to want to create fiction will always come again, don’t force it! Forcing yourself to write leads to a lot of dull, dishonest, lackluster content. I would know! So never be afraid to not be in the mood to write. We’re only human, we’re not built to be super god-like inspired and consistent all the time. Like Rick said, being a fiction reader is the best thing you can do to be a fiction writer. But take the time to consume all different types of fiction besides books as well! Listen to some music you love, check out a show you thought looked interesting, watch a classic movie. Things as simple as this can inspire ideas just as much as reading literature!

Q: What do you do to keep motivated? A: I remain motivated first by reading other people's works. On our way to other people's stories I become energized and I want to create my own stories. Q: How do you keep the creative juices flowing? A: As mentioned previously I read other people's writing. I take from real life, from situations around me, from situations in the past, from situations in the current day. Everything I write has some sort of basis in things I have experienced. Q: What do you do to keep consistent? A: I have a competitive nature so remaining consistent is baked into my DNA. Q: What do you think of all your twists and turns? A: I'm not sure of this question's meaning. But, I love the twists and turns in my stories because they are always unpredictable but relevant. Q: Is fiction something that comes to you and you note it? Or do you look for it, explore the deep corners of your mind, and etch it out of the linings of your brain? Do your ideas come running to you, or do you have to drag them out? A: My ideas come to me easily. A lot of my published fiction are first draft with fixes to punctuation. I rarely have to do rewrites. My best stories usually write themselves. I am just the vessel that types them out. Q: Do you utilize the common phrase "just write" or do you plan? Do you antagonize? Or do you just let your mind relax and let it flow? What makes fiction fiction for you? A: I do not use any of the common tricks or tips, I just let the words flow. If I have to think to hard on it or agonize over it, it usually ends up being a subpar story that I get bored with and put aside. My biggest tip in writing fiction is to give your characters a lot of dialog. Let your characters tell the story. Narration without dialog stunts the growth of your characters. You want people to get to know your characters. The strongest stories are those that start off with dialog. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to give our views on writing fiction. I look forward to reading your finished list.

Those questions are difficult for me to answer simply because I may start a story going in one direction and finish it somewhere totally different. I'm one of those writers who let the characters take me where they want the story to go. Sounds crazy, but even when I start with a definite plan it seldom finishes that way. This probably isn't much help, sorry.

Great questions. For me, it usually comes down to, what question am I answering? From what perspective? Who is my audience? How can I say what I want to say in an original and insightful manner? I always move from genre to genre to keep it fresh. That’s just how I work. Others likely work differently, which is awesome. I try to write daily, but only publish when a piece is ready. I am as much an editor as a writer, so I love that process. I keep a running list of prompts for myself, but seldom if ever need to lean into those because my “problem” isn’t a lack of inspiration or an inability to write. Quite the opposite. I need to slow my imagination from time to time and focus on what I’m writing at that moment. I often have ten things in the works simultaneously. So for me, the key is narrowing my focus to exactly one idea or topic or genre. I am inspired by everything. Words, art, colors, people, animals, history, the future, space, flowers, cars, innovation, stagnation, theater, literally everything. Find what’s intriguing and exciting and fresh and make it interesting for your readers. I’ll stop there. Hope this feedback helps.