Ultimately, coming up with your own story ideas from nothing can be much more difficult than expanding on story ideas someone else has come up with—like us. Save this list to your phone or PC! Want to go one step further? Save it to your cloud Google Drive, etc. Disclosure: Some of the links above may contain affiliate partnerships, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Self-Publishing School may earn a commission if you click through to make a purchase.
While she's not whipping up content here, she's creating her own life and teaching others how to over at Own Your Ordinary , hanging out with her dog, and eating something with cheese! Give her a follow: Twitter Instagram Facebook Youtube. We help you save time, money, and headaches through the book, writing, marketing, and publishing process by giving you the proven, step-by-step process and accountability to publish successfully.
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Career Fiction. FREE Training. Book Outline Template. What is my personal connection to this story? No matter how good your idea, writing a story or a book can be a long difficult process. How do you create an outline, come up with a great plot, and then actually finish it? My new book The Write Structure will help.
You can learn more about The Write Structure and get your copy here. Ready to turn your idea into a finish story? Check out my new book The Write Structure which helps writers make their plot better and write books readers love. Get The Write Structure here ».
Have a great short story idea? Share it in the comments! Choose one of these ideas and write a short story in one sitting aim for 1, words or less! And if you share, please be sure to comment on a few stories by other writers. Join over , readers who are saying YES to practice. Building an Author Website. Use these story ideas to get your creative writing started now. Top 10 Story Ideas Tell the story of a scar.
A group of children discover a dead body. A young prodigy becomes orphaned. A middle-aged woman discovers a ghost. A poor young boy or girl comes into an unexpected fortune. A shy, young woman unexpectedly bumps into her soulmate. A long journey is interrupted by a disaster. A young couple run into the path of a psychopath.
Now that you have an idea, learn exactly what to do with it. Check out my new book The Write Structure which helps writers take their ideas and write books readers love. Click to check out The Write Structure here. Some authors are successful across a kaleidoscope of projects. However, those authors started with one book; and for the most part, have a history of success and a large fan base willing to buy any book bearing their name.
Thanks for the insight. Wondering if having e-books online is a plus or not to a traditional publisher. These are great points. Although I think it might be helpful to add that it could be helpful to write a short story first if you intend to establish faith in yourself over whether or not you have any ability to write a story at all.
Who is your favorite nonfiction author who wrote a novel? Liz Curtis Higgs has successfully navigated both. I love Liz Curtis HIggs! Jerry B. Been waiting two years for his second book in the series, Dead Sea Rising.
Great insight, Tamela. However, I had several short stories published in anthologies before the desire to write romantic suspense gripped my heart.
Should I discontinue writing short stories? Oh my goodness. This was a hard sentence for me to read. Is it even possible to have a career writing novellas? Yes, Joey, writing a novel and working toward the chance to sell novellas is a good strategy. Readers love promos! Does the novella need to be linked to the novel by a character or setting as in a series , or is it possible for the novella to stand alone? I imagine both ways can work. While I subscribe to most of your reasoning for why an inspiring author should concentrate on writing long if their goal is to be published in novel-length books, there are some benefits to writing short stories.
For instance, writing short teaches you how to tighten your prose for editing purposes. I had been writing novels for more than a decade when a prolific author invited me to mentor with her in a group with other aspiring authors.
This mentor had also published short stories for a major magazine and encouraged the group to submit short stories as well.
A couple of us actually broke through the massive slush pile through dogged determination, which in of itself is a valuable lesson, to have our stories published by the magazine.
This not only bolstered our confidence but paid us an excellent wage for our trade. This particular magazine also offers romance writers an ad spot on the page for their latest novel.
Given the demographics of the readers, this sort of exposure is worth its weight in gold, especially for a new author trying to get established. So, there can be benefits to writing short stories, in my humble opinion. Yvonne, thank you so much for this. I agree wholeheartedly. I write flash fiction but have just finished my first novel.
The shorter writing taught me to be concise to find the heart of the story, then I could better fill in more details that enhanced the novel instead of starting with the novel and having my extra details actually distract from the heart of the story. Short fiction for the learning? It seems a place to start, but heed ye, friend, this warning: it is no lesser art.
Description must be clear, concise, and language fresh and tight, with dialoguge like sculpted ice, crystalline and bright. Arc of plot, swift and sure night unto the end, must the reader onward lure as through the tale you send characters, each one a jewel, sure-footed as Grand Canyon mule.
This made me smile. Thank you, Andrew, for continually adding your unique insight. I always look forward to reading what you offer. I opted to write a novel as my first attempt because it was the area I wanted to concentrate on.
However, for those of us who are determined enough i. Thank you, Tamela, for your thought-provoking article, Should you write short stories first? Many of your comments, I think, are valid. I think writing a word article, essay, or short story disciplines one to edit out unnecessary words and use working-horse verbs.
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