How To Find Story Ideas And Get Started Writing – Quick #Writing tips for the #Writerslife

Jumpstart your writing! Use these quick writing tips inspire you to move your story forward.

These tips for developing your idea are adapted from You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers.)

Brainstorm Writing Ideas

• Brainstorm 5 to 10 ideas for stories, articles, or novels. Then consider each idea in turn: 

1. Focus your idea – be specific and narrow, especially with short stories or articles. For fiction, focus on an individual person and situation, not a universal ideal. For nonfiction, go deep on one aspect of the topic instead of trying to cover a broad, general idea.

2. Ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish?

Who am I trying to reach?

Why am I writing this?

3. Know your audience – study the genre and age range. If you’re writing for publication, study publisher guidelines. 

4. What do you need? Will you have to do research or conduct interviews?

5. What would make the best place to start? For more help, check out my other blogs on finding ideas.)

With these notes, review your list of ideas and choose your top three.

Who Will Read Your Writing?

If you’re writing for publication, identify three possible markets for each. If you can’t find three possible markets, maybe it’s not worth putting time into that idea. However, if you are writing purely for your own pleasure, for your family, or to develop your skills without thought of publication, skip this step – you can write whatever you want!

Get More Writing Advice

You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers is available for the Kindle, in paperback, or in Large Print paperback.

Chris Eboch is the author of over 60 books for children, including nonfiction and fiction, early reader through teen. Her novels for ages nine and up include The Eyes of Pharaoh, a mystery in ancient Egypt; The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure; The Genie’s Gift, a middle eastern fantasy; and the Haunted series, about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show, which starts with The Ghost on the Stairs. Her writing craft books include You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers, and Advanced Plotting.

Learn more or read excerpts at www.chriseboch.com or visit her page on Amazon or Amazon UK. (For other countries click here.)