15 Prompts To Help Kick-Start Your Story

1. When planning your story, choose names, which reflect your characters. Purchase a baby name book, or go to www.popularbabynames.com this will also give you the meanings of the name.
 

2. Write Character Profiles - know your characters inside and out. By this I mean, if they hate cheese or they have a fear of spiders, give your characters the same strengths and weaknesses as they would in real life.

3. Draw your main characters or find magazine pictures; this will aid you when describing your characters. Pin up your character by your computer.

4. Choose settings which inspire you and which you know fairly well, if you have been to Spain or Ireland for example, then you could use a particular location, which you feel comfortable with. Remember though, locations do not have to be exotic.

5. Use picture postcards to help describe scenery- make it real.

6. Look in magazines for house interiors, color scheme etc. This will help your descriptive powers;it is easier to write about what you can see.
 

7. Design a location, i.e. if your main character lives in a mansion, draw out a plan of the house, or gardens. Essential if you are writing a ghost or horror story based around a house.
 

8. Research your characters occupation; understand what their workload would entail. Think about their daily stresses, do they work alone or with colleagues. Is their conflict with a female member of staff or with their boss?
 

9. Stuck for a title of your story or novel? Think of song titles or lines in songs, you may not want to use them but they may prompt you for your own great title or theme.

10. Think of an event or a decision you made in your own life, write a story about what would have happened if you had not made that particular decision. Where would life have taken you now?

11. Make a scenario index. Buy an index card filing system and write a location, plot or event and file them accordingly, add to it as you get ideas and next time you suffer with writers block, refer to the ideas index.

12. Still stuck? Have a look through some old photos or in a magazine, be inspired by the photo and think what would be happening to that person, their families or even in that place.
 

13. Watch the news; real-life events may inspire you for a plot.

14. Create a dream diary.

15. Write a sentence about anything i.e. a conversation, an event....... and then write a story around it.

About the Author

Annette Beveridge-Young:
Freelance Writer (Editor) Savannah Publishing http://www.thetwistinthetale.com
Home of the Competition Writer.

? Copyright 2003 Annette Beveridge-Young