Tag Archives: prompts

Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Poseidon's Scribe

Years ago, while reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, I was struck by a memorable passage.  He’d titled the fourth chapter “Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle.” After stating that he’d read how other authors … Continue reading →

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Character, Plot, or Setting—Which Comes First?

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Poseidon's Scribe

Today’s question is about whether story-writers think about characters, plot, or setting when they first conceive the idea for a story.  If you’ve written fiction, or thought about doing so, which did you start with? Of these three story elements, … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Plot, Prompts, Setting, Writing Mechanics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fleshing Out Your Story

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Poseidon's Scribe

Perhaps you’re a beginning writer with a great idea for a story.  Or maybe you’re an experienced author and someone has come to you with a  story idea and suggested you just whip up the story inspired by that idea.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Editing, Ideas/Creativity, Inspirations, Prompts, Setting, The writing life, Writing Mechanics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Stories behind the Stories, Part II

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Poseidon's Scribe

Today I’ll continue my attempt to convey where my ideas come from by listing the remainder of my published short stories, and the source of the ideas for each one. If you missed Part I, here it is.   And now … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthologies, Ideas/Creativity, Inspirations, Poseidon's Scribe, Steampunk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Stories behind the Stories, Part I

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Poseidon's Scribe

In these blog entries I’ve usually refrained from shameless promotion of my own stories, but today will be different.  However, since my purpose in these blogs is to offer help to beginning writers, I’ll couch my blatant self-advertising as instructive, … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthologies, Historical Writing, Ideas/Creativity, Inspirations, Poseidon's Scribe, Prompts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Write What You Know? Really?

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Poseidon's Scribe

One of the oldest sayings about writing is “write what you know.”  Its originator is unknown.  Is this good advice, or bad? This much is certain; it’s a lucky thing some great writers didn’t actually follow that advice.  For one … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Editing, Ideas/Creativity, Prompts, Readers, Research, Storytelling, What stories are about | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In the Mood…

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Poseidon's Scribe

…for writing, I mean.  If you’re an author, how do you get in the best possible mood to write? Face it, not every moment of the actual process of writing involves the seamless flow of ideas from brain down to … Continue reading →

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A Little Prompting

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Poseidon's Scribe

Would you like to write a story but don’t have any idea what to write about?  Perhaps you often find yourself having this problem.  Once you’re given some external spark, you can write like crazy; it’s just difficult in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas/Creativity, Prompts, Writing Aids | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Trip to the Idea Store

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Poseidon's Scribe

At the risk of upsetting beginning writers who agonize over figuring out what to write about, I’ll admit this is one problem I do not have.  Whatever other deficiencies I have as a writer, a lack of ideas is not … Continue reading →

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