Finding inspiration online
The internet is a wonderful source of inspiration for a writer. Today's blog looks at sites and sources for writing inspiration
Story Generators
These are sites that offer story ideas, based on pre-defined criteria. They can be a great starting point for story ideas, that you can turn into something useable.
Service Scape Writing prompt generator - select a genre, and a you'll be offered a writing prompt. A contemporary romance genre prompt that I generated on the site is: '' Writing Prompt #971 When your spouse returns from Afghanistan, you are elated. You were so fearful for his safety and feel relieved that the worst is over. However, you are unprepared for how much PTSD and culture shock would isolate your loved one from everyone once he returned home. You struggle to show your love and find ways to connect.'
Plot Generator - select a story type, and enter a range of options into the fields, (or use the random field filler) to receive a range of story
Squibbler's Writing prompt is particularly good in that it gives you a prompt, and times you while you write in response to it. It's a great way to combine free writing with a prompt, and in my experience, this gives you some great starting points for a story.
Writing Prompt Sites
Writer's Digest is a brilliant magazine for writers. They have a section offering a range of writing prompts for you to explore. An example from 22 March 2022 is: Today's a Good Day for a Fight: Every writer needs a little inspiration once in a while. For today's prompt, your character is about to break up the weirdest bar fight in history.
The Narrative Arc provides advice for writers, but also offers 365 Writing prompts - click on 'Generate' to see a new prompt each day.
If you don't like those two sites, then The Write Life has a list of 52 websites offering writing prompts.
#writingprompts is a twitter hashtag that leads to a whole range of posts with different types of writing prompts. There are a number of feeds to follow that also offer prompts such as: @writingprompts @WritingPromptly. Select those you like, and follow them to see their regular prompts on your feed. I particularly enjoy doing the #sixwordstory challenges from @WriterlyTweets
Writing Competitions
Writing competitions are another great way to get writing. Many offer prompts and themes for inspiration. Even if you are not ready to enter your work, there is no reason you can't write the story. And if you write it, and it doesn't win, someone else may want it. I recently had 'Pride Among Predators' published, and it started as a competition entry. You can of course search online for Writing competitions, but there are writer's sites that have already done the hard work for you. Many competions do have fees, and these listings help identify those that are free to enter. One of my favourite January activities is to review these lists, and add any that pique my interest to my calendar, to prompt me to submit something on time.
These are my favourite sites that list writing competitions:
Christopher Fielden - also a great site for listings of writing markets.
Writer's HQ list of UK and worldwide writing competitions
Globe Soup's big list of Writing Competitions 2022
And of course, the theme on this blog is places to find writing inspiration, so do follow my posts for more, or look back through previous posts.