Category Archives: Writer Motivation

Seashells to Story Pages – Joy Writing

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Seashells to Story Pages – Joy Writing. Make Summertime Writing Time. Summer is collecting season. We collect sea shells at the seashore. We collect bargains at yard sales. We collect flowers in golden fields.

We also Collect Experiences. Each summer experience has a story at its center. Collect summer experiences. Collect Your Summer Stories.

Summer Up Your Imagination. Try this Creative Writing Inspiration. Describe a perfect summer day – sunrise to sunset. Gift your current story hero with this perfect day. She will love you for it.

Brainstorm Ways to Turn her Very Right Day Very Wrong. Struggling heroes make your readers worry about what will happen in your story. Strong storytelling is all about trouble and struggle. Make your hero struggle.

Embrace Your Sultry Summer Side. Summer Storytelling Ideas languish all around you. Sharpen your awareness. Keep Yourself Creative. Keep your stories steamy. Here is a Sultry Summer Creative Writing Exercise.

A Slow, Deep River Slides toward Roaring Rapids. Wild weather threatens. A treacherous storm approaches. Our pulses quicken. We hear the thunder crash. We watch lightning split the darkened sky. Strong storytelling is all about danger.

This Tumult is an Unwelcome Surprise for Your Hero. Her sunny summer mood tangles into dread as the wind thrashes. Her day is drenched and drowned by the downpour and whipped into frenzy by powerful gusts. Like Sally Field in Places in the Heart.

Suddenly Your Hero is in Real Peril. To make matters worse her enemy appears. They clash in their own stormy confrontation. Your hero must save herself. Write a Startling Summer Scene about this confrontation.

Supersize Your  Summer Story Energy. Be resourceful. Turn up the temperature. Then turn it up some more. Give everything a bolder boost. Strong storytelling is all about plunging your hero into hot water.

Her Life Drama is Intensified by Danger. Whatever happens in your hero’s life vaults her threat voltage to maximum amps. What specific events and shocks set her summer simmer blazing?  Seashells to Story Pages – Joy Writing.

Immerse Yourself in Summer Sensations. The sights. The sounds. The scents. This is Writer’s Inspiration Season. Inspire yourself. Splurge your senses. Bring your hero’s most vital self to its most heightened life. Like Scarlett in Gone with the Wind.

Transport Your Hero to a Secret Summer Spot. Something magical happens there. Or something horrible happens there. Kindle your Storytelling Imagination. The flames of story heat mount higher. Write what their glow illuminates for you.

Story Up Some Simple Summer Pleasures. An unexpected event occurs at a summer fair or festival or on what your hero thought would be a quiet day. Her heroic quest in your story is impeded by this event – drastically so.

Maybe Your Hero is Walking along a Deserted Shoreline. She finds a mysterious message in a bottle. What does it say? What does it compel her to do? What peril does it propel her into? You are Collecting Summer Experiences. Collect hers.

Celebrate Your Summer Memories. Summon forth Summer Journal Ideas from your personal past. Luxuriate in Summer Nostalgia Writing. Resurrect a summer friendship that changed your life. How did it begin? Where did it lead?

Lend Your Summer Friendship Memory to Your Story’s Hero. Let it change her life like it changed yours. Or – revisit the most unforgettable thing that ever happened to you in summertime. Visit it upon your hero. She will not forget it either.

Summertime is Company Time – Good Company. Who was your happy summer company? The person you would most like to spend your summer with?

Summertime is Company Time – Bad Company. What was the worst summer encounter you ever endured? Why specifically was it so terrible? Introduce these good and bad visitors to each other.

Your Favorite Summer Friend Becomes Your Story Hero. She meets your terrible summer encounter person. Make this an electrified clash of characters. Capture their powered-up collision in an intense  scene.

Suss Out Some Summer Secrets. Strangers possess strange secrets. Sit yourself down in an outdoor café. Set yourself in nosey parker mode. Ask yourself whom among these people is hiding a sinister secret. What is that secret? What makes it sinister?

Send Your Wicked Imagination Soaring. Observe what happens and Record it in your Writer’s Journal. It’s okay for writers to eavesdrop. You are not being rude. You are Studying People for Your Stories. This is Your Writing Work.

Sizzle Up a Summer Romance. You are still in a public place. Still Observing and Recording. Ask yourself whom among all of this humanity would your story hero fall in love with. Imagine them as summer lovers.

Make Sparks Fly Between Them. Why are they drawn to each other? What could drive them apart? How will they reunite – or not? Summer Romance Writing. Satisfy yourself superbly. You will love writing about love.

Make Summer Writing Your Storytelling Sunshine Time. Some think of summer as a lazy interlude. But you have done good work here. Your imagination has flown and flourished. You have set your story pages on fire with summer heat.

Your Writer’s Journal is Full and Flush. Lots of strong material for future storytelling. You have gathered Summer Story Starters. You have added to your Summer Collection of Story Ideas. You have fed Your Writer Self a fine picnic.

Meanwhile Enjoy the Season. Find a yard sale. Seek out the sea shore. Pick yourself some posies. Relax on a lakeside evening. But never neglect your Storyteller’s Journey. Make summertime writing time. Seashells to Story Pages – Joy Writing.

FYI – More Summer Writing Prompts and Exercises.

  1. Imagine a summer tradition for your hero’s fictional family. An annual gathering event. How does it bring them closer together? How does it drive them apart?
  2. Your hero is spending the summer in an unfamiliar place. How does the change affect her? What happens to her there? How does she react to those events?
  3. A summer road trip goes terribly wrong, for your hero and others. What challenges do these travelers face? How do they overcome these challenges – or not?
  4. Your hero has a summer job or assignment that she hates. What happens? What does she learn from this experience? How does this experience change her life in your story?
  5. A summer heat wave leads to unexpected adventures for your hero. What are they? How do they affect her? How do they affect your story?
  6. It is a hot, humid summer night, and your hero cannot sleep. When she gets up to seek some relief, something dramatic happens. Tell the story of that happening.
  7. Your heroine jumps into cold water on a very hot day. When she does that, something startling happens. What is this startling occurrence? What happens to her after that?
  8. Your hero attends an elegant and special summer meal. What makes this meal so special? What food is served? Who is there? How does your hero interact with the other guests?
  9. Invent a legend or ghost story. Have your hero tell it on a stormy summer night. What happens after that? How does what happens relate to the story your hero told?
  10. Create a summer writing prompt or exercise of your own. Send it to me in the Comments section following this post. I cannot wait to read it, write it, share it.

Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur.  https://www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Former Editor and Literary Agent. Author of 15 novels, 2 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells.

Joy Write with Alice. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Follow Alice’s Substack at https://aliceorr.substack.com/

Experience Joy Reading. Alice’s Summer Novel. A Year of Summer Shadows. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2. Available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows. “A must-read for lovers of romantic suspense.”
“Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Another fast-paced Alice Orr thriller involving murder, family secrets, friendships and plot twists against the backdrop of a slow-building yet intense love story.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows is of my favorite books.”

Alice’s Suspense Novel Series. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. Five intense stories of love and death and intrigue. Available HERE.

Praise for Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. “Romance and suspense at its best.” “I highly recommend this page-turner series.” “Twists and turns, strong characters, suspense and passionate love.” “The writing is exquisite.”

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know? About your writer experience. About telling your stories. Ask your question as a comment following this post.

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Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy

Writer Motivation, ,

Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy. Your hero may be rich and her lover good lookin’ but your drive to tell their story has driven to the beach to play. These lazy hazy crazy days of summer took hold of your heart and sent your head to another season. Still all that is writerly in you has definitely not been lost. Much that is easy remains among the blades of clover grass and goodies in your picnic basket to keep your author mojo summer hummin’ along.

It’s Easy to Remember Why You Love to Write. I love to write because of my characters. Discovering them is an into-body experience for me. At first I’m inside them falling deeper as I grow to know them better. The further I fall the more besotted I become. Then the process reverses and they begin to reside in me – through my thoughts and heart and into my body. Sounds like love and sex. Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much. Why do you love to write?

It’s Easy to Be Inspired. The secret is to sense yourself up. Look around. Colors. Shapes. Movement. All exploding everywhere. Listen in. Past your own noisy thoughts and urges to take control. Allow the sounds of life – including dialog snatches – to tumble and flow into you. Breathe deep the scents of the season. From a new peach to storm ozone in the air. Taste the sweet and the spice. Touch it all and let it touch you. Soon you will forget that  it’s Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy.

It’s Easy to Immerse Yourself. Dive deep into the pool/pond/ocean of experience. Any experience. Let go of your personal gravity – whatever holds you down or back. Prepare to be mesmerized. Seek your meditative center beneath and beyond the difficulties and frustrations of the day-to-day. Be taken over and transported like a child clasped by the hand and led through a world that unfurls into a sunny glade where every step is magic.

It’s Easy to Capture It All. Always write down the important things in life. And your savored summertime is very important. Not necessarily as a story or novel just yet unless you can’t stop yourself. Otherwise notes on a card will do – as long as you always carry those cards with you except when swimming. They will save you from the following huge writer mistake. You have an idea so super you can hardly believe such great fortune has befallen  you. So super you know you will never forget it. Then you do.

Warm Weather Discipline may not be Easy but Many other Things are. Especially when you carry yourself along at a lazy lighthearted lope. All you need do is this. Remember why writing is your adoration and adore it. Sense up your sexy self to be inspired. Immerse your soul in depths of magnificent mystery and float away on a current of calm. Note the necessity and joy of capturing it all in a few adoring, mysterious, magnificent words you shall not lose. Because it may be Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy – but loving your writer self is.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr has published 14 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her hot novel for this hot season – A Year of Summer Shadows – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2 – is available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

 Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows: “Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows has moved up to one of my favorite books.”

 All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

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What’s in Your Writer’s Closet?

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What’s in Your Writer’s Closet? I last posted here two months ago. You might say I took a summer vacation. Now autumn approaches and I anticipate the invigoration of bracing evenings and new promise in the air. It’s time to get moving again. Time to check out where to begin.

An animal prepares to burrow in – out of the flow – at autumn time. Not so with humans. We are ready to reenter the flow. To shake off the humid torpor and plunge into the vitality of life. Writers are ready to plunge also. To re-engage our psyches and set loose our imaginations.

In his wonderful book On Writing, Stephen King offers good advice about that. Sit down every morning and do the work. Two-thousand words minimum. Or thousands more, if you can manage it. He is a taskmaster for sure. His career is evidence of the wisdom of the task.

Keep on writing whatever may occur. I’ve signed my own books with those words for many years. I cherish the phrase and the sentiment. I pass them on with every good wish in my heart, especially to beginners on this path. But what will you keep on writing as a new season begins?

A writer writes – whatever that may entail. Maybe not always a host of novel pages to start with. A writer may scribble ideas on notecards. A writer may fill journal pages when the morning gifts her with inspiration. A writer may stare at the wall and just imagine. It all counts.

For me the way back in led to a peek inside my writer’s closet. A writer’s closet is the place where we store the stories we gave up on. The stories we dropped in their tracks. The stories we abandoned when a shinier new idea came along. We all have a writer’s closet.

What I found in my writer’s closet was a story that hit a snag. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Supposedly. The boulder in this particular writing road was a scene that didn’t work. It didn’t fit with what came before. I could have pressed on. Instead, I walked away.

Autumn inspires us to see old roads with new eyes. The spark of potential rekindles. Maybe not a full blaze at first. Maybe only a flash of light. We see it and feel it all the same. We rediscover a path we can dance again, possibly to an altered tune. I saw. I felt. I am dancing.

What’s in Your Writer’s Closet? Take a peek. Look for a story you might dance to again. Look for a story you already tingle to tackle each morning. A spark of potential recognized anew. You see it. You feel it. Your heart jumps. Your imagination stirs. You begin to dance.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask that question in the Comments section following this post. Share your writer’s journey and inspire future posts.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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