3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas

2008-07-26T12:40:00.002-07:00

3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas

by: Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

There are many ways you can generate ideas you can use for your stories, articles and other creative pieces. Start with the three ways given below:

1. Put Your 5 Senses to Work

A simple but effective way to generate fresh ideas from a single concept, idea or object is to describe or illustrate it using the 5 senses -- sight, smell, touch, taste, sound.

For you to do: Generate 5 specific images or concrete examples (one example for each sense) for the following:

* vindication (what's the smell of vindication? how does it taste? how does it sound? what does it look like? how does it feel?)

* hesitation

* celebration

2. Take Advantage of Your Conflicts

Conflict is a part of life. It's also a source of creativity. You only need to look at yourself and examine your experiences to come up with ideas based on conflicts.

For you to do: What's stopping you from doing something? Who is in the way of you getting what you want? What's stopping you from taking a career leap? Brainstorm for conflicts in your life and come up with at least 15 in your list.

3. It's OK to Call People Names

Generate nicknames or terms that capture the lifestyles, attitudes or characteristics of certain groups of people.

For example, the nicknames I came up for the kind of people I encountered on the bus when I used to commute to work and back were: space-hog, slumper, fidgeter and refined. The terms described how the people on the bus behaved as they sat. [They were useful because I was able to avoid the space-hogs and the fidgeters when choosing a seat. Sitting beside a slumper was all right, since most slumpers kept their slumps within their space ;o)]

For you to do: Generate nicknames or terms for the following groups of people:

* cashiers

* waiters

* teachers

* employees

* actors

Begin using these 3 simple ways of generating ideas today. Before long, you'll be churning out one idea after another with ease. That's creativity at work!

About The Author

Copyright (c) 2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

Shery is the developer of creative, motivating and fun e-mail courses for writers. Sign up and take an e-mail course today...free! http://writingbliss.com

12 Top Tips For Up And Coming Article Writers

2008-07-26T12:40:00.001-07:00

12 Top Tips For Up And Coming Article Writers

by: Ken Hill

1. Make your articles available on your site.

You'll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.

2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.

3. Write for your target audience.

You'll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.

4. Use numbered lists.

Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.

Use your numbered lists to share points on your article's topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.

You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.

5. Use the active voice.

With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.

For instance:

Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.

Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.

6. Make your writing more personal by using the word "you" a lot within your article.

A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.

You'll naturally use the word "you" a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you're talking directly to them.

7. Don't be afraid to share your personality with your readers.

You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.

8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.

Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.

Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they'll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.

9. Once you've written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.

You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.

10. Use current topics whether online or in the "real world" to get ideas for your articles.

Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.

11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.

Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.

Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used "effect" when you should have used "affect" or if you used "there" when you should have used "their."

12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.

Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.

Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you'll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.

For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com.

Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.

About The Author

Article by writer, Ken Hill. Save loads of time promoting your articles with this powerful, promotional tool for e-zine publishers and article writers. Learn more at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=4604

Writing and Publishing

3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas

12 Top Tips For Up And Coming Article Writers