When you’re a writer, the scariest thing you can imagine isn’t …
Or this …
It’s this:
Yes. The blank piece of paper. With no words written on it. It’s like looking into the void.
Sometimes, however hard you try, you can’t think of anything to write about. You simply have no…
Image courtesy of Theeradech Sanin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
So what can you do?
You could bang your head against this…
Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Or more helpfully, you can…
Brainstorming is good too. It’s amazing how talking to other people gets your creative juices flowing.
Ideas often spring from the most unexpected places: newspaper stories, things people say, even adverts on email groups like this one, which I came across the other day…
When I saw it the first thing I thought was, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great start to a short story?’ (Actually that’s the third thing I thought. The first was, ‘Why did two friends both have gorilla suits?’ and the second was, ‘How on earth did the friends get their gorilla suits mixed up?’)
So what do you do when you can’t think of anything to write about? Let me know!
GirlsHeartBooks 
I write about not being able to think of anything to write about!
Which is exactly what I’ve done here…
Oh goodness, it is like re-living my childhood nightmares – that Child Catcher is horrific 🙂 but yes, a blank piece of paper is scarier … but only just.
The child snatcher scared the **** out of me. A blank piece of paper is much scarier though.
Hi Hill 🙂
I look at pictures or read. It’s good sometimes just to have time off but, other times, it’s just plain annoying. When I have enough time off, my characters just pop into my head and say, ‘Write about me woman!!!’ Then I go to my laptop and.. BUZZ! 🙂
You sound very sensible Laura. I know what you mean about characters popping in and demanding to be written about. x
I go to a museum and look at the objectst that belonged to people long ago or far away. The little things. A wedding coat made from salmon skin (in the V&A). children’s toys from ancient Egypt (the British Museum), tiling from ancient Persia (the Louvre). That said, the story I sent in yesterday was prompted by a furry blob I was given in the Molecular Research Lab…
That’s a great idea. A furry blob? Are you sure it’s safe?
have you every tried write a book younger readers Hilary got idea I can twiter to u now
It depends how young you mean, Jaden. I will have a look on Twitter…
I will send it to now
And mean nine and over
The child catcher… ugh *shudders*. That bit where he goes to the grate and you just see his face… I read somewhere that people are getting harder to scare but that child catcher scene makes me recoil in horror every time. I wrote a poem about having no ideas and having no idea what to write when I was in that state. I was quite proud of it 🙂 My friend climbs up somewhere high like a tree when she’s out of ideas. Apparently the sky is very inspiring
The child catcher used to appear in my nightmares! He was seriously scary.
I’d love to read your poem!
Now, climbing a tree is another great idea. Although I’d probably get stuck. x
What I do is when I have an idea I write it down in a notebook, so I never run out 😉
Wow! That’s lucky. The problem for me is that I think I have a great idea, and write it down, but when I look at it later, not so great.
I can’t think what to write tomorrow – even though I spent all day yesterday gazing out to sea! x
Oh dear! Maybe it was the wrong sea? x