Getting the Right Idea -- A Savvy Blog

Writers are always being asked where they get their ideas for books, or how they come up with good characters or any characters for that matter. This week on Savvy Authors, I am attempting to give some of the ways I come up with ideas and how I fashion unique characters.

Do you make your stories personal, even if they come straight out of your head?  I know that no matter how much I can make up fictional characters, I still get some of my story ideas from things that are happening around me or stories I've read online or in a newspaper or even the true crime stories I see on cable.  They never turn out exactly the way their broadcast or written -- that's where the fiction comes in -- I get to personalize them with my own touch and made them turn out the way I want them to turn out. Here's more on getting story ideas, using them, and turning them into your own books:
http://savvyauthors.com/blog/index.php/getting-the-right-idea-by-becky-martinez/


And if you are wondering how to get started on writing your book or need help with your writing, I will be teaching a class at Savvy Authors starting next week called Let's Write.  It's part of the Savvy Core Series, but this one focuses on beginnings, writing dialogue and pacing.  It can be found at The Savvy Learning Center.

Thinking Like a Journalist

What do I do when I get writer's block?  I think back to my old days as a journalist when I couldn't afford to worry about what I had to write.  I just sat down at the typewriter (in the early days--later it was the keyboard) and as we used to say, "hack out the story."  The news didn't wait for the muse to strike with just the right words. Of course we weren't making up stories, but we couldn't wait for just the right word or just the right phrasing. I had to write and what I discovered was that the more I wrote, the easier those words came. But the key was getting started.


And now I still feel that way. Whether I am writing non-fiction or fiction, the best way to fight writer's block is to sit down and write something.


For more on my battles with writer's block, please check out my blog this week at Savvy Authors.