Guest post by Michelle Grogan

Do you have an idea for a great story percolating just below the surface but you’re having trouble getting it out of your head and down onto paper? Yeah, I’ve been there – plenty of times. I know what I want. I know what I want to say. But it’s just not ready to step out into the light of day. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still keep those juices of creativity flowing. The best way I have found to do this is to find random prompts – sometimes those prompts can manifest into some great stories of their own.

Now, it’s easy to become bogged down in all the prompts that are out there and lose focus on why you want to use prompts in the first place. And of course, it’s not always easy to find one that appeals to you. Well, I’m here to alleviate some of those worries!!! In my search for a stock of prompts that I could store away in a file for when I needed to that hit of inspiration to get those stubborn creative juices flowing, I came across this great website dedicated to prompts of all kinds!!

Check out Creative Writing Prompts. At first glance it might not look like much – I mean the sheer number of prompts being offered – 346 – can be a little overwhelming, but not let that scare you. The fun comes when you hover your pointer icon over one of the numbers and a prompt pops up for you! Clicking on the number will move it to the number one spot. There are prompts for all kinds of writers! Not sure how to start that amazing story in your head? Hover over number 113 – Begin with “Today I will . . .” and write for 10 minutes. Play with the idea of writing a poem? Move your mouse to number 103 – Create a poem using Emily Dickinson’s “Bring me the sunset in a cup” as a starting point. Want to challenge yourself? Check out number 24 – Imagine your life is now a book. In 100 words, write the blurb for it; or number 122 – Use all these words in a poem: crash, crumpled paper, straw, gravel, ochre; even try number 143 – In 200 words, describe a day in the life of a window washer . . . hey, you never know, the window washer can be the witness to a major crime and has to describe what he was doing and what he saw.

So don’t sweat it if when you sit down to write, you draw a blank or you need a moment away from your story because you’re struggling with it or need to find a new direction to go. Settle in with a good prompt and you’ll soon find that the ideas are flowing faster than you can keep up with them!!

In fact, I’m going to take some of my own advice – I’ve been feeling a little stuck creatively, think I’ll hop on over and settle in with a good prompt.

Happy writing!! J

Bio: By day, Michelle Grogan is a Literacy Coach working with students with learning/behavioral/emotional disorders improve their reading and writing skills; by night–she’s the self-published author of Forbidden Love (currently in kindle format on Amazon.com) living with her fiance in Westchester County. Reading has always brought get joy to Michelle’s life, allowing her to experience new worlds and meet a plethora of new characters. Her love of reading lead to her love of writing and creating her own characters and discovering their stories. As a child, those stories were acted out with Barbies and My Little Ponies . . . as she got older, she put pen to paper and embarked on her own writing journey. Still an avid reading, Michelle’s favorite authors include James Patterson, Andrew Gross, Rachel Vincent, Jordan Dane, James Rollins, among so many others!!

This graphic tickles me because tonight I presented “Love, Monsters & Mythology: For Romance Writers” to my Maryland chapter. I think it went pretty well! I need to tweak some of the exercises to cater to beta heroes and to better help writers use mythology to bring out the themes in their writing, but it seems to have been a good start. A few folks told me that it got them back into the scenes they were writing and was helpful, so I’m feeling pretty great about that!

Cross-posted from Dirty, Sexy, Books

While I’m sure I’ve committed one or two of these myself, if I were the goddess of the paranormal romance universe, I would decree the following seven deadly sins:

SLOTH: Info Dumps. Nothing turns me off faster than a book that starts off with a long narrative explaining all the world building. Info dumps are lazy. They’re bad form. The details of your world should come to light slowly, layer upon layer, immersing the reader in the experience. For hints on how to do this, paranormal romance writers should study the best written fantasy.

LUST: Fetishism of the Supernatural. There’s a tendency for paranormal romance writers to fetishize the supernatural elements in the same way that science fiction writers sometimes fetishize the buttons and gadgets of their worlds. That your character is a werewolf isn’t all that interesting in and of itself. Not being a furry, I’m not turned on by long descriptions of fangs and silver-grey coats. And while the fact that your hero can identify anything with his superior sense of smell lends flavor to his persona and reality to your world, it’s not actually characterization. Obsessing on the blood sucking, the mysterious brotherhood, and the magical abilities may appeal to other readers who share this fetish–but it isn’t storytelling. There has to be more to hold the book together than a collection of neato cool superpowers. Paranormal has a place, but don’t use it as a crutch.

GLUTTONY: Big Chunks of Boring Dialog Meant to Convey Realism. Writing teachers everywhere tell budding young authors to listen to real dialog and use it as a model for what their characters should say. This only gets you so far. In real life, people wander off on tangents. They pause and hem and haw. In short, they bore the pants off one another. Why would you want to do that to your reader? Paranormal romance characters live extraordinary lives. We don’t have to hear them talk about their car trouble or what kind of ice cream they’re going to eat unless this has some bearing on the plot, or conveys something about their character, or is a delightful little detail sparingly tossed into the mix. Real life conversations can go on for hours. Conversations in fiction need to be tight and lean! Never overindulge.

GREED: Too Many Speculative Elements. The best paranormal romance takes the world as we know it, or the past as we imagine it, and twists one or two crucial elements, following the repercussions from those changes like ripples on a pond. The worst paranormal romance turns itself into a carnival for every strange and unexplained myth, magic, and phenomenon in the cosmos. Elves and vampires, mining together on Epsilon 4 with space aliens who are ruled by the Wicked Witch of the West in a kingdom called Oz…readers need to be able to focus. In a world where everything is possible, what is truly at stake? (A perfect example of how too much of a good thing can ruin a series, is the television series LOST which started out with an intriguing premise, but eventually piled so many new paranormal elements onto the stack that the whole thing collapsed under its own weight, bleeding viewers and disappointing fans.)

WRATH: Violence Overload. Most paranormal romance follows the trend of urban fantasy to put existential concerns at the forefront. It’s the fate of the whole world, country, city, species, brotherhood, or pack at stake. It’s gotta be bloody, too. A struggle for survival. Just once, I’d like to see a good secret baby vampire romance or a simple mistaken identity story between witches, or a marriage of convenience between werewolves. At the very least, I’d like to see interpersonal conflicts that focus on a developing relationship at the center of the book, rather than the danger and violence.

PRIDE: A Glossy of Terms. Look, if you want to put a glossary of terms at the back of the book for curious readers to look up terms as they arise, go for it. But putting it at the front of your story signals to me that you think you’re just too special to weave your special special language into the book. It says that artful exposition is something paeans must use, but you are too good for it. You will make your readers actually look it up instead of being able to figure it out in context.

ENVY: Mary Sue Characters. We all want to be six foot bombshells who can kick butt in high heels, smite evildoers, and capture the heart of the sexiest angel ever to fall from heaven. But such heroines can’t be all wish fulfilment, quick-witted, never afraid, never at a loss for a words, and always right. It’s held as a given in paranormal romance circles that your hero can be a bastard but your heroine can’t be a bad girl. However, a reader can’t love her if she’s perfect. Put some dents in her armor and let the hero call her on her bullshit once in a while.

The Ruby Slippered Sisterhood has invited me to discuss episodic structure, and how to avoid it when writing romance novels. Come check it out!