Kick Start The Creative Flow

By Lynn Emery

When I have given writing workshops one comment I hear from beginning authors is that they sometimes are stumped on how to begin. In fact, this little hurdle can challenge even a veteran author. Here are three techniques that I find useful to kick start my creative flow.

1. Write a scene describing your main character arriving somewhere and finding something she didn’t expect or someone she didn’t expect to see. Is this surprise pleasant or unpleasant? How does this surprise complicate her life and possibly become a barrier to reaching her main story goal?

2. Write a scene with your main character leaving a setting. Describe that setting using all four senses. Why is she leaving? Does she want to go? Who is she leaving behind? How does leaving change her life and set up potential challenges and conflicts?

What is your main character’s one most defining personality trait? How will it help her attain her story goal? How might it complicate her quest to reach this goal?

3. Write a scene where your main character is trying to convince another character to change his/her mind. Show her losing her temper or keeping her cool – you decide which suits the character as you see her. How might succeeding help her? How might getting what she wants ultimately be a bad thing? How might failing help her in the end? How might losing be a disaster that blocks her from reaching her story goal?

The resulting scenes may or may not become part of the novel. These are just few of the scene set ups that help me build characterization (notice the questions relate to personality, goals, values of the characters) and possible plot twists.

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