Blocking the Writing Prompts
I used to wonder what Writer's Block was; I couldn't imagine not having something to write about. Then someone asked me to pen a particular piece and I finally knew. Writer's Block is when you don't have the right something to write about.
My usual problem's more like Writer's Glut - so many ideas I can't decide which to use. And that's where Writing Prompts came in. I joined Gather and other online writing communities. I found "Use this sentence," "Start with these words," "Include these word-pairs," "Build on this paragraph," and "Man called X meets woman called Y then something explodes," etc... And I wrote.
I wrote an awful lot of stories based on prompts. They piled up in an overflowing folder on my computer. Then I sorted them into mysteries, drama, scifi, childrens, tragedies... I edited, re-edited, fixed and changed them, and lost all sight of where they'd came from. Then slowly, oh so slowly, I plucked up courage to even try submitting to magazines.
This week I read an article which accused someone of plagiarism. Initially the claim was he'd used the same six-word sentence as someone else. Not hard to do I thought. But the accuser searched the internet and found more - longer sentences, matching phrases, even a whole paragraph...
And then I wondered what writing prompts might have inspired this writer. "Use this sentence?" "Start with these words?" "Incorporate this paragraph...?"
Perhaps I ought to try blocking those writing prompts and find another way out of Writer's Glut.
My usual problem's more like Writer's Glut - so many ideas I can't decide which to use. And that's where Writing Prompts came in. I joined Gather and other online writing communities. I found "Use this sentence," "Start with these words," "Include these word-pairs," "Build on this paragraph," and "Man called X meets woman called Y then something explodes," etc... And I wrote.
I wrote an awful lot of stories based on prompts. They piled up in an overflowing folder on my computer. Then I sorted them into mysteries, drama, scifi, childrens, tragedies... I edited, re-edited, fixed and changed them, and lost all sight of where they'd came from. Then slowly, oh so slowly, I plucked up courage to even try submitting to magazines.
This week I read an article which accused someone of plagiarism. Initially the claim was he'd used the same six-word sentence as someone else. Not hard to do I thought. But the accuser searched the internet and found more - longer sentences, matching phrases, even a whole paragraph...
And then I wondered what writing prompts might have inspired this writer. "Use this sentence?" "Start with these words?" "Incorporate this paragraph...?"
Perhaps I ought to try blocking those writing prompts and find another way out of Writer's Glut.
Comments
Then there are all the 'ideas' that I have, and I write them, only to see that someone else has published something with a smiliar circumstance.
I'm not going to worry about being accused of plagiarism. (Someone would actually have to buy my books first, which would be a good thing!). Just today, during my blog-hopping, I found at least two blogs on the subject of mentors.
(And if you want to see what one of those writing exercises turned into, the piece I did for that group is now part of "The Other Side of the Page" which is a free download from Cerridwen Press.
I really enjoyed the Other Side of the Page.
You should only worry about plagiarism if you're actually copying someone else's text. No worries - I'm sure you ain't.
:o)
"Bearman is so great because..."
But no one is picking up on it.
I don't often write from prompts since most of them don't fit into what I write, (Futuristic and Fantasy Romance) but when I've done so with a group, I've found nearly always everyone has a completely different slant on the same prompt.
Thank you so much for your support, by the way.