Monday Morning Muse: Recycling writing

 "Good morning and happy Monday! 🌟 

As we step into the new week, may your day be filled with inspiration and creativity. Remember, every challenge is a chance to grow and every moment is an opportunity to shine. Let the possibilities of this week unfold like a fresh canvas, and may you find joy in every little discovery along the way. Here’s to a Monday that sets the tone for a fantastic week ahead!

Today's Pumping Your Muse Writing Prompt

Recycling writing 

For today's creative challenge, dig out one of your unfinished fiction projects and take a look at it. If it's an older piece, and you've written for years, it can be an eye-opener to see how much you've grown as a writer. And you may also see the merit in your original idea. The question is, why is it unfinished. Did you get stuck? Lose interest? Did it grow cumbersome and too complicated?

Refresh your memory and re-immerse yourself in the story. 

• If the story starts to wander or lose focus stop reading. That's your starting point. 
• If you couldn't figure out how to end it. When you reach that point in your reading. Stop. That is your starting point.
• If you recognize it is too cumbersome stop when you recognize it. That is your starting point. 

Based on your starting point write a short story related to your narrative, but write it from a secondary character's POV in the first person. Let them talk. If you're lucky, they'll tell you something you didn't know, and it might just be what you need to finish the story.

 

 

 

 

 

A story within a story

Over at Writer’s Village University, I rub elbows with plenty of writers. In a recent exchange with a fellow writer, he talked about mining his book manuscripts for short story ideas related to his longer works. It’s a way to make additional money and even promote his books. 

I’m doing something similar with my novel, Dragonborn. In it, a book of evil plays a big role. The Book Darkmore holds the spirits of the people who used its powers and are no longer living. The spirits live within the pages of the book eternally, but when a new host gives itself to the book, the spirits of the book and its dark magic influence that human host. I have come up with a slew of creative writing prompts and am writing a collection of stories related to the Book Darkmore. Readers will learn of its origins as well as the history of the hosts as well as their spirits. It’s not something you’d have to read to understand the story of Dragonborn, but the stories make it a perfect companion book for Dragonborn fans and will cover all four with books of the series.

Today’s Writing Prompt challenge

Today’s writing prompt challenges you to find a story within a story. It doesn’t matter if the original story is yours or not. For instance, you could pull a story from something like the Wizard of Oz. The first that comes to my mind is, “The House that Fell.” It reminds me of when I lived through a category 4 hurricane. That memory is rife with story prompts. I could make it fiction or non-fiction. It might even involve something like time travel and the opportunity to do things differently before the storm hits. Follow your imagination. If you are stuck, go to one of your favorite fairy tales. The possibilities are endless

Harvest at least one possible story idea from another work. It can be your original work or from somewhere else. But I recommend you make a list of your creative writing ideas. Keep them in your story writing topics folder. Then if/when you feel writer’s block nipping at your muse, pull from your ideas folder and start writing something new. It will get the juices flowing and you’ll be ready to go back to writing what you were working on.

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