Photogenic Stories

Don’t worry.

I’m not going to make any 2020 puns.

But with the new year comes new WIPs, at least for some of us. Or maybe projects that need a re-boot. In the vein of new writing goals and fresh starts, there always has to be something that gets you thinking about what to write. Sometimes that idea is stimulated by a snappy piece of dialogue you come up with in the shower. Other times it’s a random stranger you see in public or a song lyric you hear on your morning run (which we’re all starting to do this year, right?).

One of my favorite ways to get ideas is through photographs. Even the simplest of photos have a story in there somewhere, whether its about the people in the image or the feeling it gives you or any other detail you see. I like looking at photographs and using them as a setting. Not necessarily the literal place, but the emotional place. What kind of vibe does the photo give off? What is the tone? What kind of person would take this photo?

This kind of prompt works well for if you’re just starting (a la mood boards) or if your story needs another layer of something that you aren’t quite sure what it is yet. A simple image can spark any number of ideas, so I encourage you to find some photos and just write about them for a while. You don’t necessarily have to forget about your story and your characters (if they already exist), but feel free to just describe for a while and see where it takes you.

Here are some photos I found that inspired my current WIP, so you can try the exercise with these or find your own pictures.

I can’t wait to hear what you all think of this prompt! Comment below how it goes!

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Refresh.

Summer is a time to relax and start new. It’s kind of like a second-chance-January, a time of the year you can take a breather and then reinstate your goals and plans. It’s like hitting the refresh button. The goal didn’t quite load the first time, so we’re trying it again.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Your writing routine didn’t stick like you wanted it to? Try something different, like a different location or time of day. Your current project isn’t quite going in the right direction? Take a writing vacation and come back to it with a fresh mind; sometimes you just need to not look at it for a while to come back and see the solutions.

Take a vacation, whether that means actually going somewhere or just staying where you are and taking a break from your current project. Let your mind breathe for a bit before you take a new look at your writing or your writing habits and reassess where you want to be in the future. Where you are now is good, but where you will be is even greater.

What are some of your Refresh plans for this summer? Comment below. I’d love to hear them!

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In Honor of the New Year

It’s always confused me that January is the time for bettering oneself. I understand the whole “new year, new you,” thing, but I don’t see why you can’t seek to better yourself any time of the year. Part of me sees it as a type of procrastinating, maybe. An excuse allowing yourself to be maybe a little unhealthier or less organized or what have you in the last half of the year. “Oh, I’ll just start in January…” And let’s be honest, how many times do we actually start working on our goals come January 1?

That being said, New Year’s Resolutions are not a bad thing. As long as we do them, or at least work towards them. All this to say, yes, I am succumbing to the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions. These are things I’ve been working on for a while, but I now have actual steps to take in order to achieve my goals; the end result is no longer floating somewhere in the ether. Simply put, I want to learn how to relax (physically, mentally, spiritually), I want to write more, and I want to write better.

I have quite a few ideas of how to achieve these things, but one of my favorite is utilizing my bullet journal. I’ve been bullet journaling for almost a year now, but I’ve only recently figured out how to do it effectively in a way that helps me stay organized, productive, inspired, and relaxed. I can keep track of my busy schedule (that just got even busier) while keeping my goals close at hand. Even amidst the chaos of my last semester of college, I can look forward and see each goal, both small and large.

My bullet journal especially helps with my writing. It’s a great place for me to organize thoughts about my novel, keeping them all in one place so I can find my ideas relatively easily. It also keeps me on track with page-count goals and things I need to fix. It helps me keep all my characters straight and find each of their distinct voices.

Figuring out who my characters are in my current project has been one of my main hold-ups. I know them on a surface level, but they each lack depth and they start to all sound the same. Putting my characters side-by-side, though, has helped them become distinguished from each other. They became unique once I could see them on paper.

This bullet journaling technique has already helped me so much. It has gotten me to become more confident, especially in my writing, and I can’t wait to see what else this year has in store.

For those of you who keep a bullet journal or a journal of any type, what are some things you do to keep yourself on the up-and-up?

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