Read Around the Rainbow: Deciding What to Write Next

I’m sure there will be loads of varying responses to this month’s topic from our Read Around the Rainbow bloggers! However, I wish I was the sort of writer who was always bubbling over with plot bunnies and had a constant store of stories at my fingertips. In my dreams!

Instead, I tend to veer between utter panic that I’ll never have another story idea again, to being slightly overwhelmed by competing storylines – inevitably when I’m in the middle of writing something else!

I may be a writing panster, but by nature, I’m a natural planner, so in terms of writing, I find seasonal submission calls a great way to start organising my writing year. If I know I’m going to write a Valentine’s, Halloween and Holiday story, then that helps to fill in those yawning spaces in my annual plan.

My lovely publisher also produces plenty of special submission calls throughout the year which is very helpful. I always find that inspiration strikes while looking through the list and sometimes in unexpected ways. Twelve Letters, the story I wrote last year for JMS Books’ Twelfth Anniversary submission call was conceived as a one-off story. But the characters remained in my head, and to my surprise, it’s become an ongoing series with the seventh story, A Festive Gathering at Chelsea, due to be released in the JMS Books Advent Calendar event in December.

Something similar happened when I was writing Town Bronze for the Silver Foxes submission call this August. Halfway through the story, it suddenly became a 3-part series, with a different couple finding romance in each novella. Not bad for a novella based around a joke about a cauliflower plus a spot of spanking! Petticoats and Pantaloons, part 2 in the series and Barney and Rose/Ross’s story will be released on November 11^th.

Of course, occasionally, lightning strikes and I do get a story idea out of the blue. But, in general, I appreciate the prompt, prop and support of submission call suggestions to spark my creativity and fill in the big, scary blanks in my writing schedule.

My post will be linked on the last Friday of every month with posts from fellow blog ring members. There are seven other writers blogging in the Read Around the Rainbow Webring this month… find their posts about deciding what to write next!

Addison Albright : Nell Iris : A.L. Lester : K.L. Noone : Fiona Glass : Lillian Francis : Holly Day