By harpspeed

What will you put in your bucket? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Post a suggestion or a comment here. 🙂
• Take out an old story and write back stories for your main and supporting characters.
• Write a short story.
• Write a story entirely in dialogue.
• Write a story in backward chronology.
• Write a story that happens in a 24-hour span.
• Rewrite a story in a different point-of-view: first, second, or third.
• Rewrite a story with a different narrator, style, or structure: Give an inanimate object or concept such as “joy” a voice. Try writing in stream-of-consciousness style or in epistolary format to tell your story. It worked for Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Charles Frazier and a host of writers.
• Write a flash story.
• Give an old story a fresh coat of words: Rewrite it in a different verb tense. Try a present, past or future voice: I write all summer long. I wrote all summer long. I will write all summer long. I promise!
• Write in a different genre.
• Interview someone of interest in your community and pitch the interview to your local newspaper editor or local magazine editor. Hint: Retired veterans and school bus drivers have great stories to share and know a lot about the community.
• Create a cookbook anthology using your personal favorite recipes.
• Pitch an event to your local newspaper editor, attend, and write about it. (I touched the real Titanic and wrote about the artifacts on exhibit when I toured a local museum with third-graders. There wasn’t much news that day so my little story and accompanying photograph made the front page.)
• Write a friendly letter.
• Write a query letter.
• Write a personal essay about something you feel strong about that has a universal audience and pitch it to your local newspaper editor. (I once wrote about Beanie Babies and compared them to other collectables of the past. Approximately 30,000 people read it in the editorial section of my local newspaper.)
• Write a poem.
• Write about something you are an expert on. A how-to essay or what a particular activity means to you. If you have hobbies start there. Maybe you know how to build the perfect chicken coop or know some gardening secrets you can share. Visit the newsstands and see where your piece best fits.
• Write an article or book review for Toasted Cheese!

Ready.  Set.  Write!