Sometimes calls for submissions, or competitions ask for work on a 'well worn' theme. It can be difficult to come up with something fresh, which stands out from the others, yet is still firmly on target. One idea is to try writing from a non obvious POV. Eg if you're writing about a wedding, your main character doesn't have to be one of the couple getting married. Romances don't have to be about a young woman meeting a young man for the first time and heading towards a happy ever after – there can be romance between couples who are older, or have been together for a long time, or who aren't going to stay together until death does them part.
The idea of writing from a less obvious viewpoint is just one of many in my book A Year Of Ideas; 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises, which is available as a paperback and ebook. You can request it at your local library, buy online, order through a bookshop or read it with kindle unlimited.
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3 comments:
Good tip, Patsy. That's a clever way to make a tired trope fresh.
I bought Patsy's book of prompts when I was starting out submitting fiction to magazines. The very first prompt I used led to an accepted story, so the investment more than paid off. Regarding 'point of view' - The People's Friend includes stories from a child's POV, from time to time. I have written a number of these and find them an interesting challenge and a lot of fun. I remember that my first such acceptance featured a group of little girls launching a campaign to prevent their beloved teacher falling in love and getting married, as they feared she would quit teaching to start a family. There is a definite art to working with what the child in the story knows and what the adult reader can deduce, and I would say it's crucial to pick the 'right' type of child to begin with - one aged ten or eleven will probably put a decent vocabulary at the writer's disposal, but still retain a degree of innocence at variance with the adults' experience.
That's sound advice, Eirin. I am part way through one of the prompts but can't finish it satisfactorily. Maybe it will come to me. (It's been in stasis a while!) Wuthering Heights was good example of playing with the POV, it being a told story - but you didn;t feel as though it was. Goo suggestions in here, Patsy, to mix it up :)
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