Guest post by womagwriter Sue Johnson

Today Sue Johnson offers advice on finding story inspiration.

Supermarkets and shopping malls are great places for finding characters. Choose one that has a café so that you can have some writing time when your ideas start flowing. Take a notebook with you. Put your phone away and just observe for a while. (Try to do this without staring at people too hard).

Look for three characters. Note what makes each one special. For example one might look as if something had just upset them. What was it? One might be wearing odd shoes. What happened to distract them before they left the house? The third person might look suave and sophisticated as if they hadn’t a care in the world. What is their story? Is this just an act?

Take note of anything else that interests you – advertising slogans, items in shop windows, colours, sounds, smells and textures.

Find a comfortable corner in the café. Order coffee and cake and get writing. Imagine your characters meeting here. What are their names? What do they notice about the café? What has brought them together? Write brief character descriptions. Play the ‘what if’ game. What do they most want? What is stopping them from getting it? What guilty secret do they each have that they wouldn’t want people to know about?

This exercise could be used to spark ideas for a novel linking the three characters together in some way – or you may feel you have created main characters for three short stories. Think about the time of year and the weather. When you get home, look for magazine pictures that give you further ideas about the characters.

Experiment with different types of story – e.g. romance, fantasy, ghost or crime. Turn your suave, sophisticated character into someone scary – give them matted hair, broken nails and wild-looking eyes. Have fun!

Sue can be found at www.writers-toolkit.co.uk

If you'd like even more story inspiration, try this book. There are 24 pages on finding ideas, mind mapping and expanding on what you already know. There are also separate sections on research, creating characters, selecting titles and a whole chapter on writing for the womag market.

Guest post by womagwriter Penny Alexander

Today's guest is Penny Alexander.

I've been recalling a definition this week, the one that goes: “retirement is when you get up in the morning with nothing to do, and go to bed each evening having done none of it.” Anyhow, with time to ponder at last, here are a few of my thoughts about inspiration, writing and poetry.

The poems from my (now distant)  schooldays – with lines that still come easily to mind - were mostly from times even earlier than that.  Nineteenth century poets such as Keats and Browning ('My Last Duchess' – I loved the drama!);  twentieth century poets such as Drinkwater and Ted Hughes.  Away from school, Edward Lear was a favourite, and I still find any nonsense rhymes wonderful joggers of the imagination.

It wasn't until much later,  when I began writing, that I read more modern stuff and found out that a) poems didn't have to rhyme and b) any poet worth reading can squeeze two words together and magic up a whole world.  (A very useful skill in short-story writing, too, of course.) 

I especially love Causley, the Cornish poet, for the taste of salt and danger  in his poems for adults and children. Oh, and Sheenagh Pugh...  so keeping a favourite poetry book handy on my desk (along with a Dictionary and a Grammar) goes without saying.

And what about recalling and updating nursery rhymes? 'Bo-Peep' for example. (Daffy shepherdess (or similarly forgetful more modern protagonist) is unexpectedly saved from her own foolishness by actions of her hitherto unregarded woolly-minded work colleagues.)) Or 'Tom, Tom the Piper's Son': (Out of control teenaged son of local musician gets unexpected come-uppance while attempting to steal squealing squeeze-box-accordion from the band).

There are many, many more possibilities, I'm sure.

Guest post by womagwriter Sue Johnson

My guest today is Sue Johnson.

I have always been the sort of writer who has several projects on the go. I usually have about fifty pieces of work in circulation at any one time because it stops me worrying about rejection.

I am published as a poet, short story writer and novelist and also create books and articles aimed at helping other writers. My involvement in women’s magazines began in 1999 when a college lecturer told me to rip up a story I’d written for an assessment. I sent it to a competition organised by agency Midland Exposure and ended up being taken on as one of their writers. The story was published in ‘Woman.’

Since 1^st January 2013 I have written a poem a day every day. (It’s amazing what happens when you start making New Year’s Resolutions after a packet of wine gums!) Some of these have been published as single poems in small press magazines, or have gone on to form part of a poetry sequence or collection. Many of them end up as the nucleus of a short story or scene from a novel.

I have a vision in my mind’s eye of the words and ideas growing like pieces of knitting. The words can be unpicked and re-worked. It is great fun to take a poem that isn’t working, cut it up and reposition it on the page, adding new words if necessary.

The best advice I was ever given was to carry a notebook. Ideas spring from the most unexpected people and places. Many of my ideas are inspired by country walks and I also love writing in cafés. I’m very fortunate to have lexical-gustatory synaesthesia – many words and names have a specific taste. For instance ‘Robert’ tastes of strawberry jam, ‘punishment’ tastes of liquorice and the word ‘life’ floods my mouth with the taste of Marmite.

Many ideas for poems are inspired by childhood memories and these in turn spark ideas for characters and settings. The following poem, inspired by a teenage memory of going to the fairground became a short story entitled ‘When Fortunes Collide’ – published in My Weekly on 3^rd September 2016.

Fairground

Music vibrates through the soles of our feet.

The smell of onions mingles with candyfloss

flash of lights mesmerises

colours collide like dodgems

and the Ferris wheel keeps a constant rhythm.

The fortune teller’s dark eyes glitter

when we cross her palm with silver.

Her words taste of new pathways

as she studies tea leaves on white china.

Outside her caravan a full moon rises.

Further information about my work can be found at www.writers-toolkit.co.uk or follow me on Twitter - @SueJohnson9

Kay Seeley's poetic prompt

I'm sure this fun poem by Kay Seeley will raise a smile from anyone who's ever attended a writing group. There are some great characters who could well be used in womag stories.

Kay tells me this group has now disbanded – there's probably a story or two in that!

A Tale for our Time

Writers come in all shapes and sizes,

Race and Religions and different disguises,

The quiet as a mouse, the blatantly loud,

The cautious, the reckless, the shy and the proud.

The weary, the dreary, the lustful and leery,

The hopeful, the doubtful, the dour and the cheery,

Into the library each Wednesday we troop,

The disparate members of our Writing Group.

Slowly but surely the writers drift in,

Here comes old Molly, still smelling of gin.

Next comes the man who’s convinced he knows best,

Sitting next to the girl with the ginormous chest.

Mad Mick the bouncer, who’s brilliant at verse,

Sits down next to Sarah, the Community Nurse,

We’ve got novelists, poets and screenwriters too,

From writing for children to something quite blue,

You’ll never get published, they mutter and moan,

Tales of rejection make everyone groan.

‘I hear that Romance is doing quite well,’

‘Oh no it isn’t, it just doesn’t sell.’

‘How about Sci-Fi, I’d give it a shot,’

‘Oh no,’ says another, ‘most certainly not.’

‘How about crime or historical thrillers,

A bloodthirsty saga of latter-day killers?’

‘You’d have to add zombies, vampires or ghosts,

But Celebrity stories are what they love most.’

‘Write what you know,’ they cry with one voice,

I know very little, so that limits my choice.

They grumble and mumble and twitter away,

Deploring the state of the book-world today.

If they can’t get published, then what chance have I?

I sit and I ponder as the minutes tick by.

‘What’s that I hear, no it cannot be real,

Old Jeremy’s landed a seven-book deal!

It’s out with the Champers, the biscuits and cheese,

Then back to the laptop and pounding the keys.

From Story Idea to Reader

This rather marvellous book will be available soon. It includes an entire chapter on writing for womags – by a writer I'm sure many of you will have heard of ;-) There's also lots about finding ideas and the time to write, grammar, formatting work, creating characters, competitions, self publishing ...

It will be out in time for Christmas (in paperback as well as in ebook formats) so start dropping those subtle hints now ...

For inspiration?

Penny A suggested I post up occasional pictures or short poems to act as story prompts. Great idea, Penny - thank you. I'll give it a go and see how much interest there is. Anyone have a suggested name for this feature?

Photos are no problem – I take loads. My poetry is another matter ...

If there are any poets out there who'd like to contribute something, please email me. I'll be happy to include a photo of the author and link to their blog if they wish, but that's not compulsory.

Poems can be writing related, thought provoking, inspiring, funny or downright weird. They contributor MUST hold the copyright to any submitted poem, but it's fine for it to habe been published elsewhere.

If you like word prompts then take a look at the Wednesday word of the week on my other blog.

How do you find inspiration for your stories?