Support Indie Authors? Become an Indie Ninja!

6 Steps to a Booming Brainstorm

February 15th, 2012 by Shannon

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” – John Steinbeck

On Monday we started our conversation about the importance of brainstorming and how we go about conjuring one up. Sometimes we need a brainstorm to get the ideas flowing, or sometimes even when we’ve already had an idea come to us out of the blue, we still need a good brainstorming session to hash out the details.

So how do you get the most out of a brainstorming session? Whether you’re taking part in a group idea-a-thon or a solo think tank, we’ve put together a few basic steps to follow to ensure that your brainstorm yields a successful result.

photo by clagnut

Step 1. Clear your head.

You have to start your brainstorming process with a clear slate. Popular slate-clearing activities include taking long walks, listening to music, or closing your eyes for a few moments of quiet solitude (this is not be confused with napping, although I suppose that can be a head-clearing activity as well).

Step 2. Find a good space.

Once your mind is clear, you need to find a location that will give you lots of inspiration. Different types of people can find inspiration in all sorts of places. Some folks might prefer a park or crowded shopping mall filled with potential characters and plot lines while the others might want a blank canvas like a quiet room at home. Either way, find your perfect creative spot.

3. Get your tool(s) of choice together.

Just like the inspiration location, different people prefer different writing tools for their brainstorming session. I’m a fan of old school pen and paper myself, but if your mind tends to run at a breakneck speed, you might be able to keep up with your ideas a little better on a computer. Test out different tools until you find the one that fits you best.

4. Start with quantity.

The ultimate key to a good brainstorming session is to generate a mass of ideas. Throw all judgment aside–everything is on the table. Write down every idea that comes to mind, what starts out seeming ridiculous may turn out (with a little further thought and development) to be the perfect seed for a new novel. If you need to motivate yourself, break your brainstorming into a couple of five minute sessions with some break time in between. Aim for four or five ideas per session. If you’re in a group, discuss the ideas in between sessions and don’t be afraid to piggyback off of each other’s plans.

photo by fishbone1

5. Narrow by quality.

After you’ve got a large quantity of ideas, start narrowing them down by quality. Pick out a handful you like the most and continue to expand on those ideas in your brainstorming session.

6. Keep everything!

Don’t discard anything from your brainstorming session! A tabled idea now could become your next novel idea a year or two down the road. Keep a notebook or folder with your ideas as a reference when you face writer’s block or go in search of your next idea.

How do you come up with your best ideas? Are there any tips and tricks you could share with your fellow authors? We love to hear from you, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite February guest post!

Don’t forget that voting is still open for our guest post contest! If you haven’t read the posts yet be sure to check them out (so much great advice!) and head over to the voting page to pick your favorite. We’re also accepting posts for our March contest as well.

Later days,

- Shannon

More from Writing | 4 Comments

How do you brainstorm? [Discussion]

February 13th, 2012 by Shannon

A brainstorm is like this, but in your mind... (photo by powazny)

Whether you’re writing a novel, poem, short story or non-fiction title, your body of work has to begin with one, simple idea. One thought — be it a question, a fact, a character, or a word — is all it takes to launch a series of ideas that you plant, nurture and grow until your idea has blossomed into a full blown story. We all have different ways of finding these ideas (or sometimes they find us) and different ways of expanding on our ideas once we have them.

So our question this week is: How do you brainstorm?

We want to know how you go about brainstorming your work from the very beginning, including:

  • How do you clear your head before brainstorming?
  • Do you write down an idea as soon as you think of it, or let it simmer in your head for a while?
  • Where do you find inspiration the most?
  • Is there a specific brainstorming technique you use to get the creative juices flowing?
  • Do you ever struggle to come up with ideas or do they come to you constantly?

To join the discussion, please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to get varied input!

What do you think?

We LOVE hearing your thoughts via our discussion posts! To keep up with all future installments (in addition to the great content from the rest of the month), subscribe to our RSS feed. 

More from Discussion | 7 Comments

Target Markets/Finding Your Readership [Self-Publishing Linkup]

February 10th, 2012 by Toni

Have an awesome idea for a post that’s not related to target markets and readers? Consider entering it in our Self-Publishing Writing Contest for a chance to win Amazon.com gift cards and much more!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our previous Self-Publishing Linkups on New Year’s Resolutions/Goal-Setting, Social Media Resources and Self-Publisher/POD Reviews (note: you can still add your link at any time).

For those who missed it, here’s the what, why and how of the Self-Publishing Linkup:

Indie authors share a ton of knowledge and experience through their blogs, and sometimes we feel like we can’t keep up.

Shannon and I were discussing how great it would be to have all of the posts centered around a given topic gathered in one place — voila! The Self-Publishing Linkup was born!

This week’s topic is “Target Markets/Finding Your Readership.” This can be any post that you’ve read or written discussing how to find readers, determine your target market, growing your readership, etc.  Here’s how to participate:

1. Leave a comment on this post with the following information:

The post can be on any blog – yours or someone else’s. If you find (or write) a great post, share it!

2. Let others know you particpated in the linkup! Share a link to this post (or your post) with the hashtag #selfpublinkup on Twitter. Here’s an example:

  • Just shared my post on finding your target market on the #SelfPubLinkup: http://ow.ly/8Zoan

The more authors who participate, the more information and resources that will be shared! Get started by leaving your link in the comments below!

 

More from Links & Resources, Marketing & Promotion | 1 Comment

“Across the threshold” [February 2012 Prompt #2]

February 9th, 2012 by Shannon

This week we’re getting more creative with our weekly writing prompt.

We want you to take a few moments out of your day to get those creative juices flowing by writing a short story, poem or any other art form you’d like that contains the line, “…she stepped across the threshold and took the first delicious breath of her new life…”

Add your creative writing piece to your blog and link it up in the comments below. We want to see what great work you guys can come up with! To help get the sharing started, I’ve written a little short story of my own featuring this week’s prompt. Check it out and don’t forget to email us your suggestions for next month’s prompts!

Shannon’s short story: “Sail Away”

Every weekday at noon, June Adler drove to the edge of the bay, put her car in park and ate her lunch. She brought the same meal every day—a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly, thank you) cut into four even squares and carefully stored inside a plastic Tupperware container. If she was feeling indulgent, she would buy a coke from the vending machine at work before embarking on her journey, though most days she was content to sip from a bottle of water.

In fact, June was content with just about everything in her life. She was content with her tiny apartment, content with her job, content with her wardrobe and content with her loneliness. She equated a lack of unhappiness with happiness, and assumed that if she had nothing to complain about there was therefore nothing in her life worth changing.

Until the day she saw the yellow boat. (more…)

More from Blog Prompts | Leave A Comment »

The Old Shell Game of Publishing [Guest Post]

February 8th, 2012 by Guest Poster

The following is a guest post from Allan Douglas and an entry in February’s Self-Publishing Writing Contest. Click here to vote for the winner of this month’s contest. Want to help out your fellow indie authors? Consider entering March’s contest!

There was a time when publishing a book was pretty straightforward; you had two courses. One: find an agent to represent you, seek a publisher who in turn will produce and promote your book and pay you for the privilege of doing so. Two: take your manuscript to a vanity press and pay them to produce your book so you could promote and sell it yourself.

Today you still have those choices, but you also have the option of going the route of some form of self-publishing. This choice has been around in the form of vanity presses (they prefer the term “subsidy press”) but that route has always been very expensive. Technology has come to our rescue by making eBooks and Print On Demand (P.O.D.) books available directly to authors. Now we can choose to sidestep the agent, thumb our noses at the publisher and go directly from manuscript to publication, if we want to.

As a result, some agents have decided to embrace the new model by becoming publishers themselves. Some publishing houses are cutting deals directly with successful indie authors. And many new “publishers” are springing up all over the place. (more…)

More from Guest Posts, Publishing | 27 Comments