Welcome to A Novel Approach. If this is your first issue, I encourage you to check out my back issues for more tips on how to write a novel. It's my fondest hope that I can help other writers do the best they can do.

If you have any specific aspects about novel writing you'd like me to address in future issues, please feel free to contact me and let me know what those are. Thank you for your interest, and here's to better writing!

Creative Writing Tips -
Stretching Your Writing Wings

Try some creative writing tips to get back into the groove, and keep yourself going.

Inspiration Without Asking

Lately, I've been finding myself inspired to write novels in genres I'd never before considered. Fantasy has been my mainstay, especially the adult level.

But NaNoWriMo got me working on a kid's book which, while it was fantasy, was also set in current time and place. Just with fantastical elements added.

That intrigued me enough to consider making it a series, perhaps.

Next, while we built our new home in Colorado, many things went wrong - small things, large things, and you-have-to-laugh things. Enough "Murphy's Law" dogged us throughout the project that I decided I had to try my hand at humor. Not really fiction, but at least something outright humorous all the way through.

Now I suddenly have a adult suspense/romance sort of novel percolating in my head. Where did this come from? Why am I suddenly branching out in five different directions?

I guess it has to do with two things:

1. The sudden removal of severe stress (the house is "done" as far as it has to be for now, and we can slowly unpack things that have been packed for nearly three years).
2. I've been reading a few new authors books and excerpts in styles I've rarely read before and they are jogging my muse.

If you find your own muse stifled by stress, lack of time or writers' block, try one of the following creative writing tips to kick yourself in the pants and get back into the flow.

Other Writers as Inspiration

A friend of mine introduced me to an author I'd never read before. One who writes romantic suspense.

I left romance reading behind years ago because the plots just didn't keep me interested. I wanted more adventure, more excitement than inane arguments that seemed too much the same from one book and author to the next.

I bet there are several writers combining romance with other genres well, but I just haven't found many.

But when I read the book loaned to me, I found a wonderful combination of suspense and romance. (Try Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter Series if you like this type of book.)

Suddenly, I found myself wanting to write something I'd NEVER considered writing: romance. But with a twist.

No dull, cookie-cutter plot, but a fast-paced, can't-put-it-down, page turner that sizzled from cover to cover with action and hot romance at the same time.

Oooh. I'm afraid to tell people.

From that comes creative writing tip one: If you have a genre or two you tend to read all the time, spice up your reading list with something far from your norm. If you love horror, read humor, or westerns. If you adore sci-fi, read romance, realistic fiction or women's fiction. The point is to try something entirely out of your usual comfort zone. I guarantee this will give you ideas, even if only for the genre(s) you typically write in.

A Writing Group Inspires

When we moved 1200 miles across the country, I decided I wanted to get in touch with other authors and take my writing more seriously than I'd been able to do in the past. So I joined a local writers group.

People bring excerpts from novels and short stories to read aloud and have critiqued. While I don't always get what I expect from such readings, I've been wonderfully pleased at the inspiration I've gotten from hearing genres I'd never dreamed of writing in.

Short stories are a specialty with one group member. Now me, I can't for the life of me write short. This woman does a spectacular job of getting a story out in seven to fifteen pages. An entire story.

Another member writes poetry, another historical fiction in a literary style. Several are working on memoirs, or similar.

I've never tackled those forms of writing, yet I love hearing the turns of phrase they use, the images they create and the total change of pace from the things I tend to write. It inspires me to branch out and see what else I might be good at.

So, creative writing tip number two is, join a writing group and exchange excerpts to critique. Your editing skills will get better, and your mind will fill with ideas of things you can do with your own writing.

Take a Hike

One of my all-time favorite pastimes (especially now we have a dog again), is to take long walks in the woods around our house. Listening to the quiet stills my mind, if it's going too fast to think. Watching the birds flit back and forth calms my soul and reminds me there are much more important things in life than my To Do list, which isn't getting done fast enough.

Clearing your head will do wonders if you suffer from writers' block. Though I rarely have that trouble, I do have a problem with my head getting too full. Then, instead of getting my writing tasks done quickly and efficiently, I stumble and stagger and get maybe half-done with three projects.

You know where I'm going here: creative writing tip three is to take a break from writing to refresh your mind and recharge your muse. When you return to it, jot a few descriptive notes about what you did, saw, felt, smelled... anything at all. Then let the words flow from your revitalized fingers and mind.

Happy writing!

I don't know how old this quote is, and I know Australia should fall into the same category as the other countries he lists. But if you find your creativity stifled, pretend you live in a place that recognizes authors as easily as it recognizes movie stars.

Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression. ~ James A. Michener

My fellow writers and readers, I want to spread the word that an Irish author friend and I are setting up a wonderful writing workshop in Durango, Colorado this September, 2010. Tentative dates are the 20th-24th, hotels rates are being investigated and the workshop itself priced to help as many come as possible.

We will limit this to twenty writers, maximum, however, and the seats will go fast. So if you're interested, let me know by filling out my informational workshop survey by June 1st. See you there!