Getting Ready to Write #Starter Chart #Writing Basic

Don't Know What to Write? Try Author Colleen L. Reece's Starter Chart

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 Example

1. List something from newspaper/radio/TV that stirred deep emotion in you. The increasing amount of break-ins even in “safe” neighborhoods.

2. An event from your past that can be expanded.  Being a lonely child and creating an imaginary playmate.

3. Someone you know/knew who impressed you tremendously and why. A retired cowboy Mom and I met in Wyoming. He had a fantastic story.

4. A personal experience that changed your life and how. Being born and

raised in a small Washington logging town during hard times.

5. A strong opinion you can back up with facts.  Self-confidence and self-

esteem need to be built.

6. The solution to a problem you recently solved.  Couldn’t keep up with

demand for books. Bought a computer! 💖

7. A place visited that impressed you favorably or unfavorably.  Favorably: American Southwest--Arizona, Utah, Colorado, etc.,

8. A day you would or wouldn’t want to relive and why. Would. The first time I held a Colleen L. Reece book in my hands. I have relived that day many times and always get the same wonderful feeling, “Is this really mine?”

9. A long held dream that didn’t/ probably won’t come true. (1) Become a nurse. (2) Ride a dog sled in Canada or Alaska.

10. Something you do well enough to teach another.  Writing.

11. Character traits you admire:  loyalty, honesty, courtesy, kindness. Traits you despise:  sneakiness, bigotry, snobbery.

12. A decision you’d like to change.  Believing for too long that becoming an author was an impossible dream.

Filling in the Starter Chart triggered off a wealth of writing possibilities. 

AFTER THE IDEA--What?

Ask yourself:  Which interests me most? Which is most timely, or dated? Which will take the smallest chunk of time from my hectic life?

Decide what to do with it. If it’s a true experience that entertains, informs or inspires, an article may be the best, most salable decision. Or a short story based on what happened with names/places, etc. changed. Or a first person true story.  If idea is long and complex, filled with possibilities for expansion, consider a book. If  it is something you know well and have new/fresh information, perhaps a how to article or nonfiction book.

What I did with my Starter Chart

1. Irritation at invasion of privacy led to an article, “Remember When No One Locked Up?” sold to several magazines.

2. Nostalgic story, “Mary, Come Back,” also sold several times then became a chapter in a children’s serial, and has appears in several of my collections.  

3. The old cowboy inspired, Comrades of the Trail, family-oriented adventure.

4. Basis for many articles/stories/books, such as true experience "My First 'Store-Boughten' Christmas," (sold 20+ times) and collections: Going Home Again, Storybook House, and The Appleby Family Adventures.

 5. Teen article “Believing in You” proved popular. 

6. Having a computer increased my writing output. 

7. Setting for many books such as ROMANCE QUARTET: 

 9. (a) I discovered that God’s plans were not for me to become a nurse. However, studying everything I could about the profession while in high school provided a solid basis for my numerous nurse romance novels.

Most popular: SHEPHERD OF LOVE collection: Lamp in Darkness, Flickering Flames, A Kindled Spark, Glowing Embers and Hearth of Fire. 

(b) Desire to ride a dog sled inspired research that led to ROMANCE BOUQUET collection: Flower of Seattle, Flower of the West, Flower of the North, Flower of Alaska.

 
10. I developed teaching and mentoring skills and have been blessed by seeing many of my college, Senior Center, and Writer’s Digest Correspondence School students go on to become selling authors. 

11. These traits fill my stories and books and bring heroes and villains alive.

12. Instilled in me the need to encourage others to follow their dreams instead of waiting (as I did) until I was 40 years old to get started.

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