Why I love prompts...

or when a writer needs a nudge

I try to write every day - a little, or a lot, new stuff or revising and tinkering work in progress - but sometimes I run out of steam. It isn’t anything as evil as the dreaded Writer’s Block, a condition similar to athletes’ yips, when no matter what you try, nothing seems to work, and the more you try, the worse it gets. The movie Tin Cup comes to mind. If you’ve seen it, you know it’s the one with that pesky ball that keeps finding the water. The dip in creative energy I’m talking about is not as dramatic. It happens when I stare at my keyboard wondering what I’m going to write next, and nothing comes to mind, no workable idea, zip.

I don’t suffer from this troubling condition when I’m in the middle of a book. Chapters and characters generate their own energy and the story moves forward, even if there are hiccups on the way. But I often “come up dry” when I write short fiction. I’ve just finished a piece of retro noir and I’m very pleased how it turned out. Now it’s done, with that little satisfying # mark at the end. What will I work on next? And no answer comes to mind.

This is when I turn to prompts. The internet is full of them – 100 prompts for… fill in your genre (romance, science fiction, YA, whatever). The good ones, the prompts that never fail to inspire me, often come from publications. They can be anything, the more bizarre, the better.

The theme for our next issue is: Dog food. Or: Ink stains. Or: waiting for a bus on planet Basileus 5. (Now, that sounds intriguing … )

The story plot never pops into my head right away. The prompt needs to sit for a couple of days, worm its way in, before the words start coming. I know why this works for me. A prompt is a nudge, a suggestion to look in a different direction, think different thoughts, try something new, be challenged. The results are often unexpected.

I need a good prompt right now. Do you have one for me? Put it in the comments and let's see what I can come up with! I promise I’ll let you know.

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

Short stories

Mystery Tribune published one of my 1950s crime stories. In Chains features two San Francisco detectives - fedoras, cigarettes, and a film noir attitude - Tom Keegan and Al ‘Matt’ Matteotti. I like these two guys, they’re chatty and abrasive. It’s the second time I give them a starring role in a story. They will be back for more, by popular demand. Who knows, there might be a book in it some day. The story is free to read online. Give it a click.

What I’m reading…

Too many things at the same time, as usual. I always have something (or two) going on the Kindle, and something on good old printed paper.

I finished Nick Kolakowski’s A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps and it’s a ton of fun. I warmly recommend it.

If you like your stories with a serving of urban grit, give Ted Flanagan’s Every Hidden Thing a look. It’s a deep, deep dive in the life of an EMT, and Ted knows what he’s talking about.

The paperback by the side of my chair is Elmore Leonard’s Bandits. Great characters as usual - a nun who’s not really a nun, an ex-con working at a funeral parlor … and more. Can’t tell how that will all turn out.

And The New Yorker published a great article on writer Mick Herron recently. He’s the author of the Slough House spy novels (there’s a TV series with Gary Oldman based on the books). I’ve only read the first in the series so far, Slow Horses, but I plan to get into the others.

And on the book front you may ask?

Street Song, the first book in my Declan Shaw detective series is on track for release in March. I hope to have a cover to show you by the time the next newsletter rolls out. Maybe. Patience, patience. In the meantime you can read an excerpt on the site at www.shawmystery.com.

Something cool for the Holidays: “Gone” - an Anthology of Crime Stories

Here’s an example of what one of the prompts I mentioned at the start of this blog can produce: 30 stories from 30 writers inspired by the Gone theme. How many variations can you weave around that single word? 300 pages of exceptional writing, and the Kindle version is only 99p (yes that’s UK money, you can’t get a decent cup of coffee for that). No better deal can be had. It’s right here. And is was the top #1 selling anthology for a while on Kindle UK. Very very cool.