If you’ve ever found yourself lacking inspiration, here’s a few ways to find it.

1. Read books. Not any book, a book you wished you wrote. This way, you might be inspired to write your own.

2. Music. Music inspires many to write. It enhances your brain waves and when you enhance your brain waves, who knows what will come out?

3. Cemeteries. Now why would I count cemeteries as a way to get inspired? Because they aren’t just a collection of dead people. Each inhabitant has his or her own life story. Consider the woman lying in a single grave while the rest of her family lies in a family crypt. What happened in that family to cause such a rift?

4. If you’re writing a novel set in the here and now, you won’t pay much attention to architecture. You’re bound by the constraints of what exists. But if you’re writing fantasy? The world is your oyster.

5. You may never feature a funeral or even death in your story. But knowing how death works within the world you’ve created is still important. It gives you an opportunity for world-building and character development.

6. Are you writing a contemporary novel set in your hometown? That’s okay. It’s still worth considering how your characters respond to death.

Think about these questions. Discuss them with writer friends to see what you come up with.

• What relationship do your characters have with death? Is it feared, accepted, or welcomed?
• Do characters grieve openly, or is death a cause for celebration? Do they grieve in private?
• Are wakes joyful parties, or somber occasions?
• What happens to your characters when they die? Are they buried, cremated, or subject to another burial practice like exposure?
• Do the dead come back? If so, in what form? (This is a great way to begin a short story or novel.)
• How would your characters feel to kill someone? Death can be a somber time of pain and loss. But it can also add dimension to your characters and plot. No one needs to die in your books for you to know how this element of your world-building works. And knowing how characters cope with, or react to, death gives you a better understanding of them.

Lastly, devise a range of plot points or find interesting opportunities for character growth. The approach your characters take towards death colors their outlook on life. That filters into other encounters and affects how they treat each other. They find their place in the world based on their understanding of death. You can explore this from the comfort of your nearest cemetery. Yes, once again, cemeteries. They’re an invaluable resource for character generation and world-building. Even sitting among the trees with your notebook, soaking up the peace and quiet, can boost your writing by creating mental space. But be respectful and who knows what you might find?

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Sue Powers has a dazzling array of publishing credits. Among her favorites are New Millennium Writings, Another Chicago Magazine, Happy, Facets, The Writer’s Place, Funny in Five Hundred, Blue Lake Review and Samizdada. She has won some writing awards and been nominated for others.

Reminder: She’ll be teaching Writing the Short Story at Hershey High School in Arlington Heights September 5-October 17th, from 7 pm to 9 pm.

via How to get Published

The first thing to do before you submit your manuscript for publication is to have it proofed and edited. Publishers demand it.

I’ve heard publishers say that they send their authors’ books out seven times just to be proofread. So proofread everything before you submit. Of course this can be costly. So first ask a couple of friends to proofread. Then send to a professional proofreader. It’s worth doing. So many publishers won’t even look at your manuscript if it has grammatical errors in it.

The second thing is patience. Yes, I know I’ve said this before but one must have a great deal of patience. Patience in finding the right publisher and patience in waiting to hear from the publishers. Most magazine editors tell you it takes 3 to 6 months to hear back from them. If you don’t have patience, you’ll never get published.

It’s okay to multiple submit, as long as you tell the magazines that you’re withdrawing your story because one magazine has accepted it.

Where to Submit:
I use Poets & Writers (a good investment which also happens to be deducible), both the physical magazine and their online database. I use the online database most of the time. It offers many options. However, their online database can be frustrating. Often, the magazines want something very specific or their word count doesn’t match what you want to submit. Still, it’s good database, one that every writer should invest in.

If you want to submit your book, it has a database of agents and publishers. If you are submitting your memoir, it has a database for that too. And of course if you’re submitting your fiction, there’s a database for that. In fact, it has a database for almost any kind of writing.

Recordkeeping:
I suggest you keep a record of where you’ve submitted your manuscript, especially if you have more than one. If you have more than document submitted, name each by where you sent it (ex: 13 Rules_ New Millennium Writings.) Otherwise, it can be very confusing.

Here’s an example of why you should keep good records of what you submit: Once I had a publisher asked for the copy of the story I sent them to be sent back to them. I had no idea which version I’d sent them. Caused many sleepless night. But eventually, it all got straightened out.

I keep my records in various ways in one Excel document. One workbook for stories by name and where I’ve submitted them; one by the name of the publication and the cost to submit (most charge a small fee), and another with stories that have been published.

Once you’ve submitted, you will likely get rejections. This is something every writer experiences, thus writers need a really tough skin. Once you’re manuscript has been rejected, say more than once, go back and see if you need to edit it. Have someone else look at it too.

This all takes a great deal of patience and tenacity, as does the writing. So now that you know how to get published and what qualities you need, start submitting!

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Sue Powers has a dazzling array of publishing credits. Among her favorites are Facets, StoryQuarterly, Another Chicago Magazine, Happy, The Writer’s Place, New Millennium Writings, Funny in Five Hundred, Samizdada, Blue Earth Review and Microfiction Monday. She’s won some writing awards and been nominated for others. She now has 17 stories published. Her most current published story can be found here: https://microfictionmondaymagazine.com

via How to be a Writer

I have one or two more stories to update and that’s it! I’m sending my book of linked stories, A Surprising Measure of Sadness, out to get published.

That is, sending it once again. Unfortunately, I have sent it out before two of the stories were updated per my writing group. My writing group is the best thing that’s happened to me. Their comments and their critiques have been invaluable. Meanwhile, I didn’t wait. Oh well. There are still publishers who Will (stay positive!) publish my book of stories.

It takes months, even years, for stories, not to mention a book of stories, to get published. So I’m not getting my hopes up that it will be published in 2018.

One of the stories in the next book I’m writing got a comment from the famous author Aimee Bender. (How that happened is another story.) I’ve sent this story out numerous times. But as my first writing teacher told me it takes maybe 20 tries before a story gets published.

I’m still sending out the stories in my current book out for publishing. I have 15 stories published, but not all of them are going into my current book of stories because I can’t linked them to the other stories. I have written a couple of new short stories that will go into the next book. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to read because reading is the only way I can get inspired to write.

This coming weekend my writing group meets and I’ve submitted the two stories that need updating for my current book. Once they’re updated I hope to be able to send out A Surprising Measure of Subliminal Sadness.

Wish me luck!