Research

There are a number of great things about Forward Motion’s story-a-day-marathon.

First and foremost is that by the end of the month, you will have a nice little cache of stories to work on for publication.

The second is the research involved in the writing. Most of the stories are done via a prompt. For example: The protagonist is male and an historian. A spoon is significant. The story is set in a council chamber in the present. The story is about doubt.

Who knew that ‘spoon’ meant ‘chip of wood’ in old English? Not me; not until I began researching spoons.

The prompts are random and come up with some out there ideas to get a writer to think. For example, diamonds and ancient times. Romans knew diamonds as Adamas. Or a suitcase and ancient times. No suitcases then, but you can always send one from the future. Or a fence underwater in the future? I used the metaphor, rather than an actual fence. How about a storyteller and a book in a fight ring? Or a princess in a cave in ancient times? The idea of royalty didn’t come until centuries later.

It’s also about creativity. Authors like to think their stories are originals, but it takes a lot of effort to make it so. Thinking outside the box, putting a new twist on an old idea is a lot more difficult than readers know.

This marathon and the generators that can be found on the internet, however, teaches us that the obvious, is not always the best way to a great story.