Writer's Block? Get Someone to Start it for You.

In many of my past blog posts, I have writing about trying to find inspiration. This week, I’ve found a new way to get some inspiration and to submit to a magazine with specific instructions. In my mind, a writer will have a much better chance at getting published if an anthology (in this case) has specific instructions.

I think specific instructions often eliminate many writers, giving me a better chance of acceptance. Also, I think that many writers are just looking for literary places they can recycle their rejected works. If these writers are faced with submitting a piece they already wrote to another magazine versus writing for another magazine, I think they will recycle their old. Anyway, let me get more specific with this inspiration.

I stumbled across it once in the past, but again just the other day. The anthology was calling for works that all began with the same paragraph. I once submitted to a literary review that all used the same line, but never a paragraph. In my past submission, I was rejected, but not with complete failure. They asked me to submit again sometime and told me they enjoyed my style. Ah, hope! It’s nice to see sometimes.

With focusing on my screenplay lately, I have written few short stories. These instructions were calling me to write. How hard could it be to write, when they’ve already started the writing? With a 5,000 word cap, I hammered out a story half of that but in a little over an hour. I actually think that this is one of the better pieces I’ve written in a long time. Hopefully, if you are stuck with writer’s block, you will fair well with one of these pieces too!