A Handful of Words by Clifford Fryman

Every story, no matter how short or how long, begins with just a handful of words.

In fact, from initial idea to the final sentence on the very last page, stories are little more than multiple handfuls of words pieced together into a whole. The first handful leading to the next handful, and the next, until, at last, those initial words have inspired thousands more.

But what happens when those few words elude a writer? What if when a writer sits down to start a new story BPS (Blank Page Syndrome) strikes? How do they push through when a story stalls and they don’t know what comes next? Where do they go when their inspiration falters?

At some point we have all found ourselves faced with this scenario. I know I have. And when it’s happened, one of my favorite places to turn is to writing prompts to get myself going again.

I have one problem with traditional writing prompts, though. They tend to offer little help when it comes to fiction writing.

What I really wanted were writing prompts that inspired me in the same way naturally occurring ideas did. I wanted something that delivered that same creative spark a snippet of conversation overheard in the grocery store delivered. I desired something that let me visualize a scene the way seeing a random interaction between two people in the park did. I wanted a handful of words to inspire thousands more.

So, in 2009, with these criteria in mind, I started creating my own personal stash of writing prompts in the style I desired. They consisted of random bits of dialogue, brief snippets of action, or brief pieces of narrative. The thing I liked most about them was that each of them could be used to inspire a myriad of story possibilities in a wide range of genres depending on the mood I was in.

A few months prior I had finally decided to see what all the hoopla over Twitter was about. What I discovered was an amazing community of writers using the #amwriting hashtag created by Johanna Harness. I was pleasantly surprised by the camaraderie and outpouring of support they generously offered. Inspired, I decided I wanted to give back to those who had given so much to me.

I knew my writing prompts had helped me immensely and I figured others may find them useful, as well. So I created the #storystarters hashtag and began posting my writing prompts on a daily basis. They were quickly embraced by some terrific people and a number of writers began using StoryStarters as inspiration for their #fridayflash stories, as well as adding their own prompts so that others may benefit from them.

It has been nearly two years now since I first posted a StoryStarters tweet. In that time I have posted over 2000 writing prompts and others have posted hundreds of their own. Numerous stories have been written based off of one or more StoryStarters prompts. I have published two StoryStarters eBooks, one with 500 prompts available for free and another with around 1200 prompts for less than a dollar.

My hope is that StoryStarters continue to inspire people and help them combat BPS. Whether it is by reading and using them to write, or by sharing their own, I would love to see the people using the hashtag grow as writers, and every single one of them benefit in ways beyond their wildest imagination. I want them to discover a handful of words to inspire thousands more.

StoryStarters: Mini Edition is available for free download at Smashwords.

StoryStarters is available for 99¢ download at both Amazon & Smashwords.