Fundraising

Write an article, poem, script or story about this.  What’s the cause? What are the obstacles? What is the outcome?

Article ideas

Why do we fund raise?   What are the ethics of it? Should there be a need or should society work in such a way that the funds are always there for whatever is needed? Why do charities exist?

What about the mechanics of fund-raising? Could you develop a tip sheet?

If you’ve done some fund-raising, simply describe this.

Poetry ideas

Could you write a poem about the tension as the raffle is drawn? Or about the hours of work it takes to write a bid for a funding body? What about the journey of a fund-raiser? Can you crystalize that into a couple of pages of verse?

Script ideas

Perhaps you can introduce some humour as the committee decides on how to run the summer fete and how they are going to use any funds.  

What about if someone embezzles the funds that have been raised? How do you find out? Do you get the money back?

Story ideas

Who is raising some funds and what for? Which obstacles do they face? Is there a surprise – an unlikely contributor, perhaps? Does it work out in the end? What do they achieve? How does it change them?    

Your writing comes true

Write about this occurring   - and hope it doesn’t happen while you’re writing this time! Maybe you’re writing about a storm and it starts thundering and pouring with rain outside.  Maybe someone who is just like one of your characters moves into your neighbourhood.  Or maybe your crime novel helps solve an actual case.  

Writers are good sleuths anyway

We know how to observe. We watch people all the time. We can’t help ourselves.  We look for the stories behind what we see.  Why is that young woman crying as she talks to the older man sitting opposite her? How did the old woman sleeping in the doorway of the local supermarket become homeless? How did the local car dealer build up his business?  

Write what you knew in order to find out what you don’t know  

So, for instance, you’re writing about a certain time in history and you know about some of the foods they ate but not about others. What would go with those products? How come they have those and not others we know? Work this all out form you own knowledge of how the world works.

Some near futures

Look at something that is happening now and project it forward. Covid and Monkey Pox may be here to stay. How does that affect day to day lives? Can they be the centres of a story? Climate change can’t be avoided.  How do we adapt the way we live? Can we resolve or reverse it?  The cyber world carries on growing. How will we interact with artificial intelligence?

You are god

We create our worlds. They must have an inner logic but as long as that is there, anything goes. You make the rules. How far can you push your imagination? And a little uncanny: “In the beginning was the Word ….”

Go, write your world and maybe you’ll make it happen.  

The To Do List

 

You character is obsessed with to do lists.  They even write down things they have done so that they can cross them off.  This gets them into trouble one day. What is the list about? Do they get many of the things on it done? What happens as a consequence of completing or not completing the list?

Idea for a character

Can you create a character by showing your reader what is on their to do list and how they go about completing each task?

Do they rebel against their list and destroy it when it gets too much?

Or does writing a to do list in fact help them in the end?

You and your to do list

As a writer do you keep a to do list? What’s on it at the moment? Do you use any special software for controlling it? Could you write an article about the business side of writing that includes this element? Maybe you could write a blog post about this or submit it to a writing magazine?  

Script idea

Could the items on a to do list create the scenes in some sort of script? How could you insert dramatic tension into doing this?    

Coping with to do lists?

How about ordering your list in terms of what is interesting useful, fun, important and urgent?