5 Ways To Choose a Writing Project

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Writers have a plethora of writing project ideas from which to choose. Life is full of words and scenarios that refuse to let us go—overheard conversations, history, local and worldwide events, movies, and other publications. Even when we dream, we are filling our imagination with ways to form our words into sentences, paragraphs, pages, and books. We writers express our innermost thoughts through the vehicle of fiction, nonfiction, and everything in between.

Writing stories originate from embracing life and interpreting the experience through a character’s eyes.

Focusing on one project can be daunting. I’m a storyteller, but I also write blog posts, articles, nonfiction books, and sometimes poetry.

What follows are 5 ways to see how the process works for any type of writing, and I believe you’ll see why.

  1. You’re being sent to a deserted island for a month. Food and water are available, but no cell phone service or Wi-Fi. You’re permitted to bring one piece of reading material (not the Bible). What will you pack knowing you will read “this” repeatedly? Within that reading is your passion for a writing project.
  2. A dear friend has presented you with a $100 gift card from Barnes and Noble. What will you buy? There again shows your passion for a writing project.
  3. It’s movie night with your spouse, and it’s your turn to select any movie. What is your pick? The genre may be a strong indicator of your passion for writing.
  4. Choose your reading while at the beauty salon (or barber). Will it be the Wall Street Journal, Sports, Vogue, Better Homes and Garden, New York Times, Guideposts, a novel, nonfiction, biography, or poetry. Your selection could be the target audience for your next writing project.
  5. Too many projects to choose from! So you write in every genre until your heart soars that you’ve found the right/write project.

Some of you are writers. Some of you are readers, and some of you are both. Others may be curious about how some of us choose a writing project. Were you taken by surprise in this post?