One way to tell stories you love every time

It's so easy for me to get burned out.

I'm the queen of ideas. Idea-generating is sort of like slinging rainbow-colored finger paint at white walls for me - beautiful and and bright and unplanned, and when it's happening it's the best thing ever. But afterwards it doesn't take long for me to get tired of being sticky and covered in paint - makes me want a bath and a bright, shiny new canvas.

I'm still learning, obviously, but lately there's one trick I've been using to keep myself interested.

Grab A Pen, My Loves

And some paper. You can do this in your head, but writing things down makes the thought process clearer and more concrete in your brain. 

Now, I want you to think of the top three things that make you angry, right now. I'm not talking about pet peeves, here - I'm talking about deeply ingrained, political or value-based issues that leave you seething.

My list looks something like this:

1. Classism

2. Health care and education

3. Modesty culture/sex-and-body shaming

Into the Frying Pan They Go

Got your list? Okay! Toss one (or all three) of your issues into a frying pan with your character, and add heat.

No really. Take your character and make them deal with the issue that makes you so angry. It doesn't have to be the main conflict. It can be a subplot. It can be the entire story, if you want. Slip it into a villain's motivation, make it part of a culture, take a basic right away from your character and have everyone she knows expect her to give it away freely. 

For example: right now, I'm writing a story about mer-people who used to be human. They became half-fish because the highest echelon of their society (herrre's the classism) decided that they should use magic to escape their shameful bodies (sex-shaming!) and anyone who teaches this history is summarily executed (education!).

I can get tired of writing about mer-people, but it's literally impossible for me to stop writing about these things. 

(It's important to remember that you're a storyteller, not a preacher, so filling your story with shoulds and should-nots is an easy way to alienate a reader. Having your character react in a real and faceted way to the situation - and having someone else read the story to tell you how the tone comes across - is probably a good idea.)

Go forth and write, good citizens of the interwebs!