Writing Inspiration Can Be Found on Facebook

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

In my job with Southern Writers Magazine, I connect with authors on several different social media venues. It's fun to see what authors are writing and to read about their next contract or book release. 

However, the other day on Facebook, an author wrote a status that sparked a huge number of responses. He said, in one sentence, respond to, "It was a dark and stormy night." Everyone commenting had to continue the story based on the original status and following others' comments. This required the reader to read all previous comments to make sure their response was plausible and made sense.

It was so much fun, and by the end of three days, interest waned. With each sentence on the average of 10-12 words, over 8500 words were amassed on one status post with comments. Amazing and it was inspiring. Some authors were writing it like a cozy mystery, some a psychology thriller; some turned it to horror. Some authors put a paranormal spin on it, and some did a straight thriller. 

All in all, it was an excellent exercise in writing on the fly. At one point, comments were being made so fast that my continuation of the story changed because other writers posted, before I was finished. This forced me to quickly respond based on the new comments, changing gears to redirect the story I envisioned. 

I highly recommend doing this with your own Facebook page, when you need to get the juices flowing. Then grab a mug of caffeine, hands on your keyboard and get ready for a writing whirlwind. Are you ready? Get your status sentence that intrigues, post as your status and go.