Ancient Ideas In Modern Fiction

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a huge ancient history fan.  Because of this, I’m always adding elements of this period of time in my stories and others writings.  Sometimes it’s just stuff that I’ve made up, but for the most part, I use things that are known to be fact but in a fictional kind of way.

The trick is to keep up on some of the leading publications as to what’s been found and use that as your guide.  For example, a few years back, a gentleman in Staffordshire England found what in know  referred to as the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold items ever found…EVER!!!  And as cool as the reality of it all was, and is, the fictional ideas behind it can be astronomical.  For example, who were the people who made the items?  Why were they found buried in various places of one small area?  Who could the items have been made for, or who could they have been MEANT to end up with?  The possibilities are endless.

There are hundreds of sites online that discuss all the latest finds from all around the world.  Some have to do with ancient civilizations, some with the world before humans, and some look into various religions of different cultures.  If you have the desire to learn about it, it’s out there.  And if it’s out there to be learned, it can be used as fodder for a great story.

Think about your own favorite time in history.  This might be as recent as the Vietnam War or as far back as the battle of Kadesh.  Whenever the time is, use some of the facts to add some depth to your stories.  A little bit of fact can turn a good story into a great read.

The Best Time To Write

When is the best time to write….for you anyway.  I’ve read in several articles that it’s always best to write first thing in the morning because you’re refreshed and ready to start a new day.  Seriously?  I’m barely conscious first thing in the morning.  I do well after a few cups of coffee, but then I only write my non-fic articles.  When it comes to the fiction stuff, I do my best work after dark.

I think it’s because that’s when I finally had time to sit down and do something for myself.  When I was a kid, that’s when the chores were done–homework was done–and the folks were off to bed.  I’d sit in my room in the quiet and write my stories.  After having kids of my own, night time was the only time I had to myself and didn’t have babies under foot.

Now that my kids are all grown, you’d think I’d be able to write anytime I wanted.  The truth is I still do my best work after everyone has gone off to bed.  It’s quiet and the ideas rolling around in my brain start to get a bit louder than normal.  I find it relaxing and it even helps me sleep better to get all that stuff out of my head because it can get quite noisy in there and it’s hard to sleep with all those people in there yakking and trying to get their voices heard.

When is your best time to write?  Are you a day writer or do the words flow more easily at night?

Hey Publisher

I’ve been working very hard at getting back into writing fiction and getting some of my stuff finished.  I guess I’ve had so many rejections over the years that I’d just gotten out of the habit of submitting any of my work.  That and the fact that this article writing gig pays a lot better, but it’s still not what I want to be doing.  Non-fiction is my livelyhood, but fiction is my love.  So when I found a site called Hey Publisher, I was beyond thrilled.

This is a very cool submission site that helps writers send the work into publishers without having to scour the Internet and beyond just to find someone who’s accepting submissions at that time.  They’ve got an entire list of magazines/e-zines, but it is up to the writer to visit the site and read the guidelines for themselves.  But working the Hey Publisher site is a breeze.  Once you’ve registered for an account (which is free), you’ll be able to visit the publishers page.  There are over 1,200 publishers in their database so you’ll need to choose which category you want and enter a keyword or two so you have a smaller list of possibilities.

The site also offers a community powered support system.  So when someone has a question, they type it in and someone in the know will come along and help answer if they can.  From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of activity in there, but enough to know that there are people helping their fellow writers.  It’s kinda cool.

I’ve had a ball going through the publishers and favoriting some of those that I’ll be submitting to at some point.  I did send in one submission so far, but probably won’t hear anything back from them for about another month.  By which time I will have probably forgotten about submitting to them and will wonder who they are and what they want.  LOL

So hey, check them out and see if there isn’t somewhere in their vast list of publications where you can send some of your stuff.  It isn’t all fiction zines, there are some non-fiction places, some for poetry, and so on.  Pick a topic and add some keywords and you’re on your way.  Have fun and tell them I sent you if they ask. LOL