Since I get asked the same questions about writing a lot, I've decided to tackle a few of the most popular ones here.

Tune in this Sunday for WAY more writing questions and answers! The Word Nerds are having a live chat this Sunday called "Word Nerd Workshop" which will be YOU asking all your burning questions about writing, and US answering you live online! You can ask any question, it just has to be about writing.

For now, here are some common questions I get:

1) Where do you get your ideas?

I get asked this so often that I have to resist making up "funny" answers (hey, I think they're funny). Like "Oh, I get them at Bulk Barn, eight ideas for five bucks!" or "I go on Idea Safaris on the plains of Africa and hunt them down". I know. Very funny. Haw.

Seriously though. The question often puzzles me because I have TOO many ideas. I want to write them all at once and I have to force myself to just pick one. So, I'm not sure familiar with the idea of not knowing how to get ideas, but I'll still try to help if I can. Because...well because I talk a lot.

So here's my idea...

You're stuck for ideas. Totally run dry of your creative brain juices. Try this:

Hold onto a thought in your brain. A type of person, or a type of magic. Maybe an experience you had, or one you heard about. Me, I'm going to pick...a police woman.

So now I've got a police woman. I can fill in the details about her character later. Now pick another idea or image. Something that has NOTHING to do with the first idea. Since I write fantasy, I'm going to say...wizards.

How do I throw together police officers and wizards? I don't know. Maybe the police force are all secretly wizards, maybe the police are arresting the wizards. Maybe there's a secret and terrible ancient war between cops and wizards. Woah. That's WAY more interesting than cops and robbers.

See? Not the most amazing plot in the world, but that took about ten seconds and came off the top of my head. Put two weird, unrelated ideas together and work your brain magic.

2) How do I beat writer's block?

I always say the same thing. Diagnose it. A lot of people complain about writer's block for a lot of different reasons. A lot of the time I message that person back and say "WHY? Why are you having it?" and they admit something like, "I can't think of anything to write" or "I don't know what comes next" or "My dad spilled cheez whiz all over my keyboard".

Okay, there's not much I can do about the keyboard thing, but here's what you do for the other stuff:

Step one: Diagnose.

Step two: Figure out if you need to take a break or buckle down.

If you need to step away from the story, go outside, get some fresh air. Recharge. Sometime ideas come when you're not even thinking about writing. OR, if that doesn't work, get to work! Get out your pen and paper and start brainstorming, or plotting what comes next.

You're still stepping away from the story for now, but you're planning exactly what comes next, even if you have to plot it out down to the last boring detail about the character brushing their teeth (just don't include that unless it turns out the toothbrush is secretly a bomb, otherwise it's not interesting).

3) How do I improve my writing?

This question is maddeningly vague, but I get it a lot. Since it's a BIG question, I'll answer it with a BIG answer. The answer is READ.

Read a lot. Then read more. Then when your friends laugh at you and call you a geek because you always have a book in your face, ignore them, because you're at a really good part in the book and who the heck are these people anyways? Why won't they leave you alone? You don't need real life friends, you have book characters--

Ahem. Anyways.

The answer is seriously...read. Read once for enjoyment, then go back and read again and pick apart the writing. Find the books that make you cry till snot runs out of your face, and the books that make you laugh and smile like an idiot even though you're on the bus, and the books that make you do the fangirl dance because character X ended up with character Y and you ship them forever and ever.

Find those books and read the a billion times to figure out WHY they give you so many feels. To figure out HOW.