Answering the top 5 questions you've asked about my writing and publishing 10+, sometimes 20+ stories a day.

1. Does it increase earnings to publish 10/20+ stories a day?
2. What's the point? Why bother? Isn't it just spam if you publish 10/20+ stories a day?
3. How do you write so fast?/How do you have time to write 10/20+ stories a day?
4. Where do you get enough ideas to write 10/20+ stories a day?
5. Do you start with a title? Or come up with a title after you finish?

The tl;dr super short 1 minute answer is this:

I write several a day and for me, it's more a mix of excitement and boredom.

I get very excited to write about my characters (I write fiction), but also I am bedridden with a broken spine, but I used to be very active, hiking, mountain climbing, horseback riding, ect and now I am stuck in bed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for 11 years now, since November 14, 2013, and so, there is not a lot I can do other than read and write and read some more and write some more.

So for me it's the boredom of being bedridden mixed with the excitement of I can't wait to spend time with my characters that causes me to write and publish multiple stories a day.

And thus I am not concerned with stats, reads, earnings, etc.

I only make the stats and earnings update pages because so many of my readers on Medium ask for them.

The long answer will take you over an hour to read, and here it is:

First off, I usually write and publish 3 stories a day, and they are quite short. Often drabbles which are only 100 words, double drabbles (200 words), and most common of all triple drabbles (300 words), so when you see me publishing 10 stories in a single day, it os only 3,000 words which is a 6 minute read, were it all on one page.

For reference, most paperback novels have chapters of 7k to 10k words, so, my publishing 10 pages at 100 words per page, is also only 1/3 of a single chapter of a novel.

The day that I published 36 stories, each of the 36 stories were only 100 words each, so it was only 3,600 words total, something that takes even a slow poke writer to type in only 20 minutes.

Keeping in mine that the average writer (career novelist) types at a speed of 175 words per minute, which is well over 10k words per hour.

My average typing speed is VERY SLOW, as I type at only 91 words per minute which is only 5k words per hour.

So, 3,600 words is only 13 to 20 minutes of typing.

Yes, ALL 36 stories took me under a half hour to write that day.

So, before you start marvelling, that 36 posts are a lot for a single day — each was only 100 words (there are 400 words in a 4 minute read and 700 words in a 2 minute read, so a 100 word post takes only around 20 seconds to read, not even a full half of a minute.

So, it's not like I'm publishing 36 stories of 1k words each. These are very, very, very short micro-fiction pages.

The amount of words per page must be considered here.

As you will notice, when I write longer stories, I only publish 1, 2, or 3 that day, because each story was 1k words.

So, the days I publish 3 stories (3 at 1k words each) are the same amount of words as the days I publish 30 stories (30 at 100 words each).

So, do take word counts into perspective.

No, let's answer your questions.

Does publishing 10, 20, or more posts a day increase earnings?

No. But I don't write for money so, that's okay.

Someone wanted to know, if they write 10, 20, etc articles a day would it increase their earnings.

No.

It does not.

More posts per day does NOT equal more earnings.

Sorry, but that's not how it works.

I am someone who often publishes 10, 20, 30, even 40+ pages a day. My average is 7 a day, while my most in a single day is 44. I started publishing on Medium February 2024 and in September 2024 crossed 800 stories and poems published here, so I am averaging around 100 stories published each month.

I'll likely cross 2k posts before reaching my 1st anniversary on Medium.

And, yeah, more stories published does NOT equal to more money.

Thing is, for me, when I started doing this Stripe was not available in my area so I had no ability to earn money from my posts either. So clearly it wasn't about the money.

Partner Program is available in my area now, and I've gone back and turned it on for my old posts, so they are making money currently.

Even though making money wasn't my goal, there is also no reason to not make money once it became available.

But yeah, 10+ posts a day = around two dollars a day income, most days, but .10c days are not uncommon either.

No. Not $2 a day per post.

$2 a day TOTAL.

Every day this week has earned UNDER .10c per day. .04c yesterday for over 100 reads, .07c the day before for over 100 reads, .05c the day before, for over 100 reads.

(Today is October 23, 2024.)

Yes, earnings on Medium for October 2024 are around .10c per 100 reads, so it is going to take well over 1k (one thousand) reads to reach $1 (one dollar) 10k reads this month to reach $100.

Pay per read rate is VERY LOW for October 2024.

…even though I've has over 700 reads in those same 7 days… yes, over 100 reads = only .10c for those 100 reads. Not… not ,10c per story… ten cents TOTAL for 100 reads on 800 pages.)

So, at the end of the most, 800 pages results in a $40 to $60 payout most months. Though August and September both saw only $15 payouts, not even reaching $20 earned.

For me writing is not about money so, it's not an issue. But for people looking to make a career of writing, Medium is NOT the answer. People should not be looking to Medium as an income source because Medium simply does not pay enough.

Being asked if I do this for money and how much money does it make, seems to be the most common comment I get about the 500 drabble/story challenge.

The other question asked often (and I think is the 2nd most common question), is what is the point? aka Why bother?

This one often comes with the addition of things like "no one is going to read 20 posts a day". The one who left the most ranting comment, also write an article on just exactly what they thought of my writing 20+ posts a day too, Here it is, you can read it for yourself:

As this person seems to be unaware, Medium is NOT where I write primarily.

I am a traditionally published author, whom has sold over ten million books in the last five decades.

138 novels, 423 novellas, 500+ poems, & 3k+ short stories published since 1978. 2028 is 50th anniversary 1st book.

And while I've not talked about it on Medium… outside of Medium, my readers know that:

…In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of my Twighlight Manor/Pink Necromancer series, I am writing a collection of special edition, there is soon to be release a 13 volume set of hard cover, illustrated collector edition Short Story Collections. One hundred stories in each volume, meaning 1,300 stories total.

And… as my readers are also fully aware, with the series being traditionally published, and sold in brick and mortar bookstores, that also means there are ZERO ebook editions of my books.

Readers (twenty-seven thousand of them) requested that there be an ebook edition of the short story collection.

And so, as I write those short stories for the collection, I am publishing them in various places online (Medium, SubStack, OnlyFans, Notid, Vocal, RoyalRoad, FictionPress, Tapas, ScribbleHub, and about two dozen others places) to test out where my established base of readers wants to read the ebook editions.

These stories (and their illustrations) you see on Medium are all part of this project and will be appearing in the finished hardcover books that will go on sale in 2028.

And so, as you can see, I don't give a fucking flying rat's ass if 20 stories a day is too many for Medium readers to keep up with (see the linked article above — -you'll see why I say this once you read what they said) because Medium readers are NOT my target audience. Medium readers are NOT who I am writing for.

But I already answered the why do I write question several months ago:

And as this question also often includes comments of "How do you not burn out from writing so much a day" there is this answer from a few months ago:

While the 3rd most common question is how do I do it, how do I write so fast.

For that question, I answered already a few weeks ago, and went into a lot of detail on the full process, here:

But the short of it is, that I am bedridden, crippled with a broken spine that can not be operated on due to how one of the fractured vertebra is punctured through my spinal column. The surgery to fix it, requires something that the doctor has to do to the nerves inside the spinal column, to prevent my becoming fully paralyzed from the neck down, and he said the surgery would cost upwards of thirty-seven-MILLION dollars, due to it being some sort of new experimental computer chip (installed in my brain) surgery that has not been fully properly tested on animals yet, let alone on Humans yet.

My income is around four thousand dollars a year, so it'd take me a few thousand years to come up with the money for the surgery. I do not qualify for medical insurance, ObamaCare, MediCare, or Medicaid, because according to the State of Main Department of Health and Human Services, my income is "762% below the national poverty level" and the social worker explained that ALL government medical insurance, including ObamaCare and MediCare and MediCaid are ALL "just loans" and you are required to have enough money to make monthly payments towards the medical insurance, before they will let you have medical insurance.

So… since November 14, 2013, I have been stuck in bed with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with nothing to do all day but write and read and paint and draw… and so I do a shit ton load of reading and writing and drawing and painting and reading and writing…

…literally every waking minute of my day I am either reading or writing…

…meaning I am read for 8+ hours a day and writing for 12+ hours a day.

Meaning, yeah, I AM sitting here in bed typing all day, all night, all day, all night, and so, yes, it is very, very, very, VERY easy for me to publish 10, 20, 30, 40+ poems, drabbles, and short stories EVERY SINGLE DAY.

As I said, I am not writing for money.

I am writing because my spine is broken, I can not sit up, I can not even sit in a chair.

I am laying on my back, perched up slightly with pillows, and typing all day long…. because it keeps me alive.

The first thing you learn when you become crippled is that 99.99% of your friends, family, and people you care about and THOUGHT they cared about you, will ALL leave your life and never come back.

They will NEVER visit you in the hospital.

They will NEVER visit you at home.

The church I attended for 42 years? Not one bishop, not one priest, not one missionary, not one home teacher, not one visiting teacher, not one woman from the relief society, not one congregation member has visited, checked in on me… NOT ONCE… in ten years.

My family, my relatives? Not on parent, not one sibling, not one aunt, not one uncle, not one cousin, out of a family with 400 people, not one has visited me in the hospital, checked in on me at home… NOT ONCE… in ten years.

My friends from college? Not one has visited me in the hospital, checked in on me at home… NOT ONCE… in ten years.

My friends from the three TTRPG game groups I was a member of for years and never once missed a single game night? Not one has visited me in the hospital, checked in on me at home… NOT ONCE… in ten years.

My friends and neighbours who live on my street, where I have lived since 1975? Not one has visited me in the hospital, checked in on me at home… NOT ONCE… in ten years.

THAT is the reality of being crippled and bedridden with a broken spine.

EVERY SNGLE PERSON in my life, a total of well over TWO THOUSAND people… every one of them vanished, and they not only vanished offline, but they ALL also unfriended me off FaceBook, Twitter, ect, WHILE I was still in the hospital back in 2013… BEFORE I was even awake again to find out I was crippled!

I write because I am alone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for the past 10 years with not one single, solitary person who cares to even stop by and find out if I am still alive.

THAT is the secret to publishing 10, 20, 30, 40+ posts a day…. being trapped in bed all day, and having no one who cares, so no one to pass the time with.

Also in the top 5 most asked questions I get is: "Where do you get your ideas?" and "How do you find ideas?"

Over 2 decades ago, I wrote this:

That still holds true today as it did back in the 1990s when I first published it… the article on that page was published in 1997, so a full decade before I became crippled, so I no longer do today, many of the things mentioned in it, but, hey, if you're not crippled, you can do them.

Here is an excerpt from it (this is about half the article), which explains the basic of my idea process:

Ideas Where?!?

Ah yes. Here it is. You never have to wait long for this one, heck you don't even have to wait for an email for this one. You could be eating at a restaurant with your family and have a waitress toss it in your lap. You could be pissing in a public toilet and and have someone standing outside the stall hollering it in at you. I give you the single #1 most asked question of all time, after "So I wrote a story would you read it and tell me what you think," comes:

"So, here's the thing, see, I quite my job to become a writer, but now I've got writer's block. Can you help me? Where do you get your ideas?"

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

One of the most commonly asked question a writer hears is: "Where do you get your ideas?" This question seems to baffle and mystify people who don't write and people who want to write but don't know where to start. So, today I am going to take a look at this question and it's answer.

The Dreaded Question

The question "Where do you get your ideas?", is usually followed by an explanation something like this:

"I quit my job to become a full time writer, but this is my first time writing anything. I've never written anything before. I've always wanted to write, but my job was in the way and just never had the time. Now I've quit my job and have lots of time, but zero ideas. I want to write a novel (or article/ short story/ play/ comic book/ graphic novel … depending on what they want to write) but I can't think of anything to write about. I've spent weeks trying to figure out what I wanted to write, but I guess now I know what writer's block is, because, I just can't come up with a single idea. I've got writer's block really bad and I just need to get an idea so I can write. You are such a prolific writer, you write about a wide variety of things. It's like you can write about almost anything! How do you do it? Where do you get all these ideas? I really need you to help me on this. Please help me, my bank account is almost dry, I need some ideas. Where do you get yours?"

Every published writer has heard this blah, blah, blah braindead story at one point or another. The more famous they are, or the more accessible they are to their readers, the more often they have to put up with hearing it.

I've sold ten million books, so I get to hear it a lot. It's very difficult for me to go to restaurant, movie theatres, or shopping at WalMart with my family because, I'm one of those authors whom every one knows not only my name, but also what I look like, and being a household word type of author, means I can not go outside without being recognized… so this "Where do you get your ideas" question, gets thrown in my face DAILY, heck HOURLY, and ALWAYS comes with a boo-hoo side of "I quit my job to write and now I don't know what to write, can you tell me what to write, I need some ideas!"

Honey, ideas are a dime a dozen, and I got a few dozen just from listening to your question.

Writers who do book signings get the hear it every other minute, from practically every person who got their book signed. Many writers come to fear dread and loath this oft repeated question. Some just want to strangle the next person that walks up to them for fear they'll ask this all dreaded question. It is a questioned fear most by writers, because no matter how many times you answer it, there are a million and one others out there lining up to ask it.

And so the question no matter how short or lengthy, still remains the same: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Wasted Time (EelKat's Twisted Tales)

What it Means to Be a Writer

Before moving on the answer the direct question ("Where do you get your ideas?"), I would first like to cover, the indirect one. Did you see it? Do you know what it is? Let's go back and read that load of tripe, I mean question, once again:

"I quit my job to become a full time writer, but this is my first time writing anything.

I've never written anything before.

I've always wanted to write, but my job was in the way and just never had the time. Now I've quit my job and have lots of time, but zero ideas.

I want to write a novel but I can't think of anything to write about. I've spent weeks trying to figure out what I wanted to write, but I guess now I know what writer's block is, because, I just can't come up with a single idea.

I've got writer's block really bad and I just need to get an idea so I can write. You are such a prolific writer, you write about a wide variety of things. It's like you can write about almost anything! How do you do it?

Where do you get all these ideas? I really need you to help me on this. Please help me, my bank account is almost dry, I need some ideas. Where do you get yours?"

Well boo fucking hoo. Are you really THAT stupid that you can not see the ideas you are spouting as you speak?

Did you see it this time? Yeah, that's right, this guy isn't asking where you get your ideas from. He thinks that's what he wants to know, but really, getting ideas is not his problem. This guy needs a reality check. I mean, even if you tell him where you get your ideas from, what good will it do him? Nothing. Not one damn thing. Because this guy is clueless. This guy has no idea what a career in writing even is. If you didn't see what he said wrong, well keep reading because I'm about to spell it out for ya.

What is the problem here?

The problem is this guy is NOT A WRITER.

Writers write.

Writers write a lot.

Writers write every day.

Ask every writer why they write, and you'll always get a near identical answer:

A Tale of Tall Grass (EelKat's Twisted Tales)

"I don't know really. It's like I can't not write. It's like if I stop writing I'll die. It's like writing keeps me alive, you know like eating or breathing does. You know how if you stop breathing you die? Or if you stop eating you die? Writing is like that. I feel like if I let a day pass without writing, I won't wake up the next day. I don't know how else to explain it. Sometimes a day will pass when I don't write something down, so I have to punish myself by writing straight through for 24 hours, otherwise I feel like I'll die. My throat tightens up and my heart starts racing. My chest hurts and my head pounds. It's like someone is trying to chop my heart out with an ax while someone else is beating me in the head with a sledge hammer and the only way to make them stop and make the pain go away is for me to start writing. Doesn't matter what I write just as long as I write something. I've got all these people running around inside my head and if I don't write about them, they'll kill me."

Every author, in every interview, always says something along those lines.

ALL OF THEM.

There has NEVER been a writer who DID NOT describe the drive to write as though they had no control over it.

All writers express a feeling of anxiety, panic, fear, and dread if they miss a day without writing.

All writers describe writing as though it was as vital as, if not more so, than the act of breathing.

• Writers write.
• Writers write a lot.
• Writers write every day.
• Writers are always complaining that they wish they could stop writing.
• Writers are always saying they feel they have no control over the fact that they can't stop writing.
• Writers write stories or poems or journal entries all day and all night, never once stopping to think: Is this any good?
• Writers are obsessed with writing.
• Writers view the act of writing as more vital to their survival than eating, sleeping, or breathing.
• Writers do not think about wanting to write.
• Writers do not dream about one day writing a novel.
• Writers find time to write in between every spare second of the day.
• Writers never have trouble with things like jobs or family getting between them and the act of writing.
• Writers don't worry about ever getting published or read, all they worry about is finding another sheet of paper so they can write some more.
• Writers just write, because writing is what writers do…because that is what the fucking word WRITER literally means!

Some writers even get published, but not all.

Writers are people who write. Authors are writers who have been published.

Writers never get writer's block, because writer's block isn't real.

Writer's block is a thing which happens when non-writers try to force themselves to write. Non-writers assume that writing is easy and that everyone can do it, therefor they are going to do it too, because they want to be rich and famous, so they try their hand at writing to see if it sticks, and than they can't think of anything to write so think it must be writer's block.

Writers write about everything and can write about anything at the drop of a hat, and are never at a loss for what to write next because they write about absolutely everything that goes on around them.

And then here we have people like the question asker, saying: "Well, I'd like to write. I think I might want to write a novel some day. But I've never written anything before, I have writer's block, I need ideas."

No, you don't have writer's block, you are just not crazy enough to to have writer's syndrome that's all. I'm not joking here. Several psychologists and psychiatrists are now agreeing with the fact that writers are crazy, (suffer a mental illness, usually schizophrenia, which causes them to be unable to stop writing) and that normal sane people who try to write, are simply unable to do so, because they lack the chemical imbalance of the brain, which causes writers to be writers. These people assuming they must have something wrong causing them to not be able to come up with ideas, tell themselves they have writer's block, when in fact they only thing wrong is that they don't have anything wrong at all.

Can you see now, the difference between a writer and a person who wants to write?

The Night of The Screaming Unicorn (The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane) — this book sold a million copies.

For this guy writing is a fantasy where some millionaire, smoking a pipe and wearing a silk jacket, lounges around the house for weeks on end and than miraculously one night he wakes up, screams "I've got it!" and pounds out a best selling novel in a single weekend and than does not write another word for 2 or 3 years, when the next "best seller idea" mysteriously comes to him out of the blue.

No writer lives like this. No writer writes like this. Unfortunately, no non-writer believes that a writer's life is anything different from this.

Reality check:

Writing is work. Writing is getting up and going to work 5 days a week. Writing is writing from 9 to 5 every day. Writing is, well, it's writing.

It's not sitting back and thinking about writing.

It's not wondering what you should write. It's not running around telling everybody you are going to write a book, am writing a book, want to write a book, should write a book, or any other such fool thing. That's not writing, that's called talking. Or was it called bragging and making a fool of yourself? I forget now.

Hey! What do you know — writers actually write! Odd isn't? Who would have thought it possible? Ironically, not many people. Most people seem to think all a writer has to do is sit on a toilet and start shitting gold bricks on a page and viola!

Instant shitty first draft! Next they wave their magic plunger overhead and POOF!

Instant edited manuscript!

And forget about the hours, weeks, months spent finding publishers and getting promotions set up, because we have fairy godmothers doing that for us.

Yay!

We don't have to do any work because we are writers and can goof off all day long, because that's what writers do! YIPPIE!

I want an easy-peasy job like writers got. I wanna be a writer so I can shit gold bricks and goof off all day long too!

Lucky №7 (EelKat's Twisted Tales)

PLEAAASE!I am just so sick of people running up and flapping their mouth off about how great and easy it must be to be a writer and not have to do anything all day. And it's bad enough they are so clueless they say that, but than they end it with, "Will, I'm writing a book too, only I can't come up with an idea, could you help me?"

Seriously? Now not only are you too lazy to get off your ass and write, but I'm supposed to do it for you now? Honey, I may write about ghosts, but I ain't no ghost writer! You want ideas, than you go out there and get them the same place I do, and I'll tell you how I do that, so you can do it to, sure, but I ain't gonna do the work for you.It's YOUR JOB to come up with your own ideas. Because hey, that's what we writers are paid to do — come up with ideas and write them down. Okay?

If you ain't gonna write something, get out of here and go back to your day job, okay? we got enough deadbeat wannabe writers who never write a word lazing around the planet as it is. I am so sick and tired of twiddle-dee-dum dweebs prancing around all stary eyed and sing-songy with "I'm gonna be a writer, it's my turn to shine, la, la, la, la, la, laaaaaa!" Well, whoop dee do and trall, la, la, if you a going to write, than sit your frigging ass down and start doing it, because the only way to be a writer is to write.

So, you need ideas do you? You want to know where I get mine? Okay. Let's do some role playing than. I want to you pretend you are me. Yep, that's right. The Dungeon Mater has spoken and you little player must obey, if you want to find the secret to becoming and endless well spring of ideas flowing down the mountain.

Now, pretend you are a writer. I know it's hard to do, what with all your writer's block pounding rail road spikes through your brain but hey, pretend you are a writer anyways, because guess what? Me being, you know, a writer, like most writers, I don't believe in writer's block. Any writer worth his salt knows that writer's block is nothing but a load of hooey that wannabe writers talk about because they'd rather talk about not writing, than do any work. And if you are going to pretend to be me, than the first thing that has to go is your wishy-washy "Boo-hoo pity me I got writer's block" lazy attitude. So kick writer's block in the pants and get rid of it once and for all.

Close your eyes, use your imagination, think, breath, deeply, slowly, you are drifting off into the world of writers, where you are a world famous author who has written the top selling book of the year, and your agent has set up a world tour for you.

Waiting For Emmet (EelKat's Twisted Tales)

You have spent the last several weeks traveling across the country bookstore to bookstore doing book signings and answering mountains of questions.

After 10 book signings where you signs a thousand books each, you have answered the question "Where do you get your ideas?" 10,000 times now while simultaneously tossing 10,000 manuscripts in the recycling bin unopened and unread, because you are a writer who barely has time to write books, let alone read 10,000 armature crap manuscripts that were so rudely tossed in your face the past 10 days.

You are ready to scream, you want to toss a bookshelf on the head of the next person who leaps from foot to foot pissing their pants at the joy of meeting you, their beloved favorite author, while holding up a familiar manila 8x11 envelope and explaining they got writers block and can't finish their manuscript because they need ideas. You agents sends you to a psychiatrist, you come back to your senses and agree to go to the next book signing.

Okay, so here you are at a book store signing books, and this guy is standing in front of you with his sob story about quitting his job to become a writer and now he's starving to death because he needs ideas, and worse he is so inapt at finding ideas, that now he's here in front of you begging you to give him some of yours. How do you answer this guy? You want to help him out, but you know that telling him where to look for ideas is not going to help this guy. So instead of telling him where to get ideas, you decide to say something like this:

Writing Is a Career Not a Hobby

Now every writer is going to see this differently, but you are pretending to be me, remember? I see writing as a career, not a hobby. I can't afford to get writer's block or fail to see an idea, because my life depends on it. Literally. If I don't write, I don't eat. Writing buys the food. I don't have the baby-faced luxury of sitting on my ass, twiddling my fingers and thinking "Ho-hum, nothing to write about today" like you do, because hey, this is my day job.

But here you are in front of me, instead of asking for a book signed you want to know where to get ideas, and are spouting out your pitiful tale of woe-is-me I have writer's block and there are no ideas anywhere, and so you wave a hand in my face and say:

"No, you don't understand, I know all that, I know writing is a career. I quit my job to become a full time writer, after all, but I've got writer's block really bad and I just need to get an idea so I can write. You are such a prolific writer, you write about a wide variety of things. It's like you can write about almost anything! How do you do it? Where do you get all these ideas? I really need you to help me on this."

But I am helping you, and you are too blind to see that, otherwise you would have seen all the ideas I have given you thus far, I've already given you several and you are still asking for more while not yet seeing a single one I've already given you. And that is why I am now saying the problem is not your lack of ideas, but rather your lack of seriousness about writing as a career.

You are looking at writing all wrong. You are sitting back and waiting for ideas to jog up to you and say "Here I am! Write me!"

But that doesn't happen. Writers are very busy active people who are out and about doing all sorts of things all day long, like going to car shows and monster truck rallies, or mountain climbing, walking on nature trails, hiking through national parks, taking photographs of birds and bears, knitting sewing, beach combing, walking dogs, playing drums, flying radio planes, cooking, baking, selling at farmer's markets, building art cars, painting on canvas, cleaning cat poop, planting seeds, harvesting crops, CosPlaying at comic book conventions, watching Star Trek and Dr Who, attending classes at community college, rooting around in museums, reading ancient documents in historical society archives, visiting haunted houses, interviewing alien abductees, visiting ufo hot spots, eating at food trucks, …you are pretending to be me here remember? Busy, busy, busy, busy. Way too busy to just sit on my ass doing nothing but waiting for ideas to float by me.

And yes, you are right, I am a prolific writer, with endless topics to write about, but did you ever stop and notice the topics I write about? Haunted houses, aliens, ufos, guides to pet care, how to do art/sewing/costuming/gardening, etc, I write cook books, and self-help books, horror stories of hikers lost in deep dark forests…. my list of fiction and non-fiction topics to write about looks an awful lot like that list of things I do every day, doesn't it, now I wonder why that is?

See, I write what I know. I know a lot of things. I don't know everything, but I do make it my business to know everything I can about the things I do know. If I like it, I do it; if I do it, I write about it. I see everything I do as an opportunity to write about a new topic.

Writing is my career, but writing is not the only thing I do. I have a huge life outside of writing. I fill every second of the day with all sorts of busy things to do, places to be, things to see…and every single one of them is a doorway to dozens of things to write about. This is what a writing career is REALLY like.

Ask yourself this:

What does writing mean to you?

Is writing a hobby or a career? How did you answer? A career? You must think it is a career, otherwise why would you quit your other job. Why than are you not treating it like a career? What are your goals? Who are your readers? What do you want to write? What is your work schedule?

You said you quit your day job to write. Okay, so I ask you:

What was your day job?

Did you wait tables? Drive a school bus? Were you a cashier at the local super market? Did you teach high-school geography?

Whatever it is that you did for your day job, ask yourself this: How many days did you work each week?

A few well say three, some well say four, almost all of you well say five. No one says seven. By law your employer is required to give you at least two days off each week. That is a law. An anti-slave labour law. It's a national law. All 50 states have it. That law is enforced. If an employer asks you to work more than five days a week, they are required to pay you a minimum of time and a half (overtime) for the 6th and 7th days of the week. That too is a law.

Why?

Because even the government knows that you can't get the job done if you are not given a day or two of rest. If you work seven days a week, you well run down, wear out and get sloppy. You begin to suffer burn out and your work well suffer, because you didn't get a day off. But you did work a certain amount of days right? You had to be at work at certain times? You had certain things you had to do at certain times? You had a schedule. You had errands. You had assignments. You had deadlines.

How many times have you changed jobs in your life time? Did you ever have a job where you did not have to be at a certain place at a certain time and had to do certain things otherwise you did not get paid?

So you quit your job to become a writer.

Well than why are you not treating your writing career like a real job?

Why haven't you set your schedules yet?

Why do you not give yourself assignments?

What do you do during your lunch break — wait, what do you mean you didn't think to give yourself a lunch break?

Damn-it man! Don't you know writing is a business?! You are no longer working for someone else! Just because you work at home doesn't mean you can lay around doing nothing all day! You have a business to run, tax forms to fill out, expenses to pay, mouths to feed, deadlines to meet. You have work to do buster! Why are you lazing around trying to find ideas instead getting your butt to work?

So, we come back to your answer: Why do you write? Hobby or career?

If you said career, than you know that being a writer is just like every other 9 to 5 job.

Nine o clock you sit down at your desk and you start writing. Around noon you take an hour break for lunch. After lunch it is back to your desk to write until five. Five o clock comes around and no matter how compelled you are to keep writing, you put down your pen, turn off the light and do not go back to your desk again until tomorrow morning when nine o clock rolls around again. Like any other job, you take the weekend off.

Why? Because for you writing is more than a hobby.

For you writing is what puts food on the table. For you writing is what puts clothes on your children. Writing just paid for your teenager's PS3. Writing pays the $5 a gallon gas you have to put in your car. Writing pays the mortgage. Writing pays the vet bills caused by the recent pet-food recall. Writing will pay to send your kids to college.

You write because writing is your career, your job, your livelihood. For you writing is not a hobby. You can't afford to let you writing get sloppy and you know that. Which is why you also know that it is foolish for you or any other writer to think that it is in your best interest to write every day.

To be the best writer you can be, write often, write frequently. The more you write, the better you will become, but remember: take a break, get some rest, take a vacation. And whatever you do, give yourself the weekends off. Do not write every day. You'll be a better writer for it.

What does any of this have to do with finding ideas?

A lot!

The guy looks at you blankly and explains he knows all this., but that what he needs to know right now is where to get ideas.

Yes. You nod. Ideas. I'm coming to that. While all writers are different, they all share one common goal: to become a better writer. For many, becoming a better writer is a goal which they feel is out of their reach because they just can not find ideas to write.

you want to know how to find ideas? Well than, I ask you again:

Why haven't you set your schedules yet?

Why do you not give yourself assignments?

Now don't laugh. This really is going to help you to find ideas.

Set a Schedule

Set a schedule. Give yourself deadlines. Create a calendar. Tell yourself that you have until such-and-such a date to get the job done. The job could be anything. Here's a few jobs you could set for yourself:

• Come up with an idea
• Come up with 100 ideas
• Decide on a title
• Write 1,000 words
• Write 50,000 words
• Write a chapter
• Create a new character

Write down something to the effect of: "I will write 1,000 words this weekend" or "I will finish chapter 3 before August 13."

Having deadlines like this works wonders, because your brain really starts working overtime to beat the clock. Your brain wants you to succeed and will start focusing on getting the job done.

But how does this help you get ideas? Well, let's find out.

When you set deadlines and schedule dates for your writing goals, other things start happening, things I like to call: giving yourself assignments.

The Vampire Leprechaun of Fire Mountain (The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane)

Give Yourself Assignments

Here's where the ideas start coming in.

Now let's say you scheduled for yourself a new goal and deadline which states:

"I want to write about a haunted house, and I want to publish it in time for Halloween. I will come up with an idea for a short story involving a haunted house before February 1st, and I will write it before March 31st, so that I will have time to get it published in ______ magazine's October Issue which comes out in September."

Now you must give yourself assignments in order to reach that goal. What assignments would you give yourself? Not sure? Can't think of any? Well, this is a common goal I give myself, seeing how writing short stories set in haunted houses are a particular passion of mine, so I'll share with you the assignments I would give myself for such a goal. They include the following:

Day #1: Read Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher again. Drive out to local abandoned hospital and take pictures. Watch House of Usher DVD staring Vincent Price.

Day #2: Head to Old Orchard Beach, down by the gulley to watch coast guard dredge for bodies, again. Make notes of changes in shore line since last hurricane. Watch Ju-On on DVD. (And Never go to bed because I next decided to watch the entire Ju-On/Grudge series, because once I start watching 1 DVD in the series I just have to watch them all.)

Day #3: Visit local historical society and get more information on local haunted/abandoned hospital. In need of some less scary ghost stories after GrudgeFeast, watch Disney's Haunted Mansion, which for some reason reminds me of Rocky Horror Picture Show so I watch that too.

Day #4: Go to library, order books on real haunted houses. Have an all night fright feast and watch The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness (aka Evil Dead 3), and Evil Dead (aka Evil Dead 4) back to back on DVD. Make note of all the times I saw Sam Rami's car than, go watch SpiderMan DVD series so I can see more of Sam Rami's car. Remind myself to include haunted car in story. Go watch Christine DVD.

Day #5: Walk around neighborhood looking for houses that look haunted, make notes of what it is that makes them look that way. Find online forum about ghost encounters, ask questions. Watch Saw, all 7 DVDs back to back. Make note of the fact that JigSaw is the perfect villain.

Day #6: Read Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher again. Drive out to local abandoned hospital and take more pictures. Watch House on Haunted Hill DVD staring Vincent Price, and than watch the remake and the remake's remake, than watch Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, followed by how ever many other Vincent Price movies it takes to stay up all night long, including House of Long Shadows.

Day #7: Visit hospital again, take more pictures, watch for ghosts, ask neighbors about happenings in the area of the old place, and suddenly notice that local abandoned hospital is on Elm St., so scratch all previous plans for this day, head home and watch Nightmare on Elm St DVDs, all 14 or so of them, and don't sleep for 3 days straight. Become obsessed with Robert Englund and watch more of his movies starting with Phantom of the Opera, 2001 Maniacs, and The Mangler.

And so on, until I've reached my goal. And by this point you suddenly realize that I have a massive collection of just about every horror movie ever made on DVD and I watch them nightly, than spend hours writing furiously after watching them.

If you was paying attention than you will have also noticed that I do a lot of foot work going around to local haunted houses (which here in New England we have no shortage of), visiting crime scenes, rummaging through library bookshelves, and visiting a lot of old historical museums (which are also in abundance here). Remember what I said earlier about how authors do more researching than they do writing?

It is also important to note that whenever I go anywhere I take with me a lined notebook, a blank drawing pad, pigma (drawing) pens, pencils, coloured pencils, crayons, and a digital recorder. I write down every thought that crosses my mind, draw every detail that sparks interest, and record interviews and conversations with people I meet along the way.

And I make note of everything: the colour of the leaves on the maple trees, the peeling aint on the porch, the rock in the drive way, the crack in the window, the noisy old lady peeking out from behind the faded yellow calico curtains of the cape across the street…

When I get back home, I pop a horror DVD in the player, turn on my computer, and start transferring my notes to my filing system on the computer, while the horror movie plays in the background producing the proper atmosphere for writing horror.Than I open up yWriter and start typing my story.

I will point out here that I never write without a DVD playing while I write. I use it as "background noise" and for setting the mood. If I'm writing horror, out come the horror DVDs. If I'm writing sci-fi out come the Star Trek, X-Files, FireFly, and Dr Who DVDs. If I'm writing vampires, Angel goes on. When I'm writing children's books, Disney cartoons (especially DarkWing Duck and DuckTales) are playing. And so on and so forth.

And yet the guy is still staring blankly at me, saying "Yeah, I know, it's great hearing your writing process and all, but ideas, I need ideas…"

Where In The Heck Is The Ceiling (EelKat's Twisted Tales)

Finding the hidden Ideas . . .

Ideas . . . yes, those things that writers are always seeking I suppose the problem our fictional wanna-be writer had was multi fold.

Obviously he did not do his research before he quit his day job and jumped into a writing career. If he had, he would have known that even top best selling authors have to have a day job to pay the bills, because let's face it — writing just does not pay worth shit.

You work, you slave, you are lucky if you ever get paid.

Every one wants to read, no one wants to pay for it. It's a problem all writers eventually learn to face. Unfortunately it's also a problem that can get in the way of finding ideas too.

How?

Well, let's look at our guy again.

He quit his job with high hopes of booming in the writing business. He probably quit his job 6 or 7 months ago. He's been on a roll living the high life on his bank account, and putting off writing until "the big idea" hit him.

But now his bank account is running thin and he's starting to worry, because the big idea hasn't presented itself to him yet.

Now he's wondering where that idea went.

He was so sure it would arrive. He had waited expectantly for it to run up his driveway, knock on the door and yell out "Here I am! I'm your best selling idea! Write about and make millions!"

So why didn't it come? Where was that big idea when he needed it? What did he do wrong? Well, let's look at how he spent those 6 months and see if we can't figure it out together, shall we?

Day One — I Quit My Job To Become a Writer!

Friday night our guy storms into his boss's office with the announcement "I'm quitting my job to write a best seller."

On the way home he takes his buddies out to celebrate his new career.

On their way there they see a high speed police chase.

After the celebration he heads home and watches X-Files. Tonight's episode has Mulder chasing vampire pizza boys through a motor home park.

Our guy falls asleep and dreams a giant vampire pizza eats New York City.

Did you see them?

Idea #1: a book about a guy who quits his job to write a book

Idea #2: a review for the local newspaper about your favorite place to celebrate

Idea #3: a bunch of buddies go out to celebrate an event and something happens that changes their lives forever

Idea #4: 2 guys see a police chase and get involved in an international conspiracy

Idea #5: a renegade FBI agent hunts down vampires

Idea #6: a giant vampire pizza eats New York City

OMG! How did this guy miss seeing all those story ideas? If he'd opened his eyes and looked at the world, the way a writer looks at the world, he would have seen ideas all around him that night and would have been bursting with stories to write. But, he wasn't looking for ideas, no, he was waiting for an idea to come to him instead.

And those are just the first 6 ideas I saw in there. I can find more. I can find a lot more.

Day Two — Soon I'll Get My Idea

After a fitful night of pizzas terrorizing the city, our guy wakes up wondering when the first big idea will hit him. He decides not to eat the left over pizza, due to lingering memories of last night's nightmare.

He brushes his teeth, and out of the corner of his eye sees a construction truck driving across his lawn and thinks: yellow. One of the construction men working on the street, sounds vaguely like a Viking — though he wonders why he thought that. He bumps his head while making tea, lucky thing he had just come out of the shower and still had his trusty towel on his head.

hhhhhhmmmm. . . . did you see it? The beginning of a best seller? If you missed it, than you don't know Author Dent, the average ordinary guy who's life was turned upside down because he did not think of more than "yellow" or realize just how really lucky he was to be carrying his towel when aliens kidnapped him in Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy. That book became one of the best selling comedies of all time and it started out with a guy looking out the window and seeing construction trucks on his front lawn.

So many ideas, from so many little insignificant ordinary things. Now why didn't our guy think of thee things?

Month Three — Not Even My Neighbours Have Ideas!

Days have turned into months for our guy who is still wandering through life looking for the big best seller idea. Every day he gets up, gets the paper off his lawn, waves to the old guy next door and heads back inside. For three months now he has done this. And yet, he has failed to notice changed in the front lawn of the old guy next door. Every day the old guy is out there digging holes. In three months his nice green lawn has turned into much and mud and piles of dirt. Why?

If our guy had stopped wondering when his idea would come and looked at his neighbor's yard, he could have seen the next big idea.

Idea #1: the old guy his killing off his rich girlfriends, living off their pension checks, and burying their bones under his lawn

Idea #2: the old guy found a pirate's treasure map which indicates treasure is buried about where his lawn now sits.

Idea #3: 50 years ago his beloved wife lost her ring in the garden and he's desperately looking for it

Idea #4: someone thinks the old guy buried his wife on the lawn and every night digs a new hole trying to find proof, and every morning the old guy puzzles over the new hole as he fills it in

Did you see more? I can see more. I can see a lot more. I can see several ways to turn each of these into horrific horror tales, as well as ways to turn each into romance, and each into sci-fis. From these "4 ideas" I can see another 2 dozen. Can you?

Month Six — Help! There are no ideas ANYWHERE!

Our guy is sitting in the coffee shop. He's too busy worrying about his next meal and wondering why his big idea never came, to notice the bank robbery going on across the street, or to see the crowd of screaming teenagers running after a rock star who will be giving a concert tonight.

He doesn't notice the couple sitting in the booth behind him or overhear their conversation about their wedding plans. He hasn't noticed that the waitress is sneaking food out the back door to a homeless woman and her small children.

He doesn't see the mayor and his mistress sneak behind the counter to hide from the wife. He does not see any of these people, all of them waiting for a book to tell the story behind their actions, because he is too busy waiting for an idea to float past him.

By chance he looks up and sees a crowd at the bookstore, and figures, there must be a famous author there signing books.

So he rushes from his seat, past the fireman rescuing a child of the 10th floor of a burning building, past the boy and his dog playing Frisbee in the park, pass the local haunted house, pass the the theater where Hamlet is playing, pass the biker gang that looks suspiciously a lot like vampires, pass the road side preacher who says a meteor will hit earth at any moment, pass the soldier just returned from war, pass the couple hugging at the train station, pass the Mormon missionaries who want to tell him how Jesus visited the Aztec Indians two thousand years ago, pass the news reporter who is saying a whale just washed up in the bay, pass the man who telling another reporter he was abducted by aliens, pass the girl who can't stop smiling and telling every one how great life is, pass the boy scout team waiting for their campground bus to pick them up, and straight into the book store where he now stands in front you asking: "Where do you get your ideas?"

You look out the store window and you see all those things this guy had to ran past (and ignore) to get to you and you wonder:

Where the hell is his brain? How can he be so stupid? Why didn't he see all those story ideas?

You, the author signing the books, you know without a doubt that this guy is clueless and beyond help. He will never be a writer, because he is incapable of seeing the world through the eyes of a writer.

You saw story ideas in each of these things:

• The bank robbery going on across the street
• The crowd of screaming teenagers running after a rock star who will be giving a concert tonight
• The couple sitting in the booth
• The conversation about wedding plans
• The waitress is sneaking food out the back door
• The homeless woman and her small children
• The mayor and his mistress sneaking behind the counter to hide from the wife
• The crowd at the bookstore
• A man rushing from his seat
• The fireman rescuing a child of the 10th floor of a burning building
• The boy and his dog playing Frisbee in the park
• The local haunted house
• The theater where Hamlet is playing
• The biker gang that looks suspiciously a lot like vampires
• The road side preacher who says a meteor will hit earth at any moment
• The soldier just returned from war
• The couple hugging at the train station
• The Mormon missionaries who want to tell a man how Jesus visited the Aztec Indians two thousand years ago
• The news reporter who is saying a whale just washed up in the bay
• The man who telling another reporter he was abducted by aliens
• The girl named Polly who can't stop smiling and telling every one how great life is
• The boy scout team waiting for their campground bus to pick them up
• The author at the book store signing books
• The man annoying the author by asking: "Where do you get your ideas?

He did not even see any of those things at all, and thus never saw the potential each of these things had to inspire a mirid of stories. Every one of these ideas can be used for each of any of dozens of genres: romance, sci-fi, horror, erotica, mystery, chick lit, young adult, children's chapter books, fantasy, paranormal, small town, slasher, gorn, western, historical, who-done-it, inspirational, conspiracy theory, thriller, adventure, intrigue, gothic horror, gothic romance, coming of age, slice of life vignette, family drama, court room drama, medical fiction, or any of the rest of the countless genres out there. You can take any one of these ideas, and turn that single idea in a dozen or more ideas, simply by changing the genre you apply it to.

I have given you 24 separate ideas on this list, followed by 28 genres, for a grand total of 672 story ideas. I just gave you 672 story ideas free of charge, just in this list, and if you had been paying attention you would see that throughout this article I gave you 100 separate story ideas, plus the 28 genres, for a grand total of 2,800 story ideas.

Writers are observant. A writer will get to the end of this article and will have counted no less than 100 story plots from 100 best sellers peppered throughout this article. (And many will be able to name the titles and authors of the 100 best selling books I referenced throughout this article.) Everyone else will say: "But you only listed 34 ideas!" Hum-uh. And that's why I said I can't help you. You are clueless. You will never be a writer, because writers don't sit around waiting for ideas, writers dig deep and actively look for ideas, which is why writers will be able to not only find all 100 story ideas I purposely planted in this article, but they will even come up with their own ideas besides.

And so, if you have reached the end of this article and find that even after I have handed you no fewer than 2,800 story ideas on a silver platter, you still can't think of a single idea to write about than honey, I really think you need to come up with a more suitable career, because writing just may not be your thing.

So, where do you get your ideas?

The answer is all around you.

No really, that is the answer.

Open your eyes and look around you. Life is happening every where. Life happens a lot. And what do writers write about? Life and things happening. So, stop waiting for the big idea to come to you and know that it already has.

Ideas are all around you every second of every day.

Pick up the newspaper — it's full of ideas.

Walk down your street — it's full of ideas too.

Look at your neighbors, look at their yard, look at their car, look at their house.

Go to the store — look at the sales clerk, look at the customers, look at what they buy, listen to what they say.

Take notes.

Write down conversations.

Make note of the things they wear.

Read books. Watch movies.

Go to the park.

Follow the fire truck and see where it goes.

Eat at a restaurant you've never been to before. Go to the side of town you've never seen before.

Sit on a bench and watch people walk by.

Go to the beach and pay careful attention to the ocean.

What does living near the ocean give me? Why is living near the ocean so great? I love the ocean. I was born and raised on the ocean, by people who likewise were born and raised on it, for many, many generations. The ocean is in my blood. What does it give me?

• Shells to collect, peace of mind at the end of the day, serenity, beauty, a sense of place.
• The ocean waves crashing 'round my body are like hugs from an old friend.

Why is it so great?

• The sights, the feels, the sounds, the smells.
• The glistening blue, the cloudy green, the deadly grey, sand in my toes, sand in my hair, the cleansing salty grit contrasting with the frigid cold wetness, the cry of the gulls, the screams of the loons, the shrill call of the killdeer, the salty, misty, musty fog, drenched is hints of seaweed and crab.
• I love my ocean in all it's glory.

The ocean inspires some of my best writing.

Inspiration, that is what the ocean gives me. It can inspire me to write soft beautiful romance, with its hot summer days and lovers in the sand; or it can inspire me to write simple stories of the simple joys of children building sandcastles while puppies chase frisbees in the gentle surf.

I could write those things, most people do, it's not very hard, I have done it before, but more often than not, I don't.

• Dark brooding stories of blood and death.
• Drowning victims, bodies washing up along the shore, mermen strangling young women with seaweed, monsters from the deep surfacing to swallow you whole, tourists trapped at hide tide, dashed to death on the rocks, falling from the slippery cliffs to lay shattered on in a shell lined grave bones picked clean by gulls and crabs.
• Yep. That's what I write.

I could write about seaside carnivals, I often do.

But what side of the carnival to I choose?

• Happy. Joyful.
• Couples laughing on the ferris wheel overlooking the Pier?
• Children their faces sticky with cotton candy, waiting in line to ride the Shooting Stars?
• Or their demise, as darkness falls, and moon rises over the cool black waters, revealing the ride operators for what they truly are: brain sucking zombies, the carnival a trap to lure in tourists for food, like sheep to the slaughter.

Why do I write, the dark things I write?

Why does the ocean inspire such terror?

I write every day. That's 31 years (in 1997) of writing every day, or 11,315 days of writing on average 7,000 words a day, except during The National Novel Writing Month contest when I write on average 15,000 words a day for 30 days.

I've already written more than 7,000 pieces on a range of topics, and the ocean takes the lead in nearly every one, not simply as scenery, but as an ever imposing character, overbearing and bearing down on everyone it crosses.

Darkness, sci-fi, gore and horror; once in awhile the occasional romance gone very horribly wrong. I could have done none of this without my ocean.

Most folks look at the ocean and see warm summer days, children, laughter, lovers, family vacations, and fun in the sun.

I look at the ocean and write pages dripping with blood.

The Town of Old Orchard, Maine (originally known as The Garden By the Sea, Quebec, until 1821 when Maineland, Quebec was stolen by America, ripped off of Canada, remained Maine and declared a very reluctant American-hating territory of The United States), is the actual name. Old Orchard Beach, is not the name of the town, but rather is a 7 mile long beach which stretches from Biddeford, through Saco, running the whole length of Old Orchard, and ending in Pine Point/Scarborough.

I was born and raised in Old Orchard, Maine, as were both my parents. My father's grandfather George Ricker, was the first fire chief, and his many times great-uncle, Thomas Rogers, settled the town in 1548, and I still live on that original piece of land. One branch of my family literally built this town. This is more than just a town, it's my family's personal history.

No, I don't set my stories anywhere else. I have agoraphobia. I've never been anywhere else.

I have Autism. I write what I know, and this town is the town I know. I know this beach, it's every curve and wave. I know what it's like to stand on the shore with a 70MPH hurricane whipping all around me, my skin covered in tiny glass cuts caused by the blast of sand. I know what it is to stand on the shore during a February snow squall, with temperatures -48F.

My mental, spiritual, and emotional connection with this beach is unfathomable. Here is where I meditate, pray, commune with the spirits.

• I know the tides, the snails, the sandpipers, the gulls, the tourists.
• The French Canadians in Speedos, the elderly Floridians in straw hats, the fast talking New Yorkers.
• The deafening sound of the fireworks, every Thursday night mingled with the crashing waves.
• The pitch black of night and the thick choking fog rolling in and blotting out every sight, soaking your clothes wetter than a pouring rain, and filling your nostrils with the pungent smell of uprooted seaweed and dead crab.
• Once in awhile we get the excitement of watching the Coast Guard dredging for dead bodies washed down from the Saco River.
• Dead bodies wash up on the beach more often than town officials would like to admit, 5 a year, not uncommon, never less than 3, as many as 10 some years.
• Not just bodies washing down from the river.
• People drown in the gully.
• Parents turn their back on toddlers, letting them swim alone in the gully.
• Locals don't go near the gully.
• They know better.
• Tourists don't care.
• The tourists don't think about it, I wonder if they even know the danger they are in, should be in the gully, when tide come roaring back in?
• Do the read the warning signs?
• Clearly posted, in bright red letters.
• Swim at your own risk.
• Dangerous riptide.
• No swimming after dark.
• No one thinks about it.
• Not even when the bodies wash ashore.
• Neighboring towns don't care.
• The papers never say where the body was found, only where it fell in, in some little town no one ever heard of deep in the forests of Northern Maine.

No one knows the dark side of Old Orchard Beach.

They see the signs, but no one cares.

Danger.

Warning.

Beware.

Riptides.

Stay behind the fence.

No swimming after dark.

• Tourists ramble past, not giving the signs a second glance.
• Why should they bother read a sign?
• They are here for fun in the sun on their great big family vacation.
• We don't want to think about the dangers.
• Who cares that we'll be flying one of our own back home in a coffin.
• It's the beach, I'm here to swim.
• They come.
• They swim.
• They die.
• THAT is the reality of Old Orchard Beach, Maine — since the 1970s no fewer then TEN tourists have been killed in our gulley EVERY SUMMER, and yet NOT ONE of those deaths has been in the TV news or newspapers because town managers and hotel owners pay police officers of Old Orchard Beach to NOT give those death reports to the reporters, because money, money, money is all local business ownders care about, and so we locals continue to watch the Coast Guard pull out bodies every few weeks, and continue to complain when the news does not tell anyone how deadly and NOT tourist friendly Old Orchard Beach really is!
• It's the same thing every year.
• Tourists are stupid.
• They have no respect for the ocean and the dangers it brings.

The only people who really know the dark side of our beach, are those of us, fewer than 2,000 year round residents, who live here on it and actually see the Coast Guard pulling up the bodies.

The red and white helicopters, big red ships, little red dignies, yellow police tape closing off the beach….

"Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see," say the soldiers as they push back the crowds.

For many years I have sat in my bedroom window watching bodies being pulled out of the gully, wrapped in red body bags, and loaded into Coast Guard helicopters.

There's a reason why no one who lives here on the beach, actually swims in the ocean.

We know the danger.

We're right off the Saco River delta so, any body that falls in the river from here to Canada, is eventually going to wash up on our beach.

The Great Saco River and its infamous Saco River Curse. World's most haunted river. Claims more bodies than any other. And here is where it dumps them. The Saco River coughs up bodies on our beach, like a cow coughing up its cud.

The Saco River Curse is a local legend based on a strange and unexplained series of deaths that have occurred here at the Saco River Delta where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. The history of the Saco River Curse goes like this:

The York family moved to Saco (Maine) and built a house on the tiny island overlooking a huge waterfall where the Saco River dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. They named the place York Manor of York Hill. On the other side of the river was Saco Island (today known as Factory Island at the Memorial Bridge Crossing). On Saco Island lived a tribe of Native American Indians who worshiped or rather feared a local river demon, Memegwesi, a type of Faerie or water dwelling trickster. On the mainland just a few hundred yards away, was the port where sailors docked (and still dock to this day — and is where I park my Volvo when you hear me talk of parking on York Hill when I visit my dad at his Biddeford apartment).

One night, in 1547, three drunken sailors rowed across the river to Saco Island, kidnapped a baby from the Indian tribe, than rowed across to York Hill, where they threw the baby into the waterfall, claiming that Indians were born able to swim, thus it would survive the fall. The baby's mother followed desperately after them, and jumped into the falls trying to save her baby. Both the mother and the baby were crushed to death on the rocks below. The husband/father was also the tribe's medicine man/witch-doctor/shaman/holy man. Infuriated at the white men for killing his wife and child, he went to the waterfall and called upon the river demon asking it to punish the white men, by killing three white men in the waterfall of York Hill, every year for eternity, so that no one would ever forget what these men had done to his beloved wife and child. To date, no year has passed since with less than 3 deaths in the waterfall at the Saco River Delta on York Hill.

Marquis de La Fayette, resided here during the American Revolution. A vast fort was built on the islands surrounding York Hill. The English Lobsterbacks were rumored to have meet a watery grave at the hands of the river's demon. Local Fisherman claimed we had won the war against England because the Memegwesi it had been English soldiers who'd killed the baby so long ago.

By the late 1700's church groups began congregating on York Hill, some claiming to have encounters with not a demon, but rather an angel, others claiming communication with the spirits of long dead Indian chiefs, some claiming Faerie communications, at least one claimed to talk to men from the sun, another said a man from Venus, and some began to call the Memegwesi "The White Salamander" (Salamander being a type of Welsh shapeshifting Faerie), while still others gathered to bless the river and exorcise its demon. Hundreds of attempts were made to remove the curse, and more than 200 new (mostly short lived) religions sprung up and were found here in Saco Bay. The most famous of these were "The Community of Christ", "The Society of Free Brethren and Sisters", "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" (aka The Mormon Church), "The Salvation Army" and "The Shakers" all of which still exist to this day.

By the 1800's our little haunted river, with its white sands beach, had begun receiving tourists. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln came to Saco Island, hoping to get a glimpse of the river's "Old Indian Ghost". His visit would inspire folks to on those new fangled things known as locomotives, for the purpose of ghost hunting in Maine. This spot has been a hotbed for ghost hunters ever since.

In the early 1800's the fort was turned into a huge mill factory on Saco Island, and the death toll skyrocketed, as a transvestite serial killer took advantage of the curse and took to rapeing mill girls and then tossing them in the waterfall. The most famous of these murders was the infamous Bean Murder of Factory Island, which resulted in the capture of the abortion doctor who had made a habit of pretending to be a mill girl in order to kill all the women who'd had an abortion. He pleaded that he had been possessed by the river demon and got off with hardly any punishment, only a few months of hard labor, in spite of having been wanting in suspicion of having killed over a dozen young women.

Stories of ghosts haunting the house began to rise. In the late 1800's York Manor was torn down by terror crazed locals who were convinced that the house was haunted by the ghost of the father/husband/medicanman. They believed that tearing down the house would end the curse. The remains of the house were saved, however and the house was rebuilt elsewhere in Saco, where it stands today, in its new giant Victorian apartment building form, next door to the church on Smith Street, behind the Amato's, beside the RiteAid, across the street from Thornton Academy. That big yellow Victorian mansion, is what was once, many years ago, known as the York Manor the cursed haunted house of York Hill. Removing the house from the island, removed the curse from the house, which has had no farther hauntings since it's move.

Are you seeing YET where I get my ideas?

EVERYWHERE!

Go outside and walk around YOUR HOME TOWN and start paying attention to everything that goes on.

I guarantte you'll find a hundred plus things to write about before you get 5 minutes into your walk.

THAT is what I do.

THAT is where I get my ideas.

I write a lot of stories about people drowning in the ocean, because I live on the ocean and watching the coast guard pull out bodies is a thing I see from my driveway several times a month!

One can not live on the edge of the ocean at the mouth of this monstrous river, without being affected by the river which feeds the bay. Each year tourists come in millions. The packs and herds, they flock to our shores in droves.

Our beautiful, deadly, dark, bloody beach. They come and go oblivious, so few ever know.

And then they read my books, and ask in utter horror, Why?

Why do you write this great wonderful place, in such a dark, horrid light? How could this place of utter beauty inspire you to write such utter horror?

How?

Why?

Because I know this beach.

I know this river.

I know the dangers that lay in wait.

I know the deeper story, the one you do not see.

You see the surface beauty of the crystal blue waters, but I see the deep dark truth, that lay in the rocks below.

You come and go.

I live here every day.

You see only its natural beauty.

I see it's every bloody drop.

People think it's creepy, my morbid fascination with this little known dark side of this beach.

Every town has its secrets.

Little skeletons in the closet.

The Town of Old Orchard depends on The Old Orchard Beach, and its 2million yearly tourists to survive.

It's a ghost town in the dead of winter, businesses boarded up, homes shuttered, fewer than 2,000 residents by the time snow falls.

This town needs tourists to survive.

You think the tourists would come swim on a beach that spits up a few dozen dead bodies each and every year?

Town officials go, hush, hush, not too loud, we don't want to scare away the income. So the tourist come with their money, and a few must die to keep our town alive.

Only the locals know our beach's dark little secret.

• I love this beach.
• Everything about it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the utterly unmentionably horrible.
• It is raw, unforgiving, unpredictable, wild, untamed, mesmerizing, beautiful.
• I write horror.
• Vampires.
• Zombies.
• Ghosts.
• Farrdarigs.
• Phookas.
• RedCaps.
• Bloody, bloody Faeries and Mermen from the deep.
• Haunted mansions clinging to rocky cliffs threatening to throw themselves into the depths of the foaming waves.
• Bloodthirsty mermen, pulling their victims to cold watery graves.
• You only see this beach in the bright days of summer.
• Come back in the winter and see it frozen over.
• Come back in the fall and brave the blasts of wind, feel the sand as it slices through your tender skin.
• Come in the spring when you can see nothing for the fog.
• This cold, icy, foggy beach has atmosphere.
• The atmosphere here is the perfect setting for horror, especially the horror I write.
• You can look out over the fog and almost see the ghost ships, the vampires, the fish men from distant galaxies…it is the perfect setting for the dark, gloomy, brooding, bloody Poe-esk stories I like to tell.
• The beach is the story itself and I am the one it has chosen to tell its tale.
• I didn't choose this beach as a setting.
• It chose me.
• The stories come to me as I stand on the slick, jagged granite, listening to the gulls screaming bloody murder through the fog.
• The little hermit crabs scurry across my feet in search of dead rotted flesh, begging me to write of the murder victims the hide in the tidal pools.
• Looking down from the rocks, into the drop offs on the other side, the gleaming silver eyes of seals and fish peer up at you though the dancing kelp, but are they fish and seals, or mermen and selkies, lurking, waiting, starving, thirsting, for the unsuspecting human to venture too close to the edge.
• The tourist who washes up mangled on the shore, did they really slip and fall, or did a cold icy hand reach up from the deep, and yank them down under by the ankle?
• Beware foolish travelers.
• Beware of the deep.
• For little men lie in wait, your flesh they come to eat.
• Where do I get my ideas? Everywhere.
• I just open my eyes, my ears, my heart…I look around me, I listen, I feel, I smell, I see, I touch, I taste, I empathize, and I write it all down.
• Every bit of it.
• I am what I write.
• I write what I am.
• Everywhere I go, the beach, the store, the library, here in college, there is something to see, something to hear, something to write.
• My life is where I get my ideas.
• That is how I choose my topics.
• I can write about anything, because the world is full of everything.
• But the ocean, my ocean, the riptides of Old Orchard Beach, nothing can set a fire under my pen, better than does my beloved white sands beach.
• I love my ocean.
• And so, when you ask the question, what does living near the ocean give me?
• This is what living near the ocean gives me.
• A blessing.
• A glory.
• A history.
• A curse.
• A horror.
• It is my inspiration.
• The gift to write of terrors, dark and deep.
• The ocean gives me my career, my life, my inspiration for all I do, for I am a writer, and tales of this ocean is what I write.

I would have it no other way.

Get involved.

Get out there.

Do something.

Be part of something.

And take notice of everything that goes on around you.

Everything is an idea.

EVERYTHING!

You know what? Everything happens for a reason, and if you are a writer, than there is only one answer to that: Everything happens so that you have something to write about. So get off your ass and go find something to write about.

You only have to look out your window.

Another common (top 5 most asked) question is: Do you write the title first or last? Along with "How do you come up with your titles?"

I do both ways.

Don't know which way I do most.

Never paid attention.

Some times I have a title and I think "Damn! That's a great title, I got to write a story to go with it!"

And other times, I just have an idea and write it down, but no title for it. When I get done writing I search through the text of it looking for a line that would make a good title.

So, sometimes I have the title first, other times I make the title last.

I don't see that either way is better then the other. Though I can see how some people might want to stick to one or the other.

I don't put much effort into coming up with titles. Never saw the point.

What is the 500 Drabble/Story Challenge?

Here are all my updates on how this challenge is going:

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Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻

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