You’ll never believe what just happened.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Have you ever had a weird experience that led to an improvement in your work? (like something came up at an event or on tv that was oddly timely.)

Talk about serendipity!

This prompt came at just the right moment for me to tell you about my new way of working.

I’ve been in a rut with novel writing for a while. I’ve been ploughing on, assuming things will change but it’s been getting harder to motivate myself. The voices that told me the stories were quieter, it was as if they were getting bored too. I’d get ideas but they would peter out after a few thousand words. Nothing seemed to be working like it used to.

Sales were non-existant.

Then, while I was trying to get the story to work in the middle of NaNoWriMo last year, someone told me about the fun and success they were having writing on Medium. They suggested that I give it a try.

I didn’t really want to commit to working on another platform but I decided to give it a go.

To be honest, I wish I’d done it years ago.

I found that being released from the idea that I needed to write a seventy-thousand or more word story every time was liberating in more ways than one.

At first, I simply rehashed a few old blog posts, dug out and updated some old short stories and published them. To my surprise, I quickly attracted several hundred followers and some encouraging comments. I even started making a few dollars from reads.

All the people I engaged with were so friendly and supportive.

I decided to change the way I wrote. After NaNoWriMo was over I decided to leave novels behind, at least for a while.

I began to polish and republish more of my old work. As well as the boost to my self-esteem as a writer, getting eyes on (and appreciation of) my work was giving me a passive income.

People were reading and liking things I’d written years ago. Things that had never got much attention from me, because they weren’t novels and that was what I had always thought I wrote.

Then, I discovered the world of prompts.

It was like a dam breaking in my head. I could see a picture or read a prompt and visualise a story behind it.

Now I write short stories, drabbles (100-word stories) and even some poetry. A lot of it is now based on prompts. The things I publish get views and good comments. I’ve even found some new and recurring characters through prompts.

The words are flowing. I’m enjoying myself again.

All because someone suggested that I look at another way of getting my work out.

And, while we’re talking about serendipity, check out the last three letters of this week’s inlinkz link. Spooky!!!

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know below.

Then, please check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

Until next time.

Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.

I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.

Now see what the other blogs in this hop have to say by clicking below.

Check out the other great blogs here.