Tag: ideas

Bre’s Writing Process Part One: Pre-Writing Notes

Over the past few months, I’ve been playing around with my writing process and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. It’s a relatively slow process with a little bit of fine-tuning here and there between every day life. I’m doing a deep dive of my process and playing around with what works and throwing out what doesn’t.

So I figured why not blog the process from start to finished project.

(Is a project ever truly finished?)

Every project I’ve started, every spark of an idea that has gone anywhere, whether finished or not, started with notes. The idea would come, wherever I was at the time, or what I was doing doesn’t matter, but writing the idea down did matter. Writing the idea down ensures I will return to it later and with any luck flesh out the idea.

Sometimes, an idea starts as a simple question like: What if?

Other times, I’ll be listening to music in the car or the shower and an idea will simply spring forth and I’ll rush to find a safe and dry space to write it down.

The last novel I finished was an experiment to see what I could emulate from one of my favorite books/movies and a deep dive of taking elements I liked and putting my own spin on it. The project turned out much better than I had hoped and expanded way past the original work. It’s been one of my favorite projects yet.

No matter what the idea, big or small, novel or short story, it all starts with a notes page in my writing program. I currently use Ulysses, but have used Google Docs in the past. The idea is still the same. I take the page with the original idea and I put all of the ideas, little scenes I can see or hear, the ideas for the ending and anything else relevant to the story for as long as it takes to feel comfortable enough to start the story.

Everything ends up in one place, one spot where all the ideas live and work out on the page. Sometimes it becomes a super loose outline where I’ll have the beginning, the end and maybe some small parts of the middle. Most of the time it’s a jumbled mess of: “I like this name” and “THIS IS THE THEME!” Or some other wild notes.

One of these days, I’ll do a greatest hits of the weird things that end up in my notes (whether while writing the piece or before)

Here’s one of my favorite notes in one of my pieces.

I’ve only started doing this process in the last 6 months or so. Before, I would start novels and pieces with such high hopes and lose traction and once again find myself in the loop of the “shiny new project” syndrome.

Looking back on a few projects before notes, perhaps they lost traction and stalled because I didn’t have enough notes or direction of where I wanted to go, or it wasn’t my idea in the first place. Someday we’ll talk about my tendency to think I can write an entire novel based on an album (but not today).

Not every small idea has enough traction to become a successful or finished idea, but most of the good ones so far have started with a notes document or an entire notebook.

 

Tuesday How To: Expanding and Combining Ideas

We all get ideas, sometimes they are planned through brainstorming, or sometimes they come to us out of the blue. Sometimes finding ideas is the easy part, and sometimes it’s not so easy. You can get ideas from anywhere and anything, but sometimes the ideas you get aren’t enough.

So this week, let’s talk about Expanding and Combining ideas.

Expand Your Ideas

Sometimes we get just a glimpse of an idea that when we write it will only get us so far. An example would be either a name or a setting. As an example, let’s use a character, aged 13, who comes to you in an idea saying “You are not my real father.” That’s the start of the idea, but at most it will get you one scene, maybe two. So now, you as the creator need to figure out enough about the thirteen year old to make a true story.

So the easiest way to do this is to write that scene between the thirteen year old and whoever else he/she is talking to. But if you are a perfectionist and like to write in order, that may not be the easiest way for you. So here’s what I usually do.

Most of the time characters come to me first, so I decide who this thirteen year old is talking to. Is it a step father, or an adopted father, or someone else entirely. How does that thirteen year old feel about their real father? What other issues are going on in that character’s life, what are their wants and needs, etc.
This process can literally go on for as long as you need it to, sometimes over days and weeks.

For the sake of this example let’s say that the thirteen year old has a single mother that sleeps around with strange men and that the thirteen year old is struggling with the urge to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She tries to seduce her mother’s latest sleeping partner, but he decides that he is a good guy and refuses her advances. Just like that you have a problem and a longer plot. Depending on where you put it in your order of scenes, toward the beginning or the end, changes your story.

You have a point to write from, and your idea is expanded.

Combine Ideas

If you’re anything like me, ideas are everywhere and you have several of them that are small, but don’t really have enough for a whole developed plot. If you have several small ones that can connect, why not connect them?

Here’s an example. I have several ideas about mermaids and vampires and fairytale creatures, but no real plot for any of them. So recently I have combined the ideas of a mermaid with fire magic, a witch raised from birth, and a dead girl looking for “bus fare”. What do these have in common? A plot (finally).

You might be surprised how easy it is to combine ideas. Even if they don’t seem like they connect, it might surprise you how many options you can come up with. Just be open to many options and have fun with it. If down the line it doesn’t end up working out, or you find an idea that you like, but some part of it doesn’t fit, move it around and add it to your “To be used” list.

Have fun with all of your ideas, and join me next week for the next installment of Tuesday How To! Next week we jump into characters.

Tuesday How To: Telling Good Ideas From Bad Ones

Last week, we talked about how to find ideas and how ideas are everywhere. This week we’re going to take it one step further and decide which ideas are good and which ones are bad. I don’t like the term “bad” since there are no bad ideas unless they are not your own. If you are stealing someone else’s idea, word for word, that is bad. Every idea that seems “bad” or overdone, can be made better by changing it, adding or subtracting elements to make it feel like new for both you and your readers.

So let’s talk about good ideas versus ideas that are not so good.

For the sake of explanation, we’re going to use Goldilocks and the Three Bears as our main idea.

Imagine that you are a writer looking for an idea and you read you kid a bedtime story that just happens to be Goldilocks and the Three Bears. So, like we talked about last week, you’re reading and an idea strikes.

You want to write a story about Goldilocks and the Three bears. If you copy it directly, that is plagiarism, and thst is a huge mistake. So now the question becomes how do you make the idea new and fresh from the original idea?

You can do three things. You can add to the idea, subtract from the idea, move it to a different setting, or change the perspective.

Adding to the Idea
When you add to the original idea, you pull information from elsewhere and add it to your idea. For instance, if we use Goldilocks and the Three Bears say we add another character, Goldilocks’ boyfriend who doesn’t believe in Bears, now we have a story. And a new conflict. It suddenly becomes interesting for the reader. They wonder what will happen when Goldilocks and her boyfriend meet the bears.

Subtract from the Idea
Subtracting from the idea does the same as adding to it, instead of adding from somewhere else, you take away from the story. For our pal Goldilocks and her bears, that would mean taking away an aspect of the story. Let’s take away the bears’ house. What this does to the story is makes it harder for Goldilocks to break in, harder to find things that fit her, and completely changes the story, making the story new and fresh.

Move the Story to a Different Setting
Moving the story to a different setting changes the entire story most of the time. Though, if the characters are not in their same setting, they can have different motives and goals. Say we move Goldilocks and the Bears to New York City. The need to find things that fit is no longer there. Goldilocks can just go to the store and find what fits her. So why break into the bears’ house at all? Perhaps Goldilocks is a thief and needs a place to hide from the police? See, the plot becomes interesting again, and fresh.

Change the Perspective
Changing point of views is one of the easiest and most used ways of changing the idea and making it fresh again. Since the original fairytale is in the third person, we could change it to any of the other perpectives, it doesn’t even gave to be a human (or bear) perspective. Let’s say we change the perspective to the house. How would that change the story? Or if we made it Baby Bear’s perspective? Each point of view has different information than the others, and more opportunity for change and excitement.

Whatever you do improve your ideas, make them more interesting and not as overused, Have fun with it!

Think about any one of your ideas, how can you expand it or make it better?

Writer Life Lesson #3: Write Every Day

Imagine your writing, whether it be a work in progress, or an essay,or a bunch of short stories, or even all of the above. Now think about your day, the errands you run, or what hours you work, or the time you spend doing things you really want to do. Is writing anywhere in that day, or is it just something you do when the urge hits you? It should be something scheduled, or at least planned.

Writing Life Lesson #3: Write Every Day

We, as writers, are lucky. Our hobby, or our job as a writer is not expensive. It isn’t as expensive as say, gambling or skydriving. If worse came to worse, we could all write on 50 cent notebooks and dollar store pens. The most expensive thing that writing requires is our time.

Writing anything takes time. Sure, the idea may come in a flash, but the actual writing takes time. Each word carefully crafted from our minds to the pen or pencil or keyboard, each sentence and paragraph strung together with time and energy.

Some days, it’s hard for us to write, the ideas just don’t come to us or we are distracted by something else more pressing. Those are the days we need to write most. Writing is a muscle, it requires working out every once in a while. Any athlete will tell you that to make something stronger, to hone a skill, it must be practiced and performed. No one wakes up and is the best writer in the world, just like no athlete or physicist wakes up and is the best in their field.

When we as writers take time to write every day, whether it’s a to-do list, or a chapter, or even just an idea or two in detail, we work those writing muscles and make ourselves better writers. We practice that skill and we get better at putting words on the page and making sure those words are the right words we want to say to get our point across. Our stories, or our blog posts or whatever we write grows into something we ourselves could never have imagined we would make. We impress even ourselves, and that is magical.

So how do we get ourselves to write every day, especially if it’s a struggle? Make every word count. Actively think about the words you are writing or what they mean to you, or will mean to someone else. Start small, 5 or 10 minutes a day, and then slowly increase it to 15 or 20 minutes. Write wherever you can find time, or write in long chunks, it doesn’t matter, as long as you keep writing.

It will get easier as it goes on, so why not start today?

These are my daily word counts for February. This is the longest writing streak I've had in a while.

What does your writing schedule look like? Do you write every day?

Handwriting and Typing

There are several ways to get our words and ideas out into the universe. If you are a singer, that’s through music; an artist, it’s through paint or marble; a politician, your words and actions. If you are a writer, however, it’s through one of two mediums: handwriting or typing.

There are several reasons to do one, or the other, or even both. Though with the addition of wireless technology and the internet almost anywhere, handwriting and even cursive, are beginning to become obsolete.

I was lucky. I experienced most my childhood before the big influx of technology, and most of my early writing days were with a pen or pencil and blue lined binder paper. It wasn’t until my teen years that I even had a personal computer. I can still think back to when I did some of my school assignments that required typing at my kitchen table on an electric typewriter from the early 80s. If I hadn’t had that personal computer, I would probably still be using that ancient monster.

I am still lucky. I have loads of technology, and several ways to stay connected, several ways to get my words on the page whether through a keyboard on a touchscreen or writing each individual word on a blue lined page. I am lucky to have that choice, to choose how I want to write it and how much work I want to put into it. I’d like to think I’m not alone in that choice.

There are several choices out there, whether you handwrite in notebooks, or if you choose technology to get your words on a page. This isn’t going to be a post where I give you my best choices for writing utensils or programs, it’s not going to be a post where I try and persuade you that one is better than the other.

This is just a way to say that both are valid options.

I actually handwrite and type, depending on the project. If it is a project that requires multiple drafts, I usually handwrite the first draft, and then type subsequent drafts. I find that this helps because with handwriting there are less distractions. Usually when I type, I get distracted by the idea of checking my email, or my facebook, or my blog, but handwriting it’s a bit harder to get distracted.

When I work on second drafts or rewrites, then I type. It’s easier to read the words and determine what I was trying to say if it’s a relatively clean page, free of notes or doodles. It also keeps the page cleaner, rather than trying to look through the scribbles and determine my meaning.

It shocks me that people my age, and people even older, wonder why I handwrite a lot of the time. I understand that everyone has their smartphones and iPads and technology right at their fingertips, but at the moment, I don’t. I can’t always connect to the internet to write down my every thought, or feeling, so I handwrite it. I actually prefer it that way. That means I can go write outside without trying to see a screen in the bright sunlight, or I can go where there is no internet or service and still write.

I’m not saying that everyone should go back to handwriting, or that everyone should use technology. What I am saying is: Change it up. Don’t get caught up in one way or another. Disconnect from the mass of technology that is the internet and try writing a few words with a pen, or put down the pen and start typing a page or two. Change it up, especially if you’re stuck, because you never know what can happen.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just as long as you keep writing.

Notebooks like the ones I use to handwrite

How do you write your words?

Ideas and Where to Find Them

Ideas are everywhere, and can come from anything. Pictures, songs, shows, everyday conversation, anyone and anything can spark an idea. Sometimes, the more ideas you find, the more that keep popping up when you least expect them. Sometimes, all we need to do to find ideas is look, listen and feel the world all around us. Ideas are everywhere if you just stop forcing yourself to look for them and let them find you.

Over the years, I have found ideas from many places and turned them into some decent drafts, and some not so decent drafts. Some ideas lead to great works, and others fall through, but they all deserve a chance to be explored and experimented with. They deserve to be given a chance to show their brilliance.

I’ve mentioned before that my first serious idea came from my eighth grade history class, when my awesome teacher started talking about the new colonies of America and indentured servants. I have thought up several ideas from other classes, but I find a lot of my ideas in several places.

Sometimes it will be something said in conversation, or a scene from a play or movie, sometimes it’s a game, or even another novel, or short story. Sometimes it’s social media and sometimes it’s even a song or several songs. Sometimes it’s just a simple image.

My second novel I ever completed was based off of a picture. It was a school assignment, one of the last assignments in freshman year english, and it was supposed to be just a short story. That was what it stayed, a short story about a boy in love with his best friend (this seems to be a common theme in my writing), and they died at the end because I didn’t know how to end it. It stayed that way until my junior year when I found it hiding on my computer and decided it wasn’t done. So an idea came from an idea. That piece still needs a lot of work, but I at least I finished it.

More recently, my ideas come from songs. If you just happen to take a peek at my short stories page, you’ll notice they are all song titles at this point. I have always had a love of music ever since I was a young child. Sometimes as I lay in bed at night listening to any kind of music, I jolt out of bed and have to write a new idea down based on a lyric or an instrumental or both. Some of the short stories turn out amazing (Amsterdam, Congratulations, The Scientist and Samson come to mind) and some fall flat, but they become words on a page and can always be fixed later, they can always become something more.

My current novel, which has recently grown into a nine book series, got its start from a book of prompts. There were a few that were similar that I pieced together and augmented as needed. It started as just a girl in a coma close to death after a serious accident, and then became a three book series, and then a seven book series, and finally a nine book series, pulling several ideas from pretty much everywhere as it grew.

That is the power of ideas and what they can become.

The longest short story to date, and it all came from parts of a song.

Where do you find most of your ideas?

Writer Life Lesson #1: Write It Down

Being a writer means writing, but sometimes writing doesn’t come as easy as we might like. Sometimes the ideas don’t come flowing as a raging waterfall splashing the exact words we want on the page. Sometimes they show up when we have no way of remembering. Sometimes the ideas keep us up at night, or catch us right between sleep and awake and the next morning we don’t remember them.

The best way to combat all of these problems is to write it down!

If the ideas don’t come as easy as we would like, or if the ideas are there, but we’re scared of the words, terrified with the fear that the words will be the worst ever, the only solution is to write through it. It doesn’t matter if the words are “I don’t know what to write” or “Hitler was such a jackass”. It doesn’t matter if they connect to what you were writing or not, just write your first thought, as soon as you pick up that pen or open that document. If the first words you write suck, or are outrageous, the pressure to find the right words will be lessened. If after that first thought, you’re still stuck, keep doing it until you find the right words. You can always go back and edit it (or laugh about it later).

If you have the exact opposite problem, and get ideas when you can’t write them down or keep them long enough to remember them, find a mental image wherever you are, something you’ll remember like an orange penguin eating purple pancakes, or imagine the thought over and over and over again as many times as you can until you get the chance to write it down. If you have a pen, but no paper, write it on your hand or wrist or wherever it will stay until you can write it down somewhere permanently. If the same think occurs at night, and you don’t or can’t turn on a light, I recommend a small whiteboard, or something you can grab quickly in the dark and jot down the idea before it flies away.

White board above my bed. Several ideas live there

So whether the ideas won’t come, or they won’t stop coming: Write it down. No matter how dumb it seems at the time, you never know when you can recycle it later, or turn it into something else.

After all, some of the craziest ideas make the best stories.

How do you keep track of your ideas?