Weather Report: Brainstorms All Day! (7) Shake up those patterns of thought

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Original Posting: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 18:35:04 JST

Exercise 7. Look Here, then there - and please don't look behind the curtain

Today, we're looking at another way to shake up the patterns of thought you may have established. Very simply, the analysis of something in terms of patterns of thought often is strongly influenced by the first part noticed and which parts are noticed. I.e., you rarely see the "whole elephant" - you get a part, then another, then another. That first one - and the attention or focusing you do on later parts - tends to select the pattern of thought that is used.

Unfortunately, the entry point and area of attention tend to be picked by chance and whimsy.

There are at least three "counter-tactics" you can use to fight the tendencies to pigeonhole and selectively view that we all share.

First, as mentioned in an earlier exercise, deliberately start at the "other end" and work backwards.

Second, look for elements left out or ignored. Try to see the background instead of the foreground, or the shadows instead of the highlights.

Third, list the features you notice. Then start with each one and look at the whole - you might be surprised to find out that there's an elephant behind the snake!

Today's Practice:

Here are four of the "subjects" we've used in previous exercises. Pick one and then try the first two practice items that follow...

a. Description - a flower, a barn, a scene of some kind
b. Character - one of yours or one from a book - pick one
c. Conflict/Problems - the beginning of the plot
d. Solutions - the end of the plot

1. Identify and list all the entry points you can think of for tackling the subject - i.e., you are about to write or think about your subject. Make a list of all the different places you could start. Think about how starting there would affect the writing - and the reader.

2. Try tackling the subject via a quota of starting points - this is actually sitting down and writing a set of pieces, all dealing with the same subject, but starting from different places. The ski slope, for example, "looks" very different from the foot of the hill, the top of the slope, and flying off the cliff on the edge of the slope...

3. List information left out of a story - this is a useful study, although you can carry it to extremes. Take a story and list the information left out - what was excluded? You might want to extend this a bit by trying to see what effect adding that information back into the story would have on it, and on the reader.

4. Describe a picture. This takes (at least) two people. Write (or give orally) a description of a picture. Then let the other person ask questions and see how much information you left out - any question that could be answered by looking at the picture but can't be answered by description. It can be very good training - you want to let the other person "see" the picture accurately through your words. What do you need to include, and what do you tend to miss?

5. Take several similar pictures - write a description that clearly identifies one of them. Write a description that clearly identifies these pictures but cannot be clearly linked to any specific one.

This is a way of studying what identifies a specific picture to you, and also what they have in common to you. You can play this game by yourself or with a friend - let them see if they pick the right picture (or set of pictures) based on the descriptions.

6. Take a detective story - identify factors or starting point that hide the criminal from reader.

Mysteries often use the readers' thinking patterns to "hide" the criminal in plain sight. Part of that is the first introduction of the criminal (the archtypal "the butler took the coat..." simply hides the bad guy under the "spear carrier" type that we all know in writing). There are also "visibility" factors and similar tricks used.

And whether you ever want to write a mystery or not - some of the most common ways of keeping a reader interested and turning pages are developed and refined in that field. Why not learn them, and use them for your new yorker pieces?

7. Make a list of clues identifying a criminal. Now, can you arrange them in an order that will make it difficult for the reader to identify?

This is a fun exercise. Take a criminal, and make up a list of clues. Can you select one that tips the reader into a "safe" pattern of thought? Can you arrange the order (and the setting, etc.) to keep the reader from putting together the pattern, even when all the clues have been laid out?

Patterns of thought - put them in a blender, play jackstraws with them, and make them work for you!

Weather Report: Brainstorms All Day! (8) Randomize!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 18:35:02 JST

Exercise 8. Take a Chance

So far, we've been looking at ways of stretching, bending, and twisting the patterns or the selection of patterns in fairly controlled ways. This time, we'll take a look at spinning the roulette wheel, bouncing dice, and taking advantage of other random alterations.

One thing that people sometimes think is that some random input "won't relate." Fortunately, the human mind is pretty good at making anything relate. One of the interesting experiments is to take purely random sets of dots and let people look at them - they will "discover" patterns, connections, and such in almost every case. Are the patterns "really" there? No, but being human, we "overwrite" the randomness with them - and you can depend on even "random input" relating. Just relax and let the mental gears work - they will mill you a fine set of relations.

The principle here is to encourage random stimuli. Here are some ways to do it:

Expose yourself - Wander around

1. Accept and welcome random inputs
2. Listen to others, especially if you disagree
3. Talk to people outside your field
4. Take a walk outside your normal interests

Deliberate chance

1. Random word from dictionary
2. Random book
3. Random objects

Don't worry about relevance or relationship - your mind will create one, and that's what we're after!

One oddity that I notice is that people often think they should take a long time looking for the relationships. Really, if you listen to yourself, three to five minutes is plenty of time to come up with enough relationships and links to work with. Don't strain after every last one - just meet your quota, then relax!

Today's Practice:

By now, you probably know the list of topics inside out. If you want to, pick a different topic or slice of your story making process. For those who have inadvertently skipped some previous lessons...

a. Description - a walnut, a church, a scene, an animal - pick something and describe it.
b. Character - someone in your story or from the literature - who are they?
c. Conflict/Problems - the hero and the villian struggling, fighting - over what?
d. Solutions - aha! in the midst of the fight, the villian pushes the hero over the cliff, and the hero clutches his arm, and they both vanish into the mist... but the hero pulls his Acme paraglider from under his leather jacket, as the villian twists his moustache and plunges out of sight...

Pick your subject, set your quota of ideas, and then

1. Random word - dictionary or

1. Weed 2. Rust 3. Poor 4. Magnify 5. Foam
6. Gold 7. Frame 8. Hole 9. Diagonal 10. Vacuum
11. Tribe 12. Puppet 13. Nose 14. Link 15. Drift
16. Duty 17. Portrait 18. Cheese 19. Chocolate 20. Coal

You can flip the pages (or use dice or random number tables) and pick a word, or just pick one of the words from the above list. DON'T look for a word that "goes with" your subject - pick a number at random, then try that word. Think about the word, think about the subject, and let the mind work out relationships. They will come, if you listen!

2. Try same problem - different words

Now, take that same subject, and pick another random word. See how the subject and the word(s) develop relationships. While you may want to concentrate on the subject and a single word at a time, don't discard those odd thoughts about how the two (or more) words tie together - you may find the subject being caught in a cat's cradle of meaning woven around it by the different words.

3. Try different problems - same word

An amusing game is to try several problems or subjects - all playing against the same random word. You can even take "worn out plots" and bang them against a random word - and watch them rise up again, with Lazarus pulling the strings!

4. Make yourself an "object grabbag" - and play!

A fun way to do this (for adults, as well as kids) is to take a bag and put various objects inside. Then when you need to stimulate the little grey cells, shake the bag, reach inside and yank out the first thing your hand hits. Then let that concrete object and your subject dance.

Incidentally, you can do the same thing with slips of paper, cards, etc. I sometimes think the tarot deck might work for this, although I'm not familiar enough with the pictures to be sure. (although I like the concrete real objects, myself - I have an object grabbag!)

I also find pictures useful - clip them out of magazines, buy some beautiful replicas at the art museum (they're so cheap, and so few people take the time to appreciate them!), or pick them up wherever. Toss them in a file, then when you need an idea - yank out one without looking at it, then turn it over and let the frozen reality there mingle with your topic.

Let's see - five minutes to generate ideas, eight hours to sleep - that leaves you with at least a little time to write down some of the strange visions springing up from your daily brainstorms, doesn't it? Even after you toss the weeds in the compost heap for another plowing, you'll never be short on ideas, just on time to cook and serve them to the hungry mob pounding on the door...