TECH: Meandering Our Way through Plot and Structure (7)

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Original Posting 11 July 2007

Meandering Our Way through Plot and Structure (7)

Where were we when we stopped last time? That's right, in Chapter 3 of Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell, having just realized that write who you are is critically important, so take a good hard look at yourself. Now, let's consider how you come up with good ideas. A lot of people think you just dream one up, then start working. That's not quite the approach that Bell suggests. Instead he suggests coming up with  hundreds of ideas, throwing away the ones that don't excite you, and then spending some time to nurture and develop something good. Bell is going to suggest 20 (twenty!) ways to come up with lots of ideas. But before we get to that, he's got some rules about how to do it. Let's take a look.

1. Schedule a regular idea time. At least once a week.
2. Relax, in a quiet place where your imagination feels comfortable
3. Give yourself at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted time
4. Select one or more of the exercises and read the instructions
5. Start by letting your mind, your imagination, come up with anything and everything, and record it all on paper or the computer
6. The most important rule is not to censor yourself. Forget about editing, reasonableness, salability, or any of those other filters that stop us. Let the ideas come out in whatever way, shape, form they want to. Don't judge.
7. Have fun. You should have lots of fun at this point. Laugh at yourself, get tickled.
8. Save all your ideas.
9. After two or three sessions, that's when you assess or prune your ideas. That's a later section, but sometimes it helps people to know that it is coming. During idea generation, though, just let the ideas sprout.
10. Repeat as needed.

So are you ready to generate ideas? I'm going to summarize the 20 methods that Bell suggests. For the full instructions, you're going to have to get the book. Hopefully you get the idea though.

1. The what-if game: whenever you read, see, or think of something interesting, ask yourself, "What if??" Let your mind ramble, and write down your what-if questions. Put them aside, come back later, and add some notes. What if?
2. Titles. Make up a title, and then write the story that goes with it. Quotes, random words, first lines from novels. Make up a title using them, then write the story.
3. The list. Make a list of nouns from your past, then use those personal touchstones to help you start thinking about possibilities.
4. Issues. What upsets you, what really gets you excited? Make a list, and then think about writing a book about it.
5. See it. What do I want to write about right now? List the first three things you think of. Pick the one that excites you the most right now. Then close your eyes and watch the movie. Let the movie keep going as long as it will. Then start writing what you remember from the movie. Do this every day for a little while, then take a break, and look at what you've written.
6. Hear it! Let the music take you, and think about the pictures, scenes, and characters that it inspires.
7. Character first. Start with a dynamic character, and see where he or she takes you. Close your eyes and imagine a person. Describe them, put them in a setting, ask who is after them or who they are chasing. Or re-create someone you knew. Change their occupation, their sex, their family, and tell us who they are. Take a look at the obituaries! And to make sure you plumb the character, ask the question, "what is the worst thing that could happen to this person?"
8. Borrow some plots and characters. Make sure to turn it into your own story, but starting with someone else's worked for Shakespeare. Imitate the best!
9. Flipping a genre. Take the conventions, the standard tropes and themes of the genre and stand them on their head. Mix, slice and dice, and make the genre salad your own.
10. Predict a trend. Take a look at cutting edge technologies and issues, dig through the magazines, blogs, and discussion groups, and think about who cares, what they're going to do about it next year or in 10 years, what if all of society adopted or rejected it, and who it hurts the most.
11. Read newspapers. Scan the sections and watch for sparks or things that catch your interest. Do the what if games, and see what comes out.
12. Research. Immerse yourself in a subject, travel, talk to people, read the books and Google madly. As you go, skim for overviews, jot down ideas, and then dig further. You aren't really trying to become an expert and prove your ideas, but you do want to get those connections right.
13. What I really want to write about is. First thing in the morning, let your mind roll, and free write for 10 minutes about what I really want to write about is . . .
14. Obsession. Create a character around an obsession. Then throw complications at them. What happens?
15. Opening lines. Write an opening line. Tweak it so that it grabs you. Then write the rest of the book.
16. Write a prologue. Write an action scene with something exciting mysterious, suspenseful, or shocking happening in about a thousand or 2000 words. You may or may not actually use this in your story, but the ideas are what we are after now.
17. The mind map. Write a word or concept in the middle of a sheet of paper. Jot down connections and associations linked to it, in a free-form line and bubble format. At some point, you'll feel a new sense of direction. That is the idea you want.
18. Socko ending. Go ahead and come up with the climactic scene, with music, emotions, and characters. Adjust it until it is unforgettable. Then start backtracking to figure out how you got here.
19. Occupations. Keep track of interesting occupations, take a look at the dictionary of occupational titles from the US Department of Labor, or think about who makes toothpicks or something else that we don't ordinarily pay attention to. Now think about the character to fit that job, or maybe the character who doesn't quite fit?
20. Desperation. Write anyway. Put down words, one after another, without paying attention to whether it's good or not. Just write. Let your mind suggest things. What was that? Okay, write about that. And then . . .

That's Bell's list. A bit long, but I wanted to just get it down so that you got something to think about. One of the important points I think is to have several idea starters that you are comfortable with and use regularly. Picking three random words out of the dictionary, take two random quotes and call me in the morning, whatever works for you. And practice them. As Bell suggests, having a regular time when we're sprouting ideas helps our mind to decide that it's okay to have ideas now. And pretty soon you may find that you have more ideas than you know what to do with. Guess what, the next section is about how to nurture ideas. How to take a rough idea, polish it a little bit, and then decide whether or not it's worth following up. But we'll do that in the next session, okay?

This week, gives sprouting ideas a try. See if you can come up with a list of 20 ideas using one or more of Bell's techniques.

tink
(I hope this is the next one - I'm still reeling from return jetlag, and not sure which way is up. More soon :-)

FILL: Random acts of kindness?

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Originally posted 11 July 2007

The early morning news show here in Japan had a section on the summer mystery. Apparently some one has been leaving 10,000 yen notes around. Not loose, exactly. Instead, they're in a nice envelope, addressed something like "to someone who needs it" (I wasn't really paying close attention, so that translation may be pretty garbled), and with a note inside along with one 10,000 yen bill. That's about $100, not big money, but a nice surprise.

The note says something like "I am independently wealthy. Please use this money for personal improvement."

Apparently about 360 of these giveaways have been reported. All across Japan, including Okinawa. The handwritten notes have been compared, and a handwriting expert says they are not all written by the same person. So there may be more than one person involved in this.

I find it somewhat surprising that about 360 people reported this. I wonder how many simply pocketed the money?

These presents are being found in public restrooms for men, often in courthouses and other public buildings.

It's an interesting mystery. Why is someone giving away money? How can we encourage more people to join in? I think we need copycat do-gooders just as much as copycat criminals :-)

What would you do with a hundred dollars?

(obligatory writing comment: just imagine three different characters finding such envelopes in the bathroom. What do they do with it? How does their handling of the unexpected provide us with the insights into their character?)

TECH: A Tall Dark Man?

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Writer's Digest, May 2005, pages 38 to 41, has an article by I. J. Schecter with the title, "The Right Look," discussing physical descriptions of characters. Portraits in words, so to speak.

"It's hard for readers to connect with someone they can't picture. That's why it's your job to ensure that if characters in your story were to jump off the page and walk down the street, they'd be instantly recognizable. Painting a character's portrait can be accomplished in just a paragraph or two as long as it's done right."

Schecter points out that there are two reasons that a good physical portrait helps your story. "First, it teaches the reader something about the character's background, habits or lifestyle." We're used to interpreting physical features as signs of background. So go ahead and use it. "The second major benefit of solid physical description is that it provides a window into the character's physical or emotional world." Again, we all know or like to think we know how to interpret various physical features.

Some of the key techniques to show us the physical identity of a character include:

1. Make your description entertaining and relevant. Be careful to fit things into the context of the story -- adding a peg leg just so that you can tell us about it isn't a good idea -- but idiosyncratic characteristics described in suitable ways can be very good.

2. Use indirect description. Instead of directly describing things, use viewpoints and actions of others to suggest. Don't be afraid to hint at something, and then let us as readers wonder about it for a while before we find out just what it is.

3. Resist over-describing. "As in all writing, when it comes to physical description, less is more. Seldom do you need more than a few details, judiciously placed." Make them potent, distinctive, and don't waste words.

4. Avoid vague or muddled imagery. You want the reader to read the passage once and immediately know the character. You need a strong definitive picture.

"The difference between unfocused writing and thoughtful, engaging character description is the difference between accepting your first effort and pushing yourself to keep at it until it's exact. Be the kind of writer who accepts only exactness."

The article comes with a useful checklist for your character descriptions:

1. Reading this, do I get an immediate, distinct impression of this person's appearance?
2. Is there anything cliched or generic about the description? Could the words I'm using be applied to lots of different people?
3. Is the description excessive? Would readers be more intrigued if they didn't know as much about this person's appearance right away?

And, just for fun, they even have exercises! I'm going to summarize it rather than quoting it.

1. Pick a random character.
2. Put them in a new setting.
3. Write three paragraphs. In each one, physically describe this character in this setting. Paragraph 1 is from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. Paragraph 2 is a description from the point of view of a friend of the character. Paragraph 3 is a description from the point of view of an enemy.
4. Read your three paragraphs, evaluating the power, precision, and consistency. Revise them to be more specific, and more evocative.

Repeat this same exercise with someone from the real world. Put them in the opening scene of a novel. Make sure that an anonymous stranger reading the novel would recognize the person.

Feel free to repeat as desired with characters from fiction and from the real world. Use settings both real and fictional.

Think of it as quick sketches for the word artist.
tink
Play it again, Sam?