ext_88293 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
mbarker.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
writercises2011-02-11 10:15 pm
mbarker.livejournal.com) wrote in writercises2011-02-11 10:15 pm
Entry tags:
TECH: Where do you get your ideas? (3)
Original Posting 27 Dec 2010
And while I'm cleaning up the scraps of paper from my desk, there's one more in this collection. It says:
Neil Gaiman
"The ideas aren't the hard bit. ..."
You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions.
What if ...
If only ...
I wonder ...
If this goes on ...
Wouldn't it be interesting if ...
"An idea doesn't have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating."
Juxtaposition -- two or more together
ideas + make things up convincingly and interestingly and new
And Dr. Google shows that this is based on an article over here
http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Where_do_you_get_your_ideas%3F
"The Ideas aren't the hard bit. They're a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you're trying to build: making it interesting, making it new."
So get the ideas. But then spin some characters, a setting, a plot, and write!
"You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if...?"
And once you have some what if ideas, how do you get a plot?
"An idea doesn't have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating. Plots often generate themselves when one begins to ask oneself questions about whatever the starting point is."
Bang some ideas together and see what happens!
Go ahead and read Neil Gaiman's posting. Then let the ideas flow.
What if? If only? I wonder? If this goes on? Wouldn't it be interesting if?
And pick one or two out of that flow, then put them together with characters in conflict in a scene, and wrap the words around your vision so that we can all see what you are showing us.
Write!
And while I'm cleaning up the scraps of paper from my desk, there's one more in this collection. It says:
Neil Gaiman
"The ideas aren't the hard bit. ..."
You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions.
What if ...
If only ...
I wonder ...
If this goes on ...
Wouldn't it be interesting if ...
"An idea doesn't have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating."
Juxtaposition -- two or more together
ideas + make things up convincingly and interestingly and new
And Dr. Google shows that this is based on an article over here
http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Where_do_you_get_your_ideas%3F
"The Ideas aren't the hard bit. They're a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you're trying to build: making it interesting, making it new."
So get the ideas. But then spin some characters, a setting, a plot, and write!
"You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if...?"
And once you have some what if ideas, how do you get a plot?
"An idea doesn't have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating. Plots often generate themselves when one begins to ask oneself questions about whatever the starting point is."
Bang some ideas together and see what happens!
Go ahead and read Neil Gaiman's posting. Then let the ideas flow.
What if? If only? I wonder? If this goes on? Wouldn't it be interesting if?
And pick one or two out of that flow, then put them together with characters in conflict in a scene, and wrap the words around your vision so that we can all see what you are showing us.
Write!