TECH: More Ideas?
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writercisesOriginal Posting 15 Feb 2013
Agus asked about how to generate ideas, and I was about set to point to a stack of old postings, and then I decided that would be silly. Let's take another shot at that problem.
So, I thought I would talk about an idea that's been kicking around for a while. Depending on where you are coming from, it might be called a morphological matrix, or maybe a Zwicky box (there was a guy called Zwicky, you see, and he probably didn't go near a bar, but he got his name on the things anyway), or I've seen them called simply idea matrixes (which should be matrices, but we'll skip lightly past the problems of English spelling today, okay?).
Whatever you call them, the basic concept is pretty simple. Take a piece of paper and draw columns on it (or a handy spreadsheet, or even a table in a word processor of your choice would probably work). Put your categories in it. If you're doing systems analysis, these would be the parts of your system. Since you're likely doing story stuff, try some categories such as setting, characters, motivation, obstacles?
Or if you are trying out scene-sequel sequences, I suppose you could use the categories from that. Let's see, Jack Bickham and Jim Butcher, incidentally, also recommend the scene-sequel sequence. Goal, obstacle, failure, reaction, dilemma, decision? I think Jack used something like goal, obstacle, disaster, and then emotional reaction, rational consideration, and planning, but basically the same steps. Put those in the column headings.
I have to admit, I think this will work best with more of a generic set of categories. Might take one of the 20 Master Plots (psst? Over here http://writercises.livejournal.com/47510.html) and pull out the main elements needed as your column headings. Or perhaps settings, characters, and genre or plot (heck, use the Save the Cat genres and you already have one column filled in! Monster in the house, The Golden fleece, Out of the bottle, Dude with a problem, Rites of passage! Buddy love, Whydunit, The fool triumphant, Institutionalized, Superhero -- some details here http://writercises.livejournal.com/313019.html). Hum, add obstacles in there as a heading. Scene-sequel, while it does include steps, always feels like a very fine-grained approach to individual scenes to me. But use what you like!
Next comes the fun part. Mark out 10 or so rows under those headings. And take one column at a time, and fill in possible alternatives. That's right, dream up ten possible settings you would like to write about. Then forget those, and move on to the next column. Dream up ten characters you would like to write about. Fill in your table. As much as possible, don't think about the other columns while you are focusing on one.
This is where some random stimulation or metaphoric help can come in handy, incidentally. Random stimulation? Flip your dictionary, or try Wikipedia, a quotes site, or some such, and see what their random search pops up. Use that to kick your ideas. Metaphoric help? Well, the six most commonly used business metaphors in the US are journey, game, war, machine, organism, and society. So people tend to think of what they are doing in terms of some kind of journey. Or game! Sometimes war. Or perhaps they see it all as some kind of war? Then there are the various living comparisons, and naturally, social comparisons. Do you see some possible variations to fill in the boxes in your matrix from thinking about those metaphors?
When you have your matrix filled in, here's the next step. Using dice or something else to get a random selection, pick one from each column. That's right, just like role playing, but using your ideas. Pick a setting, character(s), and the rest. Don't discard it because you hadn't thought about your military character being stuck in a beauty parlor -- play with that idea, and see what happens!
All right? Set up the columns, fill in the rows, and then mix-n-match to see what kind of tale you are going to do today.
It's one way of organizing the generation of alternatives, and then forcing you to consider some combinations that you might not normally come up with. They may not all work for you, but it's something to try. And even when it doesn't work, you can look at what's not working, and use that to learn something. So you can't lose!
Write?
Agus asked about how to generate ideas, and I was about set to point to a stack of old postings, and then I decided that would be silly. Let's take another shot at that problem.
So, I thought I would talk about an idea that's been kicking around for a while. Depending on where you are coming from, it might be called a morphological matrix, or maybe a Zwicky box (there was a guy called Zwicky, you see, and he probably didn't go near a bar, but he got his name on the things anyway), or I've seen them called simply idea matrixes (which should be matrices, but we'll skip lightly past the problems of English spelling today, okay?).
Whatever you call them, the basic concept is pretty simple. Take a piece of paper and draw columns on it (or a handy spreadsheet, or even a table in a word processor of your choice would probably work). Put your categories in it. If you're doing systems analysis, these would be the parts of your system. Since you're likely doing story stuff, try some categories such as setting, characters, motivation, obstacles?
Or if you are trying out scene-sequel sequences, I suppose you could use the categories from that. Let's see, Jack Bickham and Jim Butcher, incidentally, also recommend the scene-sequel sequence. Goal, obstacle, failure, reaction, dilemma, decision? I think Jack used something like goal, obstacle, disaster, and then emotional reaction, rational consideration, and planning, but basically the same steps. Put those in the column headings.
I have to admit, I think this will work best with more of a generic set of categories. Might take one of the 20 Master Plots (psst? Over here http://writercises.livejournal.com/47510.html) and pull out the main elements needed as your column headings. Or perhaps settings, characters, and genre or plot (heck, use the Save the Cat genres and you already have one column filled in! Monster in the house, The Golden fleece, Out of the bottle, Dude with a problem, Rites of passage! Buddy love, Whydunit, The fool triumphant, Institutionalized, Superhero -- some details here http://writercises.livejournal.com/313019.html). Hum, add obstacles in there as a heading. Scene-sequel, while it does include steps, always feels like a very fine-grained approach to individual scenes to me. But use what you like!
Next comes the fun part. Mark out 10 or so rows under those headings. And take one column at a time, and fill in possible alternatives. That's right, dream up ten possible settings you would like to write about. Then forget those, and move on to the next column. Dream up ten characters you would like to write about. Fill in your table. As much as possible, don't think about the other columns while you are focusing on one.
This is where some random stimulation or metaphoric help can come in handy, incidentally. Random stimulation? Flip your dictionary, or try Wikipedia, a quotes site, or some such, and see what their random search pops up. Use that to kick your ideas. Metaphoric help? Well, the six most commonly used business metaphors in the US are journey, game, war, machine, organism, and society. So people tend to think of what they are doing in terms of some kind of journey. Or game! Sometimes war. Or perhaps they see it all as some kind of war? Then there are the various living comparisons, and naturally, social comparisons. Do you see some possible variations to fill in the boxes in your matrix from thinking about those metaphors?
When you have your matrix filled in, here's the next step. Using dice or something else to get a random selection, pick one from each column. That's right, just like role playing, but using your ideas. Pick a setting, character(s), and the rest. Don't discard it because you hadn't thought about your military character being stuck in a beauty parlor -- play with that idea, and see what happens!
All right? Set up the columns, fill in the rows, and then mix-n-match to see what kind of tale you are going to do today.
It's one way of organizing the generation of alternatives, and then forcing you to consider some combinations that you might not normally come up with. They may not all work for you, but it's something to try. And even when it doesn't work, you can look at what's not working, and use that to learn something. So you can't lose!
Write?
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