writercises | Entries tagged with brainstorms

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 18:35:02 JST

Since I'm re-reading "Becoming a Technical Leader" by Gerald Weinberg (ISBN 0-932633-02-1) and someone asked about finishing pieces...

Weinberg suggests that change happens when the environment has three ingredients:

Motivation--trophies, rewards, trouble, some push or pull that moves the people involved. So consider what kind of reward you'll have when you finish a piece. Make it something you like or want, something you can control, and something that you won't let yourself have if you don't finish.

Organization--the existing structure that enables the ideas to be worked through into practice. Outlines, old plots, some of those books on writing that gather dust in many libraries, or some other skeleton that lets you work through the idea to the end. Or maybe knowing that you promised this bunch that you would finish (even if the promise is all in your own mind!). Make sure there is a method and steps to reach the goal behind your madness, then do it.

Ideas or innovation--the seeds, the image of what will become. You need some idea of what you are trying to build as a whole. Is it a novel, short story, poem? What genre? What kinds of writing skills are you trying to build up this time (e.g. maybe you really want to put in pages and pages of dialogue, or action-packed narrative, or even the lazy description of the countryside)? Take at least a few moments to dream about what kind of overall structure you are working on. Some people do well with a detailed outline, others just jot a few notes about the main points, and some scribble a note about the ending, then set out boldly. Whatever method you prefer, give yourself a chance to think about the whole work every now and then--step back from the canvas and look at the piece as a whole.

Okay? So set yourself up with motivation, organization, and ideas, then write!

Since the flow of ideas is often talked about as the stumbling point, let's see what Weinberg suggests about how to manage that process:

1. Contribute clever ideas--or at least grab them and hold onto them when they come by (he mentions that there are very few new ideas).

2. Encourage copying useful ideas. read about them, summarize them in your own terms, study, and steal proudly (be careful to mix them up and sand off the labels so they look more like your ideas...)

3. Elaborate on ideas. polish, rearrange, and perfect the ideas. Don't be afraid to reuse your own notions, extended, simplified, and in a different spotlight...

4. Let go of ideas when another one wants to be developed, and don't let an idea drop until you have finished it. Contradictory! But you need to be able to let go of some ideas when something else really calls to you--and you need to make sure you have taken an idea you are working on as far as possible before you drop it. At least make notes so you can come back to it later.

5. Resist time pressure, and take the time to listen to yourself explain your own idea. One of the hardest parts of developing an idea is slowing down enough to really let yourself develop it. I find myself making fevered little notes and scraps...then losing interest. BUT if I put those away and wait a while, then come back, there often is a good idea in there (after I throw away some of the froth that came with the first enthusiasm). It's important not to hurry it, either in the development or in the discarding.

6. Try ideas suggested by other people. Luckily, we aren't restricted to inventing everything ourselves. There are books and magazines out there full of writing, discussions of writing, and other interesting topics. Dig through some of that and borrow...

7. Withhold quick criticism of ideas. Don't shoot down your own ideas too fast. Give yourself a while to work with it, develop it, let it link up with other ideas, and so on.

8. When you do criticize the idea, be careful to criticize the idea, not yourself. Even smart people have stupid ideas. Don't cut yourself down--just chop the idea into kindling for the next mindblaze, and go on with the knowledge that you are stronger, smarter, and a real thinker for having the idea, even if it was a bit wild.

9. Test your own ideas before spending much time on them. There are lots of ideas around. Admittedly, you don't want to kill off a notion too fast, but you also don't need to spend the next 20 years trying to force one idea into words. If you don't see how to develop it now--make a note, and go on to something else.

10. (and the companion notion) When the time comes, stop working on new ideas and pitch in! Sometimes forcing yourself to work on that notion, even if it isn't clear or you aren't quite sure what to do with it, will help. An easy trap is to keep looking for the next good idea...and never spend the time to finish one.

My own trick to this is to set a quota--five new ideas or ten, something like that. Lay them out fast and furious, then pick one that looks best and start working on turning that into a complete story. If I can't get anywhere with it, I've still got several ideas to "fall back" on, but usually I can work that one out. But I make myself stop dreaming up new ideas and get down to the nitty-gritty (sometimes), even though I really like coming up with ideas more than finishing them...

11. Don't be afraid to drop ideas that had succeeded earlier, but don't extend to the present situation. E.g., maybe one of our Dead White Males could get away with massive chapters detailing the exact methods of fishing for mammals and rendering the results, but most publishers aren't very interested in seeing a chapter like that now. Or maybe you've started every story with a line of dialogue, but it doesn't seem to be working for your current story.

12. Revive ideas later, when they fit another part of the problem. Those discarded ideas or methods may be just the right thing at a different point. Don't be afraid to change your mind, and write the second chapter from the pet's viewpoint, or whatever...

So--motivate yourself, organize yourself, and get those ideas rolling. Then manage the flow of ideas so that you know which one you are working on now, and don't stop the flow for later, but don't get drowned in it while you are polishing one glittering gem...

But don't forget that there are lots of gems in the flow, so don't get too hung up on today's piece of fool's gold, either.

Mostly, write!

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Another Try, Josh Turner

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Sun, 3 Apr 1994 18:35:02 JST

Exercise 10. Putting it all in pieces

In Strunk & White parody:

1. Set yourself a quota of alternatives (Exercise 1. Just One More!)
2. Challenge assumptions and boundaries (Exercise 2. Why? And again, Why?)
3. Challenge dominant ideas and crucial factors (Exercise 3. Get out of the dungeon and out of the shackles)
4. Break patterns into parts and reassemble in new ways (Exercise 4. Divide and Combine)
5. Try reversing the "accepted wisdom" (Exercise 5. Take a Giant Step Backwards)
6. Stretch your wings with analogy (Exercise 6. As if it were a... Duck!)
7. Try different starting points and look for missing information (Exercise 7. Look Here, then there - and please don't look behind the curtain)
8. Cultivate random stimuli (Exercise 8. Take a Chance)
9. Change labels and divisions (Exercise 9. New pigeonholes deserve new labels)
10. Put opposites, unrelated, and rejected notions to work (Exercise 10. Putting it all in pieces)

What all of these methods help you to do is create new patterns of thought and challenge old patterns. By juxtaposition, random stimuli, and taking intuitive leaps, new patterns of thought are revealed. By accepting doubtful points and letting yourself be wrong, even more new patterns are likely to become available.

Incidentally, we are not challenging old patterns of thought on the basis of their wrongness, nor does it matter how well justified (or rationalized) the old patterns of thought may be. The point of these exercises is to remind us to explore and collect alternatives, to search out other truths without in any way discarding those truths with which we are already familiar. Or, to put it another way, mom's grilled cheese sandwich will always taste good, no matter how many other fine foods and exotic meals we may try - but aren't you glad you don't have to eat grilled cheese for every meal?

Final Exercises:

Just three small ones - go back and review the rest of the exercises if you want more...

1. Reunite opposites
This is simple - take opposites, or divided concepts, and consider them joined and merged. What, for example, would a democratic dictatorship look like? Can you imagine gentle hate? Brilliant darkness? Free imprisonment? Or captive freedom? There is a tendency to "splinter" experience into little categories and consider those pieces separately - this is a deliberate attempt to overcome that.

2. Unite the unrelated
A related approach is taking those things that "everyone knows" have nothing to do with each other - and considering them as related. It really doesn't matter if there is a "causal chain" or other link - dream up your own reasons why the health of the elm tree outside and the mental health of the patients inside are linked. Or perhaps the condition of his shoes has a direct effect on the likelihood of winning at cards... or...

3. Re-examine rejected ideas
That can't be - we know the history of science and progress practically consists of hearing the pronouncements of savants and common sense going "pop!" Yet we all constantly and consistently persist in rejecting, banning, and outlawing ideas - usually without ever taking the time to really look at them.

Try this - take an idea that cannot be true. List the reasons - the negatives that make it a really dumb idea. Then take that list, and flip those negatives - consider that the exact opposite might be true for just a little while. Flip the whole list, then take another look at that "dumb idea." Does it start to look a little less impossible? In any case, don't be too hasty to reject ideas. The "stick ups" that everyone loves so much came from someone making up a batch of glue that didn't quite do the job - and taking the time to think about what it might be good for, instead of just tossing it out the back door. Maybe your great brainstorm is hiding in an idea that "everyone knows" is worthless - except you take the time to cultivate that straggling thought and figure out where it fits.

That's the basics. Hopefully, some of you will try these out, and find out that those "fixed patterns of thought" aren't fixed at all. These are some ways to shake them loose and start building new ones. It certainly isn't all there is to writing stories, but I think it can be a useful tool in your toolkit. At least people won't be quite as likely to sigh and say, well, there isn't anything new here... since you took the old idea and recreated it into an IDEA!

Current Mood: turnip greens
Current Music: Good Directions, Billy Currington

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 18:35:01 JST

Exercise 9. New pigeonholes deserve new labels

Well, we're almost done. We've done repetitions, pushed the mental muscles outside the skin they grew in, broken the poles holding the mental tent in place, stood on our heads, and even played games of chance to break out of the routine. Today, we're going to push at a subtle, yet pervasive part of the thinking process - labels.

Let me suggest some background which helps to explain why we might want to mess with the names and labels we use. This is sketchy, as trying to cover the details would make this exercise even longer than I usually ramble.

The buzzing, humming confusion - the total experiential "shell" that we find ourself in - is very rarely attended to in toto. Most of the time, we divide it up, and only pay attention to some part(s) of the environment.

Now, names are labels - convenient mental shorthand for a piece of the environment. Myths are mental patterns applied to this "piecemeal" environment.

The tricky part of this process is polarization - there is a tendency for established patterns and pieces to "eat" new ones. We encounter something in the environment, identify (even enphasizing and distorting, if needed) similarities and differences to match existing labels, and swallow that new experience without ever noticing that it isn't quite the same...

So once we "tag" something, we lose awareness of its uniqueness, its differences. It is hard to "see" Wallie in the midst of all the other people.

While we could try to work at increasing the awareness of uniqueness and so forth (and we've seen some ways to push at breaking boundaries and other blockages of thought that help make up the stolid patterns), one of the easier ways to attack this is through paying attention to the names, the labels, the verbal shorthand that makes it so easy to ignore what is "really" happening "out there."

There are three basic tactics to weakening our label use. First, challenge labels. Don't just use them, don't just accept them, say - whoa! that's a label, but that's not a tin can I just slapped it on. Let me peel that label off and throw it away, so I can look at what's underneath again.

Second, very hard, is to try to abolish labels. Not too long ago, Bill Siers had us write a short description of a storm - without using the ordinary labels for many of the storm phenomena (e.g. rain, lightning, etc.) That is excellent practice - take a set of labels and remove them from your writing.

Third, an exciting one for writers, is to try new labels. Take some chunks of experience and invent labels for them. Depending on what you pick, you may need verbs, nouns, or even something outside the normal grammatical categories. Then write your piece, using the new labels, showing us what they mean in action. In many ways, new labels (new words) imply new thinking - and that's always nice!

The Final (almost) Day of Practice:

the warp of the exercises has been these four strands (often recommended in books of writing as useful for weaving a magic carpet)

a. Description
b. Character
c. Conflict/Problems
d. Solutions

You might consider how those underlie and braid with these woof threads.

1. Find the labels used in a piece - take an article or story and pick out the labels used. Pay special attention to those which are used without definition or specification of any kind - those rascals are danger signals, waiting for semantic stumblers to set them off. This practice will help you notice when you use similar labels in your writing - and let you think about whether they are doing the job you want to do.

2. Rewrite without the labels. (try to keep the meaning; then try to develop new meanings) Take a piece, identify a set of labels, then pull them out. Don't destroy the meaning, but replace every occurrence of the label(s) with specifics, with sensory images, with the tin can that was hiding under the label. Don't forget, you're welcome to use a can opener - and your readers will enjoy being able to taste the food instead of just looking at the picture on the label.

3. Rewrite with all new words - none the same. Take a piece, then rewrite it. Try to retain the same meaning, the same thoughts, but don't use any of the original words. If nothing else, you'll get some good vocabulary practice out of this - and usually you'll find that rewriting like this helps you really see what was hidden in the words, makes you very aware of parts that weren't clearly visualized or thought through, and makes the meaning "come alive" for you.

4. Make a list of "missing label" concepts - and name them. This is one that I enjoy playing with whenever I have a few minutes. Look around, then think about some concepts which don't have names or labels (or at least that you don't know the labels for!). Make up a list of "missing labels," provide at least thumbnail definitions or sketches of what they mean, and think about using one or more in a story that shows the reader what they have been missing in life by not knowing that storm shadows, for example, are the "holes" in reflections in a lake. Or that if storm shadows meet and completely cover a lake, the lake disappears into the storm and is replaced with the soul of the storm...

You can also do more prosaic gaming, of course. Is there a label for the top of a tin can cut loose from the can? I don't think so - now what kind of person would collect those shiny discards, and why? Or perhaps we need another "couch potato" label for the "t.v. game addicts" - not the shows, those game computers that seem to hypnotize their players for hours...

Go for it! Linguistic labels, unlike those on your mattress, are not protected by law, and you have every right to remove them, switch them around, and add some of your own. Have fun - and here's hoping your brainstorms earn some wonderful labels for the author behind them!

Current Mood: focused
Current Music: What Hurts The Most, Rascal Flatts

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

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

Deliberate chance

Random word from dictionary
Random book
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...

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: Gravedigger, Willie Nelson

mbarker.livejournal.com

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!

Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: You Do Your Thing, Montgomery Gentry

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 18:35:02 JST

Exercise 6. As if it were a... Duck!

This time, we're focusing on a method of "thinking" that isn't commonly recognized in the sciences and other "logical" fields, but has very important uses in the writing field. Perhaps we should say it is one of the strongest plants growing in that field, and can provide you with some very good timbers for building your house of writing.

To be specific, this is the method of thinking by analogy - using the concrete and familiar as simile, metaphor, and transforming focus for thinking. It can be extremely powerful as a way of looking at processes, relationships, and other abstractions such as change, development, and activities.

The basic rule for using an analogy is simple: relate your subject to the analogy, develop the analogy, and then relate the developments back to the subject.

I should warn you - use this method to generate ideas, questions, new approaches. Don't worry about whether the analogy is correct. You're NOT proving anything, you are simply developing ideas.

You don't need to fret about picking an analogy that "fits" well. In fact, some of the best ideas come from using analogies that don't (at first) seem suitable.

Today's Practice

Here are four of the "subjects" we've used in previous exercises. Pick one and then try the different 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

oh - almost forgot - pick one of the following

a pet animal (be specific!)
a grinding mill
a car
a kitchen utensil (be specific!)
a natural sound
a tornado
a playground thing (slide, junglegym, etc. - be specific)
brewing tea

1. Looking at different ways to relate - now, on one side, you've got your subject, and on the other, one of the specific analog-mobiles from the short list above. Set yourself a quota, then try thinking of different ways that these might be related. Perhaps they are similar, perhaps opposed, perhaps one contains the other, perhaps one is just a tiny little seed that grows into the other - dream up some different ways that these could be related. I often trade off - first a relation from subject to analog, then one from analog to subject.

2. changing the viewpoint and links as you develop - okay, having related your subject and the mobile, look at the mobile. Put it (at least mentally) through its paces, twisting it, running it, watching the kids jump on it, the sun beat on it, and maybe even having a major crack-up with it. Along the way, take a glance back at the subject now and then, and readjust the view and the links between the two whenever you want to or need to. One of the nice things about concrete analogs is that we "know" pretty well what happens to them, how they interact with other things, how they fall apart, who fixes them, and so on. So when we "walk" that pattern, we can look back at the subject and try to come up with matching (contrasting, complementary, etc.) pieces for it. I mean - you take your car to the mechanic when it needs repair, right? Who do you take a flower to when it needs fixing? Can you get a new muffler for it? Why not?

3. developing details and reviewing major points - as with the previous step, you can look at the details of the analog - and then see what that points to in the subject. Set a quota, rumble through details and bits of the analog, and see what they suggest about the subject. Don't forget to review the main points, highlighting them as you develop.

4. abstracting processes, functions, and relationships from concrete examples - systems people love processes, functions, and relationships, and you should too. These are abstractions - what process(es) does something follow or use? What functions does it perform? What relationships does it have both internally and externally?

Okay - take your analog-mobile, and consider those questions in regard to it. Meet your quotas of ideas, and don't forget to look back at the subject to see what light the answers throw on it. You can start a car with a key - does a barn have a starter? What's the key?

5. make lists of analogies to be used - by now, you may be tired of the analog-mobile you've been using. so, change it! pick pieces of the external world, and make a list (another quota? this guy just doesn't quit, does he?). I'll suggest that making a list of analogies now (and adding to it sometimes) can be very helpful - especially when you take some favorite ones and apply them to a new subject, whether it seems to match initially or not. Try to use very concrete things that you know pretty well - these are the richest analogies for you. E.g., penguins (while I think they are cute and do like to watch shows about them) aren't especially good for me, because there is so much I don't know about them. Mongrel dogs, on the other hand, I have raised many times, from that first whimper in the animal shelter to the final goodbyes.

6. take 1 subject, develop multiple analogies - so, having decided on a subject, stretch your wings! bang it against several analogies, and see how it and the analogies develop.

7. take 1 analogy, develop multiple topics - you can also reverse this, taking a favorite analogy and banging it against multiple topics. you'll find the analogy gaining in depth and richness - and may end up with threads between the topics that you never knew were there before.

So - don't let your subjects drag, let the duck honk at them and brighten up their darkness with analogy.

Current Mood: working
Current Music: Fall, Clay Walker

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 18:35:02 JST

Another principle of lateral thinking is that starting at the other end is sometimes better than starting at the beginning. You may have learned this as a kid, playing with the mazes on the restaurant placemats - starting at the end was almost always much easier than starting at the beginning.

Whether you learned it then or not, the trick here is to take the goal, pattern or other thought - then reverse it! Try it upside down, insight out, and backwards! You may be surprised to discover that it makes more sense that way - or at least leads to new ways of thinking about it.

Instead of Jane going to a bar to meet boys - maybe she takes up part-time delivery of pizzas, guessing that there will more than likely be a few groups of boys ordering pizzas. Or she gets into a department store and pushes for the sports equipment department... simple - she decided to have the boys meet her. Of course, maybe she reverses the "cliche" to "I want to hunt boys" - with the aid of her pack of dogs, perhaps?

I don't want to meet boys - that declaration by the teenage heroine might be even better. No way is she going to put up with those idiots...

Or what if instead of your hero not having a date for the night, he has four! Different girls, different attractions, and oh, how is he going to handle this embarrassment of riches...

Difficult? Not really - just remember to look for alternatives, to stretch beyond the "obvious". Set your own quota, and enjoy letting your mind toss up new and wonderous ways of looking at that "old" material - then settle down to the work of telling everyone about your IDEAS. And watch the editors perk up and take notice.

Always start by simply reversing. If you say "this is the way it is," try saying "this is NOT the way it is." Then move on to further reversals, and see what happens.

Exercise 5. Take a Giant Step Backwards

1. Aphorism - take your book of quotations, aphorisms, or even one of the QOTD statements. Now, flip it. Read it backwards. If it is positive, what is the opposed negative statement? (or vice-versa?) See how many different versions you can make - and look at the notions that come from considering "One Country, Over God"... or whatever you came up with...

2. Description - take a description (or write one). Then reverse it. If you started with details, then generalized, run it the other way. Stand on your head and look at that barn again! Look at the shadows alone - and describe only those! or... Perhaps one of the most common "hooks" is to take some common assumption, something "everyone knows" and start by saying it isn't so... then develop from there. The old barn wasn't picturesque, it was just rotten. The honeysuckle stank in the sunshine. Go on.. tell us something we don't know!

3. Character - reversal can be a powerful approach, both to developing a character (start with what you want them to do, then figure out what kind of person does that kind of thing!) and to surprising us with details of the character. The churchgoing man who is generous with money, friendly, etc. - and chokes a prostitute to death each month - is more chilling than the common ordinary joe, in some ways. Anyway - take statements, psychological factors, or whatever, and try reversing, negating, and otherwise breaking the ordinary chains of logic. You may be surprised at the character that comes surging out...

4. Conflict/Problems - so many people tell us that problems are opportunities in disguise. Still, it can be interesting to reverse the problem - instead of your hero lacking the money to take a trip, perhaps he lacks the trip to make money? or has too much money to take a trip? or even is forced to go on a trip, draining his financial resources even further? Reverse, inside out, and backwards - fill out your quota, and then look at the strange problems and conflicts you've created and write up one of the more interesting ones!

5. Solutions - the heroine lost her last jewel... and learned that her riches were unending! that one's hokey, but having your readers guess the ending after reading the first sentence isn't good, and reversing the solution is one way of trying out some different attacks on the logic of the reader. Pick your solution, then set a quota and do your reversals, upside-down looking, and other twisters. Then work back from the crazy solution to the insane conflict that requires it, and the odd characters who live it... and tell us a story that wakes up the sense of wonder!

Ever watch an old film run backwards - or push the reverse on your VCR? There are some interesting, funny things that happen when the water climbs back into the glass, and people sit down and carefully take a whole meal out of their mouths and wrap it back up to turn it in at the counter, getting a full refund... watch for them!

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

So far, we've been playing with the patterns of thought we may have, looking at quotas of alternatives, pushing the boundaries around, moving the tent poles holding them up, but we haven't really tried to change the patterns too much. This exercise starts to rebuild the patterns, which can be somewhat surprising in its results.

The main point here is that most patterns consist of smaller pieces. You've probably learned how to divide patterns into various "approved" characteristics, pieces, etc. For example, you may have learned something like thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

But there is an important difference in the approach we'll be taking, because we aren't looking for the "true" parts, the "real" way of breaking the pattern into smaller pieces, just some ways of subdividing the mess. You don't have to include all the parts, some of the pieces may overlap, and if it doesn't quite fit, go ahead and use a hammer.

Then feel free to combine the parts, or build up again. In a sense, this is an experiment in breaking down and putting back together the patterns you are working with, with the deliberate intent of exploring the various ways you might do this.

Even splitting into two parts, then splitting those into two parts, etc. - very simple binary fission - is sometimes better (in terms of provoking new thoughts) than using the same old patterns.

Exercise 4. Divide and Combine

0. NO IDEAS? Okay - take your favorite book, childtime story, even that silly country and western tune playing on the radio. There's a pattern - what are the parts? how many different sets of building blocks can you divide it into? suppose you pull the evil stepmother out of cinderella and put in..? or what if you rearrange, and build it again? don't forget to push the boundaries out, challenge assumptions, and make those quotas - plenty of ideas will come flowing out of the horn of plenty, you just have to jiggle it a bit...

1. Description - As we've done before, let's start with a description. Now, there are many ways to describe a chunk of buzzing, humming reality. Most writers talk about covering the five senses, design engineers might look at the forces, stresses, and components, and other specialties all have their own particular approaches. Try picking a different field - an artist's shadows, tones, masses, and lines, for example makes a convenient grouping - but do that with your writing! Or invent a new set of parts, then arrange your description according to that way of dividing up the world. As always, set yourself a quota of new ways of breaking up the description - then develop at least that many different ways, select the most interesting one(s), and write!

2. Characters - characters, as we all know, are critical elements in most modern fiction. An interesting problem here is breaking out of the "standard" ways of understanding (or dividing up) the character. Psych and so forth are so well-known that we tend to forget some of the ways that people have "diagnosed" their neighbors over the years - but consider your character through the lens of the medieval "humors" of man, and you may see a different persona come forth. If you don't know any other systems, then it is time to dream a bit - what kind of parts could you divide a person into? how does it change your perception of the character? Set yourself a quota of "building block sets," develop them, then look at your characters again.

3. Conflict/Problems - conflicts or problems tend to seem simple, yet they are almost always made up of several parts. the simplicity lies in our accepting that the "ordinary" parts are the only parts, and that is the point we are moving away from in this exercise. So, take your problem or conflict, develop several different ways of subdividing it, and then look again at how those pieces build up into a problem. Is it still the same problem?

4. Steps toward a solution - the protagonist has a plan, the guy in the black hat has plans, the secretary with his secret night life has plans - and normally we think of those plans as fairly straightforward, simple steps. But perhaps you've had the experience of talking to someone who really believes in magic. The steps, the whole approach to planning they use is very different from what you and I might use. Anyway, pick one of the "plans" of one character, then try breaking it into somewhat different sets of pieces than it seems to have when you first look at it. You may want to change some of the pieces. Put them back together, and see if you've built the same old thing or something new and different.

5. Solutions - like problems and plans, solutions tend to seem simple, especially when you're looking back at it afterwards. But they also consist of parts, and you know what that means! Set yourself a quota, chop it up, next grind it, then cross-cut it, chew on it, slice it, hack it, beat it - break it into pieces lots of different ways, then try putting the pieces back together...

6. [BONUS] - so far, I've been using pretty standard ways of subdividing the pieces of "fiction" or "writing." Guess what - here's another pattern of thought, with assumptions, boundaries, tent poles, and so on. Roll your wrecking crew around a few times if you want!

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Original Posting: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 18:35:02 JST

[for anyone joining now - this is a set of exercises intended to help you develop ideas. the first lesson was to set quotas - push yourself to come up with a set number of alternatives, then choose! the second lesson was to query assumptions and boundaries - those hidden notions behind the obvious. And today...]

Dominant ideas, crucial factors, and levels of abstraction

Just as there are assumptions and boundaries "hidden" in our everyday thinking, there are dominant ideas which often hide alternatives. For example, in medicine, the idea that germs cause disease can hide the fact that we need certain germs to live (matter of fact, there is at least one antibiotic that gives you the most incredible diarrhea, gas, and stomach trouble simply because it kills off the helpful germs that live down there...). It can also hide viruses, deficiencies, and even overdoses.

Again, as with assumptions, first we need to isolate that dominant idea, then set it aside temporarily, reverse it, or otherwise hold it out of the way while we hunt for those ideas that were hiding under its skirts.

Crucial factors are similar - in most cases we think we "know" what the crucial factors are. For example, the crime story "means, opportunity, and motive" are an obvious attempt to classify the three crucial factors in crime. But - there could be other factors. What if the phase of the moon really did make a difference? What if... identify those well-known crucial factors, then push them aside. Consider them as inconsequential. Add other factors. Split them into shivering remnants of themselves that most people wouldn't recognize.

Last, I mentioned levels of abstraction. What this mostly means is that we think of things at certain levels, often without trying to look at either specifics or without going up the ladder to higher levels of abstraction. By now, you should know what I think about that kind of blindness - figure out what level of abstraction you are using, then push it around. What happens when you turn "people" into specific people you know? What happens if you turn "people" into "living beings"? Push and prod at different levels - and see what happens to that simple thought!

Exercise 3. Get out of the dungeon and out of the shackles

1. Take one of your stories (poems, etc.) Identify the "dominant idea". Then identify the crucial factors in the story. Then consider other dominant ideas you could have used. Make a list (QUOTA!) What kind of crucial factors would be involved with those other dominant ideas?

2. Take a popular statement such as "All men are created equal." Now, play with the levels of abstraction in that statement. "All men" obviously can go up or down - George and Ted or All living beings. "created" also can become more or less specific - try "born" or "manufactured". "equal" has so many levels - you pick some. But try finishing the statements
George and Ted were born .....
George and Ted were manufactured .....
All living beings are manufactured .....
All living beings are born .....

3. Description - you might not realize it, but descriptions often are victims of very strong dominant ideas and crucial factors. Consider what you use to describe a flower (building, etc.) The odds are that there is a dominant idea - flowers are attractive, soft, smelly; buildings are ... There are probably also key factors in the description. But suppose someone says "The rose was a dung-heap, stinking of the animal waste that fed its parasitic growth." Kind of a different impression of the rose, eh? Find those dominant ideas, and the crucial factors, then change them!

4. Characters

Pick a character in your own or someone else's story. Now, identify the dominant idea of that personality. Pick out the crucial factors in that character's life. Now, move things around - try a different dominant idea, and changes in the crucial factors. How does the character change? How does their part in the story change?

A variation on this is to consider the dominant idea and crucial factors used in building the character in the story. This is one way of looking at the "style" a writer uses.

5. Conflict/Problems

Go back to a conflict or problem from one of your stories (or one you'd like to write a story about). Identify the dominant idea(s) that make this a problem. Then identify the crucial factors. Then try changing things - what other crucial factors could you use? Are there other dominant ideas? When you change these, what happens to the problem(s)? Suppose the crucial factors really weren't so important - what happens to the problem?

6. Solutions

Same kind of thing - take the solution(s) you are working with, and look for the dominant ideas and crucial factors. Then try identifying alternatives, and see how that changes the solution(s). If you change a factor and nothing happens, maybe it isn't really crucial after all? Are there other things that you could change which would affect the solution? How important are they?

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original posting: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 18:35:01 JST

Hard question: What was the point of the first article in this series?

<silence>

Don't stop with the first answer, set a quota of alternatives and keep going until you've made your quota!

(For anyone tuning in at this point - We're going over a set of exercises intended to exercise the most important muscle in a writer's body - the one between the ears. And like any good muscle-building course, we started with the basics - repetitions. It doesn't do any good to come up with one idea and stop - set yourself a quota and keep on pumping!)

Exercise 2. Why? And again, Why?

Challenge assumptions and boundaries

One of the reasons that an adult can handle most events more easily than a child is that they have an enormous "backlog" of assumptions and boundaries set up to identify and handle whatever is happening. However, these assumptions and boundaries also blind us, and we as writers have to watch for them and challenge them. It isn't easy to see them, but it can be fun.

Trying to do this sometimes seems to be one of the most difficult points for adults - and yet there is a little child's "teasing" that will help you. Have you ever dealt with a child who is at the point where they ask "Why?" repeatedly? Even when you provide one answer, they just keep repeating the question?

Babysitters and parents are fairly wise to this trick, and often go for the simple "because" of authority, the enraged "BECAUSE I SAID SO" of frustration, or the effective "How about an icecream cone?" of diversion.

However, I want you to take a chance and ask yourself why for a while. Start with an action or scene and try to identify the assumptions and boundaries you've put behind and around it. Whenever you find one, ask yourself WHY that is necessary - and then ask yourself WHY again.

Just as an example, let's say I've had my character in a stereotyped attempt to get money from a bank. First assumption that pops to mind is that the best place to borrow money is from a bank. Why? Well, that's where you get ordinary loans. Why? They have a lot of money. Why? who knows... - maybe my character should try for a grant? or... is money really a problem? that's an assumption we often make - suppose the character doesn't buy into that world-view, simply takes money as needed (or uses those wonderful plastic cards and lets their credit hang)..

assumption - business before family. U.S. citizens. No aliens. No magic. No selling the first child to the devil, either. and so on and on - the assumptions in a story are always huge.

The boundaries also are high. We tend to look at a problem and classify it almost immediately, then consider only solutions "inside the bounds" of common sense. But for creativity, we need to slip those boundaries. For example, we look at a business going bankrupt, and we say "AHA! Economic problem. Solutions in morale, new products, loans..."

Suppose we let our minds slide a second, and consider what other kinds of problem we might consider this. Maybe it is an ethical problem? How about a communications problem? Elfen influences? Difficulty with solar flares? Do you see how just by considering the problem as belonging to a different category, you start to see it differently, and the solutions that might be appropriate?

And if you get bored with the ordinary categories - try bending and building categories of your own. Warning! This is much harder than it seems - the categories we use to divide up experience are very deeply ingrained... Possible, and very rewarding, but hard.

(what if a man talked "the evil critter" into taking his LAST child - and then kept insisting he was going to have another any day now, just wait, hold on...)

I'm not sure why that slid in here, but I'm certainly not going to push it out. Maybe it's another solution to the bankrupt business...

Now, some points about pushing assumptions and boundaries. First, when you are doing this, suspend judgment - let yourself be wrong. We are using bent, twisted, new, assumptions and boundaries as a way of exploring, as stepping stones to a new viewpoint, so don't stop and try to decide if it could possibly be right or wrong.

Second, try for variety. Remember, you want to meet or beat your quota of alternatives at each step, and you want to try different ways.

Third, look for newness. As you step back through the assumptions and trace the boundaries you are used to working in, an easy way out is to simply use some other conventional assumptions, or other ordinary boundaries. But sometimes a new thread will drift by, a new way of dividing the world will appear. Grab those, and cherish them.

Fourth, as I mentioned before, avoid evaluation - let "where does this lead?" replace "is this true?" This is partly a mental trick, but is extremely important. If you have to check and prove each step along the way, in most cases you will end up following ordinary, routine paths. But you can step on a cake of ice and off quickly without ever noticing that it sinks a moment later. Use motion, and keep going.

Fifth, watch for assumptions: then question them all the time. Take news articles, and list the assumptions made. Watch for markers like "of course", "as we all know", and other give-away phrases that say "HERE IS AN ASSUMPTION." Jump on those little suckers and tear them to pieces. (Warning - some people find it quite upsetting when you point out the assumptions that they prefer to leave unquestioned. Be cautious about pointing these assumptions out to your friends, although you can still keep track of them yourself...)

Practice!

a. Descriptions - a farm; a townhouse; a flower; an item of your choice. (If you did this exercise last time, you may want to use the same one). First, write a description. Now, look for the assumptions you used in writing the description. What about your description would be totally baffling to an alien from Alpha Centauri? How about a bushman from Australia? Or to a baby still learning about the world? Now, push those assumptions - do you really need them? How far back can you trace them? Suppose they were different?

After that, consider the boundaries you used in your description. Perhaps you mentioned people and a building - are they really separate, or are the boundaries merely convention? Consider the flower and the ground it grows from as one whole entity - does your description change when you do that? Or maybe the sky and the flower?

b. Points of view - again, try pushing the assumptions used to determine point of view. Suppose you wrote a piece in first person, but didn't allow the speaker to observe themselves? Or maybe in the middle of the obvious central figure, there are occasional flashes of other's thoughts? What happens if your narrator is the tree in the front yard of the family house? What happens when the narrator is a liar?

c. Conflict or problems. Start with a problem (conflict) that you have used or may use in a story. Now, make a list of the assumptions that make this a problem. Make another list of the boundaries that fit the problem. Then start bending and pushing those, and watch what happens to the problem.

d. Solutions. Again, start with one problem, and make a list of alternative solutions. Now pick one of those solutions and list the assumptions and boundaries that you used to define it. Bend, push, and twist - and watch the solution warp!

Example - one of my friends was upset with work, and insisted that a trip to London was the perfect solution, but claimed they couldn't do it. I asked why, and they said they didn't have enough vacation time. I pointed out that (a) they hated the job (b) they said the most important thing in their life was this trip and so one. Well, they said they didn't have the money. I asked to see their wallet, and pointed out that they had five or six credit cards - certainly enough to get to London. BUT DIDN'T I UNDERSTAND? THEY WOULD OWE MONEY THEN!!

I asked again just how important this trip was, and we talked quite a while about it.

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Original Posting: Sun, 30 Jan 1994 18:35:02 JST

How do you get your ideas?

Almost every book about writing answers this, sometimes with suggestions about reading, journaling, or filing, sometimes with vague (if inspiring) words about using what's around you.

However, I'm convinced that the real problem isn't getting ideas - we are all bombarded with masses of ideas in the news, magazines, friends' gossip, dreams, books, music, and other interactions that happily fill our time. The real problem is developing ideas - taking ideas and re-creating them into IDEAS, the kind of new and different notion that makes the editors sit up and beg for more of your writing. Perhaps some people have time to wait for ideas like that to turn up, and can patiently collect them, then write stories based on them.

I'm not that patient. I hope you aren't either, because I want to show you how to take whatever ideas you may have right now and develop them into whole sprays of new and exciting ideas.

That skill - the care and breeding of alternatives, if you will - receives little mention in most of the writing books. I won't swear to make you a great writer, but if you try these exercises, I think you'll become a better imagineer - and that's a critical part of the writer's toolkit.

So hang on tight, and let's plunge into the wild side of the brain, where connections and logical thinking aren't as important as the slides and slips, the sudden vistas, of intuitive leaps.

What we're going to do is tramp through some exercises. Each one focuses on a single point, or theme, intended to help you develop ideas. While the points are borrowed from Edward De Bono's "Lateral Thinking", I've aimed quite specifically at re-creating the exercises for writers. (For anyone interested in building up a toolkit of methods to stimulate ideas, De Bono has a series of books).

Exercise 1. Just One More!

Set a specific number (at least 5; probably less than 20 at least to start) of alternatives that you will create. Then pick some of these and write those lists! Making yourself meet a quota of alternatives is one of the first steps in exercising your imagination.

Descriptions - a farm; a townhouse; a flower; item of your choice. Make the alternative descriptions as completely different as possible - even though they should be the same item!
Partial pictures - take a picture from a magazine that shows people in action. Block (or cut) the center of the action away. E.g. in a picture of men hanging posters, cut the wall and the posters out. Now - describe the action you see, the people. How many different "centers of action" can you think of?
Points of view - take the exact same short scene or plot and write it up from a variety of points of view. Each person in the action is obvious. But what about the omniscient? Or the spy on the hill? Or the dog sniffing in the background? Flashback? Newspaper reporter trying to put the witness's reports together into a whole?
Shift the significance or emphasis. Again, take a scene - but by changing wording, etc. shift the significance or emphasis of the scene as far as possible. E.g., take an emotional tragedy and convert it into a farce, then into "hard-boiled action", then into... Or make the waiter's entrance and exit (that spear carrier) the center of the whole piece...
Problems. This is an exercise in creating problems. Take a problem (the conflict) that you have used, intend to use, or just wonder about. Now, create alternatives - other problems. Stretch the problems from the absurd to the asinine. Don't just let your characters deal with "cliche" problems - make them face up to the wonderful difficulties of life, ranging from Aunt Sue shredding the tent to a pet cat carefully depositing dead mice in the toes of shoes.
Solutions. This is the other half of the last exercise. Take one of those problems, and consider the possible solutions. If there is an obvious one, go ahead and put it down, but then think of the less obvious. Is there a way for magic to help? Could a horoscope solve the problem somehow? What would the five-eyed slugs of Bentnor do to solve it?

Now, if you tried those, don't slide back! Whether you are plotting, picking a color for your character's house, or just playing with words - try out alternatives until you've met your quota. Then go back and use the best.

BTW - Even if you are sure you have found a great idea, KEEP GOING! Meet your quota, then go back and select the best one. Far too often, stopping with the first idea, or the first one that seems good, keeps us from ever digging up that gem that comes out when you are meeting your quota. Really - make it a habit to always meet your quota BEFORE you stop and pick one to use.

Ref: Lateral thinking: creativity step by step
Edward de Bono
Harper Colophon Books, 1970

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