The Place For My Writers Notes

1. The red dress theory. When you go to a party, lots of women wear black dresses. A few wear red dresses. But, you're more likely to notice the ones wearing red dresses. They stand out, they get your attention. When you got too many ideas, look for the ones in red dresses. The bold, brash ideas. Those are most likely to be inspiring, motivating ones.
2. It's the stupid idea, stupid. Sometimes crazy, stupid ideas are the most fun. Go ahead.
3. This idea has legs. When you're overcome with ideas, take a walk. Without the lists and sheets of paper and all the other distractions, what stands out?
4. The assignment is due. Set your own deadlines. "Too much time often exacerbates confusion and indecisiveness, especially when you're faced with too many ideas. I've taught five-minute writing exercises in my classes for years and found they produce highly creative writing."
5. Mind over mind. Use a metaphor -- your imagination -- to cure TMIS. One writer thinks of writing as a garden. Some ideas, like weeds, need to be yanked, while others get watered and fertilized. Another writer thinks of writing as cooking. Ideas are like pots on the stove. Lift the lids, look inside, and see which one is closest to being ready to serve. Write that one first.
6. Give in to passion. Which ideas make you the most excited? Go with the ones that bring you the most pleasure. Go with the ones that you really want to do.
7. Organize visually. Many writers prefer cards on a bulletin board. Move them around, take down the ones you don't need, and see what's left. Color coding can help.
8. Go (meta) physical. Doctor Northrup, who writes nonfiction health books, uses tarot cards to help sort through ideas. "There's no magic in these cards; their intuition tool and help me get in touch with what my intuition is trying to tell me."
9. That's what friends are for. You need some friends you can bounce ideas off comfortably. Try pitching your idea to a friend.

1. Ask silly questions. (tink says I might call that challenging assumptions). In particular, look at things that people take for granted, and ask why or how.
2. Find a conflict generating emotion, a plot generating dynamic buried in that assumption. Look for fears, panic, worries and concerns.
3. Do some "What if..." speculation. Try out some variations on that concept.
4. Re-state the question. Add some details, mix in some things, and ask a question that connects the abstract thought or concept to a reader's daily worries and conflicts.
5. Look back at the original question.
6. Now take a world builder's view of what you've been brewing. Apply it to a lot of people, push it to extremes, look for the breaking points.
7. Build a series of alternate worlds, expressing various versions of your concept. Fantasy, science fiction, paranormal... here on earth, out in space, in another time and place... try it out.

• My lead is a [fill in the blank]
• Her objective is to [fill in the blank]
• She is confronted by [fill in the blank] who oppose her because [fill in more blanks]
• The ending will be a knockout when [fill in the final blank]

1. "Determine never to be idle... It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing." Thomas Jefferson
2. "We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them." Abigail Adams
3. "I have witnessed the softening of the hardest of hearts by a simple smile." Goldie Hawn
4. "My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." Oprah Winfrey
5. "For me, it's that I contributed,... That I'm on this planet doing some good and making people happy. That's to me the most important thing, that my hour of television is positive and upbeat and antidote for all the negative stuff going on in life." Ellen DeGeneres
6. "Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." Rodin

Background

1. Where are we?  (setting)
2. Who is involved?  (characters, strengths, flaws)
3. Where are they headed? (goals, motives)
4. What stops or blocks them? (obstacle(s))
5. What are they going to do about it? (plans to overcome problems)
   
   Story
   
   
6. What hook(s) or bait for the reader will I use? (where start)
   What story question do I pose for the reader?
7. What backfill is needed? (background that needs to be filled in)
8. What buildup do I want?  (scenes)
9. What is the climax?
   - how does the character change? (overcome weakness, etc.)
   - how is the plot resolved? (overcome problems and achieve goals)
   - What answer does the reader get to the story question?
   
   Higher Level
   
   
10. What purpose, moral, or theme am I writing about?

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.

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 . . .