The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 8 June 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From Jazz: "Play What You Know"

Miles Davis has known both for his solo playing and his comments on improvisation. A memorable quote says, "Play what you know and improvise above that."

Your task: Take the lead sentence or beginning that you already have tried to write, but want to improve. Put the manuscript in a drawer. Now, on a blank sheet of paper, write out the beginning again -- in five different ways. Each time use new words, a new tone, a crazy emotion, a different point of view. Improvise! Go way outside your normal approach. Do this for five minutes. Then circle the good stuff -- maybe just a phrase or word. Pay attention to how you feel about this.

Variations. Alterations, modifications, mutations, differences. Alternatives, adaptations, changes, contrasts, digressions, distinctions, diversity, innovations, novelties. Variety is the root of growth! (Synonyms courtesy of http://thesaurus.reference.com)

Scribble!

Original posting 23 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From drama: A Sound, a Key, a Knock at the Door

Theater games make actors build stories around arbitrary props and actions. Some seeds, a quick rehearsal, and show us the scene. Improvisation often makes lively scenes. Given this scenario: clashing swords clang off stage, a key slides under the door, and someone knocks at the door -- add gestures and movements and the actor has a lively scene.

Your task: use the same sort of improvisational strategy in a paragraph game to spark writing. Just fill in the blanks connecting these words into a paragraph. You can use your own set of words, although nouns or active verbs are best.

The fireplace [fill in the blanks] flames. [Fill in the blanks] smoke.

Connected words like this may make it too easy. Try again with words you normally wouldn't find in the same paragraph (raked, sauteed, dropkick). This should take two and a half minutes.

You can also pick three words from a dictionary. Just flip the pages and put your finger down. That's a good word! Now do it again. Oh! And once more! There you go, three words, just waiting for you.

Write!

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

The article starts with notes about Claude Monet trying to paint with a brush attached to a long stick, Miles Davis giving musicians music only minutes before the start of the recording session, and Anton Chekhov who tried to always finish stories in 24 hours or less without using notes from his notebook. "Good artists often put themselves into risky or challenging situations to spark their creativity." Monet was deliberately reducing his control, forcing himself to rely on impulse. Davis wanted improvisation based on pattern and variation, pushing the riffs and motifs, depending on spontaneity. Chekhov gave himself deadlines and wrote from memory to add urgency and emotion to his stories. They were all working towards what's often called the creative moment or breakthroughs.

All too often, hours of concentration don't really move things ahead. But get up and walk around the block, take a shower, or do something else -- and there is a lightbulb popping over your head and suddenly you know what needs to be done. Insight, inspiration, Eureka -- whatever you want to call it, that moment of creativity often makes complex tasks much easier. "Any self-imposed device that focuses intensely on craft can serve as a catalyst to set the wheels of creativity in motion."

The exercises translate established artistic processes or devices into tools that you can use to spark the fires of your most creative moment. Some suggestions for using them:

1. The games are an experience or adventure, not a thought process. Don't over think, and certainly don't grind away at them.
2. Observe the time limits as one of the keys for accessing creativity.
3. Trust the unknown. It's scary, but thrilling.
4. Look for spontaneous answers. Don't fabricate answers, just watch and see what comes up.
5. If one game doesn't work, try another. But don't be afraid to struggle with an uncomfortable task that forces your mind to try something new.
6. Learn to identify what you feel like when creativity strikes. But then just observe. Save the analysis for later.
7. The object of the games is the sensation you discover. Get in touch with how creativity feels.
8. Don't strive for a polished, finished piece. Do accept the vitality of your results.

As for instructions, each exercise has its own. But in general, you want to do this:

1. Relax. Use whatever techniques you like, such as meditation or deep breathing, to relax.
2. Enjoy the discomfort. Follow directions, do the assignment, "stupidly copy everything" as Michelangelo said.
3. Let go. We are not analyzing, critiquing, etc. Play again.
4. Watch your body for sensations. We really aren't disembodied creatures of thought. Recognize what creativity feels like to you.
5. Wait for inspiration. Patience -- creative fish bite when they want to, with the word, a phrase, an idea out of nowhere.
6. Go back for more. When you fall out of the creative zone, take another look at the pattern or structure that got you there, and climb back in again.

Okay? I'll go ahead and write up the exercises.

Original posting 27 September 2007

How do I plot?

Or how should I plot?

Let me recount some ways.

Imprimus, perhaps, we have the way of the English teacher. Outlines, character sheets, and more detailing until the words are almost an afterthought. Prepare first is the byword on this path.

Secundus, there are the improvisational players, jazzing it up on the spur of the muses. With a hope and a dream, they whip out the story in rough form, and then revise and tinker their words to fame. Onward, onward, into the teeth of the plot, wrote the seven hundred.

Tertius, if that's the word, there are approaches like the steppingstones. Put down a word or phrase for a starting scene at the top of a sheet of paper, do the same for a climax at the bottom, then sketch in the key scenes to get from one to the other. Rearrange the steppingstones as needed. Then write adding smaller scenes and details as you go. A rough plan, but my own, and then write, write, write.

Let's back up a moment and consider what we mean by plot. I think of it as selecting and ordering the scenes for dramatic impact. You can do it several ways. Some people find it easier to see in bullet points or outlines, others use 3x5 cards tacked to a board, and others make up a sequence in their head. Some simply write, then clean and hack to find the story in the verbiage. No matter how you tackle it, thinking of alternatives and changes is likely to be a part of the process, so relax and work with it. Remember, readers only see the final version, but those cleanups are what make it really good.

There are some clues to help guide your choice of ways to plot. For example, starting with an ending - a climactic scene- often seems to help pull the rest of the menagerie of writing into shape. Having a rich stockpile of bits and pieces - stock plots and dramatic situations - makes it easier, so read widely. Many people find it useful to consider characters and plot separately, but the plot is these characters in action so you can also consider the plot as the expression of the characters - or maybe we see the characters reveal themselves in actions which develop a plot?

One thought from the World Science Fiction Convention. One of the panelists commented that English teachers have taught us all tools for analysis, for taking apart stories that are already written. But what we need are tools for construction, for tackling a blank sheet of paper and generating a story. So perhaps instead of trying so hard to pin down the plot and other pieces, we need to encourage alternatives and growth?

How do I plot? Well, part of it is scanning lists of archtypes - the master plots and other lists like that. E.g., I even find the short summaries of old westerns, kabuki plays, and such evocative. Part of it is putting together characters - a strong character helps define their own actions. And part of it is just mystery, something that sparks while writing, something that catches my attention when I'm reading the news, odds and ends that combine to suggest a story. I do find that scribbling bits and pieces here and there is helpful. I'm not, personally, one of the great outliners, although I like having at least a rough idea of the sequence of major scenes and the climax. I'll often write a version of the climax first, then figure out how to get there.

Not perhaps the best answer or the most complete, but it's an answer.

You might also take a look at some of the web postings about plot. For example, Holly Lisle at http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/plot-outline.html walks through her approach to creating a plot and http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/notecard_plotting.html talks about fast plotting.

A search for "plot outline" nets a bunch of links.
http://www.wendy-wheeler.com/7point.html provides a seven point skeleton.
http://www.atfantasy.com/view/84 yacks about outlining and creativity.
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/outlining.html has a nice discussion of various approaches.
and so on . . .

Good question. How do you plot?

And how do you use your plot while writing?

Something to contemplate as we look ahead to Halloween Horrors, NaNoWriMo, 6 in 6, and the rest of a writing winter!

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