I've always found that reading about other people's writing techniques helps me to better organize my own writing and brainstorming styles. Tonight, I'm proud to say that I've finally come up with a writing technique that suits me and is easy for me to follow. I figure if I post my techniques, it'll help some other people who are stumped about how to get their ideas off the ground.
This obviously isn't some patented or "correct" way to write a story, but - hey - every little bit helps I suppose. Annnnd...if it doesn't help - well at least I've given you something interesting to read.
Right, so onward with the journal!
-flashes a shiny sword-
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Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a horrible process for me. It's incredibly slow and oftentimes boring when you're tapped out of creativity. If you've got a plot in mind already, moving on to the next "step" probably won't be a bad idea. But if you're still wondering what kind of plot you want to go for, checking out and applying this handful of tips might get those creative gears spinning.
-Story from a Photo- There are many sites on the web that host royalty-free stock photography that many artists reference for poses and ideas. (NOT for copying. Copying is wrong and illegal, people.) Try looking up some stock photography. Pick some random word or emotion that's vague enough to present you with an array of images. Find an image that strikes you as interesting, and create a story for it. Doing this tests your imagination and opens up a door to many great ideas. It bulldozes through writer's block and - who knows- it might just give you an idea for that next big mibba story you've been wanting to write.
-What if?- "What if?" questions are great (though I must admit, they're hard to come up with sometimes..) Look around the great big world around you and question anything about it from its existence, to its past or future. Don't be afraid to be controversial or different. Asking yourself "What if?" leads to more questions, which leads to possibilities, which eventually leads to a story.
Example:What if Atlantis existed? Would there be an entirely different race of people. Would they be human at all? Would their seemingly superior existence be seen as a threat and lead to a full out war? What if it led to an apocalypse? What would the war be like?
Answering questions like these can obviously lead you to a pretty good plot for a story.
Am I right?
eh? ehhhh? -nudge nudge- -eyebrow wiggle-
-Go. Outside. Now- Or later. Eventually, to diversify your ideas, you're going to have to get your butt away from the computer and out into the outside world for more time than you usually do when you're sitting in boring classes all day. (or work, whatever your fancy.)
Sometimes I like to live by the motto "One with no life shall taste no fruits from the shriveled tree of a starved Mother Creativity - one's deprived mind."
I should know. I hardly ever used to go outside and didn't even know what a "life" was unless it concerned virtual currency and people. yep.
Anyhow.
Moving on..
Experiencing the community and people around you is a good way to see how real people act and react -cough- as opposed to the cardboard cutouts a few people associate themselves with and call characters. But seriously, I'm not saying you have to go or live somewhere amazingly kickass to see interesting things. I don't live in an interesting place at all. I'm just a normal teenage girl who goes to school and lives in a boring old neighborhood with neighbors I've never even seen or bothered to talk to.
All I'm saying is that if you open your eyes to things you would normally overlook, it might send a little spark of an idea to your brain.
Example I once saw this woman wearing some horribly ugly green highlighter skinny jeans (and she could NOT work them, lemme tell you..) who was walking a cute little puppy around our neighborhood. I didn't spy on her as she continued to walk by or anything, but it got me thinking about aliens.
Because the pants where green.
And from aliens I went to invasion, and from there to killer mutants that looked like some horrible descendant of killer radioactive rat-dog. I won't continue on, because my thoughts got pretty weird after that, but you can see how working your imagination and thinking about simple things with an open (and I do stress open) mind can cause a chain reaction of ideas.
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Creating your characters
This isn't a character creation "tutorial". So I'm not going to go into immense detail about creating the puppets to your show. Sorry.
I will, however, give you a brief overview of how I display my characters. ^^;
First, I plan my main characters and their family and friends if they have any. When you're making your main character(s), you have to decide what role they're going to play in relation to your plot. Ask yourself how they got involved and what they plan to achieve. After you get the basics of that stuff down, you can go into detail about their personality and relationships.
And remember: CHARACTERS STEM FROM RELATIONSHIPS
In every story, the characters interact with each other to create a series of events in the story. Since you've got the basics of your plot already created and ready to go, you'll be able to fill out an outline of relationships between each character.
Questions you might want to ask yourself:
•Which one is the villain or hero? Is there a villain or hero?
•What are they doing?
•How do they find/know each other?
•What does the antagonist do to...antagonize the hero? What's the reaction?
There's also a lot of other less crappy questions you can ask yourself, but I think a smart person like you gets the point. :]
Plotting
Now - plotting can be pretty easy if you let it be. The way I plot a story after I've got my characters and setting and whatnot down is by writing down each major event.
Make a list of a series of major events that you can come up with to happen in your story. You might want to write down the beginning and end of your story first, so you know which direction you plan to steer your thoughts. Try not to scratch out every idea you don't think is good at first. Your events don't have to be in order the first time around. It's not written in stone, and you can easily go back and make changes afterwords.
Writing the story!
-cue victorious music-
bum badabummmm!
You've made it past the planning period of my little story writing technique. yayyyyy.
Notice how your list of events pretty much tells the story for you? Well now all you have to do is elaborate. I always like this part of the technique because adding details is always fun and easy.
Remember not to overdo the descriptions so that you're not giving adjectives from everything to the color of some dog's poo to the exact shade of green each blade of grass is. And do your best not to make the characters' dialogue sound like robotic droids with horrible eyedropper commercial monotones.
Now I'm definitely not a perfect writer here, but what helps me out is looking through forum topics such as "What you hate to see in stories" and "avoiding cliche's" don't just look around mibba, either. There are buttloads of other tutorials and willing people out there that can help anyone better themselves with their writing. Take notes and always keep an open mind.
This process isn't meant to be edited as you go. Just..write for Pete's sake.Don't over think or over analyze. Get all of your ideas out there and dock whatever sounds like crap afterwords. A masterpieces is hardly ever created in a single day. Give yourself time and pace yourself. And remember to take breaks in between so you don't get tired of the story and give up all together. Good luck and I hope this insight on my writing technique helps at least a few of you if any. ^^;
~CI
My Writing Technique {"in 4 easy cheesy steps!" }-- eOe
September 4th, 2009 at 03:29am