I want to be able to get concepts quick, and then be able to expand them into writable stories. How can I improve that? What methods do you use to change a flash of an idea you have into a full, compelling story?

Here's how I do it; I let ideas come to me mostly. I also sometimes sit down and brainstorm. I use free thought association. Then I use a notebook to ask questions about my idea until I have enough to write.

But my problem is that I just don't feel like I'm turning out enough stories. I have tons of ideas and I just haven't connected them together into wholeness.

Any methods, tips, tricks, and such you have will be greatly appreciated.

But the thoughts were, for me, fairly liberating. It meant, to me, that the most important thing was to set it down and worry about editing and quality later. This has vastly improved my ability to get closure on the early phases of a project. I write it and, if necessary, leave myself little notes like "look up the names of some gene mutations in Drosophila." You know, the things that might otherwise send me off on a three hour diversion from writing.

Anyway, I do make notes about the story and I do that mainly when I get stuck for anything else to write, or when I have one of those MASSIVE insights that I can't possibly turn into pages of the story in one sitting. Things like what needs to happen in early chapters to foreshadow stuff I thought of for action that will take place several chapters from where I'm writing now. I don't want to lose the thoughts, so I write them down. Oddly, I rarely refer to these notes until much later (after I've actually writen all the chapters). I just seem to forget they are there. Then, I run across them (usually several notes spread across months) and find they all say pretty much the same thing and the story actually includes much of what I wrote there. Obviously, I must've retained some semblance of what I was thinking.

The one thing I hear successful writers say that I have a hard time with is setting myself a daily goal for output. I'm just not that disciplined, and I have a day job that spills over into a night and weekend job as well. If I were a full time (paid) writer, I think I would still have trouble with a daily schedule though. I don't even do that in my regular job. When I start selling my novels, I'm betting I'll have to adopt better habits though. Hope I have the chance to find out.

One other thing. If I get stuck, I work on a different project. I find that if I pressure myself into writing it never works, whereas if I let things percolate, sooner or later, the ideas come to me and the writing goes FAST! I have learned to relax and be VERY forgiving of myself. The main reason is that then I don't get all stressed out about being stressed out, if you know what I mean. Infinite loop time!

More importantly, have fun. For me, if writing isn't fun, I'm doing it wrong. There's no need to engage in this activity if I'm not enjoying it. I mean, it isn't like it pays (at least not yet) or like it is the only way I can make my mark in life.

I also find that having a secondary artistic outlet also helps. Most of the time, this means drawing, whether it's portrait sketches, technical schematics, or map drawings. Modelling and sculpture are potentially very fertile, but far more time consuming than line art, so I rarely use them in generating ideas (they can turn a brain storm into a brain glacier). Martial arts and dance are wonderful for bringing emotional tensions or conflict into focus, though they make it more difficult to explicate action (this is because you discover that the reason you can't learn these from books is because it is impossible to write about them).

Anyway, the most useful of these in my experience is line drawing. I would put dance second, since it is simple to use for bringing expressive language to mind. Alternative forms of literature, like poetry or essays, are also good, and can sometimes be incorperated directly (or adapted) into stories that you write.

Odo tries to teach him, integrate him into the Federation, but in the end his biological programing to serve the Founders wins out and he decides that he has to go back to the Dominion. Of course, this was long before the Elian thing, and not a very exact parallel, but I think that it's interesting and informs the issue far more than any of the half dozen or so 'conventional' media reprises of this event will.

Telling the story in a different setting, even without significant changes in the way that you percieve the characters and motivations at play, could make for some interesting fiction. Try intellegent horses that are chattel of ogres, or a human that is 'assimalated' into a more advanced alien society, or whatever.

Or pick a different event, like the recent surge in violent shooting sprees, or the war with Serbia, or any other situation that you think is interesting from an intellectual standpoint.

There is one caution, though. don't make your story recognizably about the issue or current event that you are exploring or transposing, or it will seem like the most spurious tripe that anyone ever wrote. Don't even bother about being 'fair' and 'objective' because if you are writing it recognizably about the issue, then you are taking a stand on that issue (and it may not even be the stand you want to take, particulary if you are contorting yourself to be 'fair' and 'objective').

And that's the thing, because it is hard to walk the line between saying something about the issue, and telling an orginial, compelling story. The few times I've tried brainstorming around a current issue, the end result has been so far away from the orginal source idea that you can't really say that was even what the story would be about, if it were written.

So why write about a current event if the story you end up telling isn't about that current event at all?

I have to start with a single concept, or "story-starting idea." This is usually just something that occurs to me, and I think might make a good story. It's always pretty simplistic and half-formed, and usually can be expressed in a sentance or two. In fact, I make an effort to set all such concepts down in a notebook for future exploration.

So I get an idea and I write in my notebook, "Breed of sentient cows is developed, and they attempt to throw off the shackles of Man and win freedom for bovines everywhere."

I then sit down and think. What conditions would have to exist to make this idea work? What conditions would create those conditions? How will the cows come to recognize their bondage? How do cows think?

Pretty soon I have a main character, a type of the fictional world, and rough ideas of a few possible scenes.

Then I hit my notebook and write down a bunch of stuff about my main character. I find this useful because usually my thoughts are disarrayed and unorganized; writing stuff down forces me to put it all into a coherent picture and reinforces my idea of what I plan to do.

Back to thinking, I attempt to construct a series of situations, adding more characters and milieu elements, outlining here, pondering there, untill I have, more or less, a coherent and complete picture of what this thing is going to be.

And then I write it.

I'm not sure if I gave you anything useful there, but the (just about) complete and coherent picture for the story I'm working on took about 5 pages of notes...

I recently found a trait in my writing: I walk into a store like Hallmark, look at the videos, cards, figurines, etc., and get four or more details to play with in a pre-existing story. Another fun way to use get an idea: use a dream as an actual fantasy event, or give it to another character. This might work for other people, I don't know.

I've also got a problem. I have 228 files that can possibly be developed into stories. The "several other projects" doesn't apply because, more often than not, I am blocked on EVERY story. A little advice? It's not like I really play with more than 50-75 of them while the rest are throw-aways, but still. So what do I do? I'm addressing this mainly to Survivor or Rball, since they seem to know what they're doing.

For me, there's never been a single trick that breaks any block. It varies by story.

Actually, no, that's not entirely accurate. In cases where it wasn't just something wrong with me (tired out, distracted, and so on), I usually have to figure out what it is that's blocking me, and then fix it. Why can't you write any more in your story?

For me, it's almost always some weakness in conception--I find that what has come before precludes any sort of closure, or that I did something fundamentally stupid and only realise it subconsciously.

Sometimes, what is blocking a writer on such a story is the not-enough-ideas problem.

What Rball describes doing with story ideas is essentially coming up with more ideas.

A story can't stand very well on just one idea--just one idea is just one idea. You usually have to have at least two ideas to work with for a story.

So how about taking a couple of those files and seeing if they can work together in one story? Or maybe put three of the ideas together?

Kathleen's method of plucking up new ideas and seeing how they stick together is an great way to get a problem story back on track, but for me, it never works when I try to use it intentionally. Out of the blue I'll recogonize that -this- idea belongs in -that- story..

What I use that almost always works is the question and answer format to generate ideas and outcomes. Take out a pen and paper and start with the most basic premise of your idea and start asking Why? and What?.

An example of my most recent work in progress(these are notes from my notebook):

1.What is the tower's function?
a. to provide a habitat for the people who live there.

2.Why do people choose to live in these towers?
a.They've evolved and are now suited to the tower.
b.The tower keeps them young
c.The surface is harsh
d.They want to be alone
e.Religious indoctrantion(think tower of Bable)
f.Fear of the outside world(more subtle reason)

3.So the tower supports life, but what was it's original function?...

The problem with the method is that it continuously generates more questions you must supply more answers to. I've never used this method and ever came to any kind of end to what I could ask, but it has provided with enough to plot storys..

Anyway, this leads me back to my main point.
I spent way more time thinking about the story than I ever do writing it, and sometimes I get the urge to sit down and do something NOW, but I have nothing I can work with. What are the quickest way plow through the phase of turning ideas into story?

Well, since stories are about characters more than they are about anything else (think about it--even if you come to the story from a situation idea or a setting idea, you don't have a story until you have the characters), I would guess that the quickest way to get going on a story is to start writing about a character.

Do an interview, ask those questions that help generate ideas, find out what the character's story is and tell it. Ask the character about friends, enemies, sidekicks, sweethearts, and then go ask those characters about the character you started with.

Ask the character about his or her situation, and about his or her setting. Ask what the character wants to change in his or her life. Talk about what the character can do or would like to do to bring about that change.

And that will give you your story.

As for using two ideas, I realize this sounds inflexible on my part, but my stories are literally numbered 1-228 and switching them around provides horrible confusion. I've done it before, with great difficulty. I keep a separate file with the name of each file and its characters for reference, since these files are spread over 10 disks.

I’d like to hear more about the sentient bovines and Mr.LoveGrove’s Tower-people.

It seems I'm about to start a new round of writing a few paragraphs before losing my ideas again, since I've had several tiny notebook pages of ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to put other people's advice into practice. Thanks.

Kathleen's interview idea is amazing, and I can't believe I've never thought of doing that before!! It's so simple, and it never crossed my mind.

Another good, similar idea for figuring out characters is to make a personal journal for them. Assume that you are that character and begin writing from his/her point of view. Use "I" so it flows natuarally. Not only do you get the character, but sometimes, like when your doing a chracter's feelings during an important scene, you get a excellent description of the scene itself, before you even write it.

Marce, there is a way to use how-to-write books to help as a block-buster (as in to bust a writer's block, not as in a best selling novel).

As you read a how-to-write book, let your mind wander to how you would apply whatever the book is discussing to your own stories.

You don't necessarily have to apply it to the story you think you should be writing right now, you can apply it to any story you have ever worked on or thought about working on.

I've gotten so bad at letting my mind wander that way that it's become difficult for me to finish a how-to-write book. I'm always putting them down to go write.

Another way to bust a block is to stop trying to write the part that you think needs to come next.

You don't have to write a story in the order in which it will be read. You can write the ending first, the middle next, and the beginning last if you like.

Then, when you do the rewrite, you can smooth it over and make it read the way it needs to be read. And no one will know the difference.

I thought of this because someone up there somewhere mentioned him, and so I just jumped down to submit this myself.

He said that when you write, you write your own way. He said he can just sit and write very fast and maybe finally do another draft and then thats it. He also said that some authors write MANY different revisions and that some do outlines and some dont. Do whatever works for you, is pretty much what he said. I totallt agree with that. If an outline helps, do it, if you do them and you feel they arent helping too much, try a different aproach. Do as many different things you can do to try and write. When you find something that works well, stick with it .

So, Asimov was of course brilliant, but, what he says goes for just about any writer I assume. In my own opinion, do what is comfortable, but, if this is not enough, go someplace comfortable or listen to music or anything that gets your creative juices flowing. Try reading something, it may spark and idea someplace in your head you thought had died a while ago.

Do whatever you think you need to, just so you can get that idea. And if that one idea is not enough, try thinking of as many different variation you can on the same idea, in different settings with different characters and POV's. Some things just dont work some ways of course.

So, just keep trying stuff till something does work.

Oh, and, while I am saying this, Survivor, I dont totally agree with what you said someting like Stories are meant for the characters or something along those lines.

Many times, a story is not based on a character, but an idea. These are often told by the views of different characters. The characters are almost ESSENTIAL to move the story along, and get a point across. But, sometimes, the idea behind the characters is more important than the characters themselves.

Thomas More's 'Utopia' is not a story, it's a fantastic travelogue. 'Gulliver's Travels', on the other hand, is a story, and the main difference is that the first person character in Swift's work actually is a character, while the first person chracter in More's work is just a commentator (okay, there are other differences that are arguably more important, but I mean the difference that makes one a story and one a descriptive essay).

I happen to love essays as a form of literary expression, but they are not stories, and you cannot have a story without characters. You can have a story without any novel idea at all, but characters are pretty much the lifeblood of stories (even more so than action, if you look at the literature, although movies are a different matter).

Which leads back to the idea of using alternative forms of art to break out of a block. If you have an idea and no characters, by all means, write an essay. If you have a mental image but no character, draw a picture. If you've an action, write a description.

Stories are not our only form of expression, even in the confines of literary efforts. Asimov wrote as many essays as he did stories, and I'm willing to bet that a few of those essays turned into stories once he added a character or two into the idea. Sometimes a story can turn into an essay (but we've all done that bit to death in English classes, so I won't push it, since I hate the idea myself).

I started doing this simply because I had more ideas than I could use myself, and decided to offer them to others so they would not go to waste.

During the day, I will scribble a paragraph or sentance to remind me of a concept that flashed into my mind. I have loads of tear-sheet calandar sheets, some stapled into booklets for writing the concepts. The purpose of these is just to remember the concept. Sometimes what I wrote fails. I have a few that I cannot translate because they were written while driving in traffic. One could, if desired, use a journal for this purpose.

Each night, I will sit down, pick a good one, usually the best in the stack I developed, and TELL how the concept would be used in a story, spinning a story around the concept. I tell what happens, leaving out all discription that does not advance the presentation. It is telling what the story is about. It takes me about an hour, some will be an hour and a half, to write these out.

I have a few complete short stories in the bunch, but most would end up being novellets or novels when written. I have many times taken from the collection and written them out myself. I took two of my ideas, and combined them into a rough draft novel I wrote years ago. Have not had the gumption to edit the piece to a more finished level.

There is no way I could complete all these concepts, but I do clear my mind of second rate ideas so I can concentrate on really good ones.

I found that a good number of people just love to read these writings, so that is an additional incentive to keep going.

I've done this for seven years so far and I doubt I repeated any of the concepts.