Picked the first article I came to as a basis for a SF story and knocked out twenty pages in three hours. Finished it yesterday, and I am really excited.
A cartoonist friend of mine keeps an 'idea file' of random pictures. He pulls one out and does a cartoon based on it. Does anyone else do this?
For example, when I was driving a noticed a small run-down house with an overgrown lawn that had a FOR RENT sign out front. I thought, Who the hell would rent that?, then realized that somebody might, and whoever this somebody was could make an interesting character. Haven't done anything with the seed yet, but it's there, waiting.
I'd been wrestling for a long time about a certain character in a WIP, trying to figure out just who he is and why he's so strange. Leaving the movie theater I saw a sign for the Riddick movie, and realized <i>That's it!</i> Corban is a convict! Amazing how the simplest things can lead to great ideas.
With that, a thing that I've found important is not simply looking for ideas for stories, but ideas to fit into the stories I already have.
quote:
I saw a sign for the Riddick movie, and realized That's it! Corban is a convict!
Oh, my sweet, merciful maggots!
What was the line? "I have better dreams in my sleep!" I'm going to bed. Soon.
This writers said he'd stop every so often in every book he read and ask himself how he'd plot the rest of the book from that point. He said sometimes he could come up with ten or twelve plots from the same book.
A corollary to that is to look at a book that just didn't work for you, especially one that you expected good things from and were disappointed. Ask yourself how you would do it if you were writing a book with that same idea or theme.
As an example: I was very frustrated by Andrew Greeley's THE GOD GAME because I expected him to take the opportunity to explore how it must be for God to try to help us make better choices, and how He must feel when we don't, and Greeley really didn't do that to my satisfaction. So I came up with a novel plot that would let me explore that same theme--different set-up, different characters, entirely different setting. And I'm still working on it.
And I bet everyone here could come up with an entirely different book if they decided to write something on that theme.
So... all that to say, Popular Science is another great one to check out. Though even if you're primarily a fantasy writer, like me, it just may pull a sf story out of you :P
Edit: Of course you don't see with your hands. Stupid keyboard malfunction...
[This message has been edited by TheoPhileo (edited July 18, 2004).]
quote:
Right brains may love reckless creativity, freedom of the pencil, spontaneous changes, and chaotic thoughts, but they certainly don't love writing.
Huh?! I'm afraid I take exception to your last remark, Survivor...
Unless you're being facetious, and then I'll just feel foolish, and, well-- you guys can really be scary sometimes, you know it?!
sorry...;
Hard, tedious, emotionally draining, hard on your ego, scary, obsessive-compulsive, life-destroying, ostarcizing, entrapping. It eats at your mind and soul and there's no escaping it...
wait, what am I saying?
Of COURSE I love it... and hate it...and love it... and....
Hence, people who love . . .
quote:
. . . reckless creativity, freedom of the pencil, spontaneous changes, and chaotic thoughts . . .
I agree with Survivor to a degree. I'd modify it by saying that the reckless creative type may not hate writing, but he or she will most likely hate revising and editing.
* * * *
By the way, I love every part of the writing process, the making up of a story idea, the first draft, the seemingly endless revisions, as well as the final bit of editing and proofreading. Call me strange, but it is all very enjoyable to me.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited July 19, 2004).]
Most people are left-brain dominant because most people are right-handed. (We're cross-wired, for those who didn't know that.) It is no coincidence that disproportionate percentage of the great artist were or are lefties.
One of the reasons that the BIC method for writing probably works is because you write until your brain becomes comfortable using both sides. At least, if this is at all analogous to what happens with visual art. There's an interesting book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" that talks about the process of learning to switch more easily. Anecdotely, I can tell you that I'm right-hand dominant but when I'm drawing (art major) I have found myself with the pencil or conte crayon in my left hand without noticing that I switched. I find the same sort of thing happens when I write. I just have to keep going till my brain starts using the right tools. Sometimes I think I can even feel it switch gears.
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited July 19, 2004).]
I've heard stories from several years ago about kids being forced to use their right hands, but that was from nearly fifty years ago. Twenty years ago (when I was in Kindergarten ) I remember we had left-handed scissors just in case.
Interestingly enough, I am really enjoying the use of the Snowflake method outline. I've found I work best when things are organized, orderly, and clear-cut. (Left brain, right?) And creating characters and worlds is loads of fun for my brain's right hemisphere.
Who'd have thunk I could form new neural paths by pushing myself out of my acting/singing comfort zone, and tried something that has always scared the living daylights out of me?!
Off to write,
~L.L.
(Edit: I HATE it when I have spelling errors! Maybe I am more left-brained than I thought, eh Balthazar? )
[This message has been edited by Lullaby Lady (edited July 20, 2004).]
I was intrigued by your reference to the "snowflake method" and looked into it. Neat stuff, I think I'll try it.
You might also look at doing mind maps if you haven't already done so. To learn a bit more, look up Buzan and Mind Maps on the web.
Mike
I type more with my left hand--okay, everyone does, that's just the way that our keyboards are designed. But the point is that before I learned to type, I had a major problem writing anything at all. I can write with either hand and not make much difference because I'm the only person that can read my handwriting in either case. And of course one of my (many) problems in school was that I could only write for a few minutes before my hand would crap.
All the same, I've a good bit more strength on my right side (not just my hand, my facial muscles are so much stronger on the right side that that side of my face is noticibly smaller, same thing is true of my neck and chest).
All of which makes me wonder. After all, I'm pretty much right handed purely in the sense of having more physical strength on the right side of my body. How does that relate to mental developement? I also tend to get fat on the right side, and I'm nearly positive that has nothing to do with the brain.
Who knows? All I know is that they've done some experiments with people that have severe damage to their corpora callosa and determined that the left side of the brain was predominantly responsible for language while the right did a lot of none language tasks. And for some reason it became fashionable for writers to claim to be right brained, which peeved me.
Yep. I bet that tended to piss 'em off. They probably thought you were doing it on purpose, too! ;-)
Say, what happened when your left hand got tired?
Mike
I think you all are going a great job under the circumstances.
Writing is timeless. YOU certainly aren't 50 years behind, with us. We're happy to have you here, too!
Susan
Romania is rich in history and culture. I am sure you have much to provide and I look forward to hearing more from you.
regards,
Mike
I didn't know this, until we realized my 2.3 year old son doesn't seem to have a "handedness" preference yet. He goes back and forth using his right and left hands for the same tasks. My dad noticed it, then told me about my grandmother. So I'm trying hard not to force a preference on him (I don't always put the fork on the same side of the plate, for example). His twin sister, on the other hand (!) is definitely right handed. I am, and my husband is, but we both have sisters who are left-handed. Schools used to force it here, but that was a long time ago.
I have been worried that I'm not creative enough to be a writer, though I have in the past few years picked up hobbies that have helped me become more creative. I have noticed that the more I write, the more I think of to write about. I put thoughts in a journal. I carry a small notebook, but find I don't have a chance to write things down when I'm juggling the twins. I try to read a lot of news items, and occasionally jot down something.
Now, I have to make myself focus on the story I'm working on, or I will "procrastinate" by doing research for another idea that's percolating!
I'm a lefty, very strongly so. No one else on either side of the family was, which spawned a lot of jokes about my heritage growing up. My younger brother, on the other hand (he was also a twin, hmmm) couldn't seem to decide which hand to use for anything. My mom encouraged whatever he wanted, and never made him pick one. This can be problematic eventually. I think my brother really should have just picked a hand, right hand ideally since the world is geared for you people, and just stuck with it. Since he never did, his handwriting is terrible with both hands, and he isn't good at anything requiring manual dexterity. I would advise that if your son never chooses by the time he's say, six or seven, you might want to pick for him at that point. That doesn't mean he has to use the same hand for everything, but maybe he'll be better at stuff if he is consistent, i.e. right hand for writing, left hand for pitching baseballs, etc. Just a thought.
More strange righty/lefty anecdotes: I'm right-handed but left-footed. It does crazy things for my fencing. Also, I learned to shoot pool left-handed (the guy who taught me was a lefty) and now I'm completely ambidexterous in that regard. But in nothing else.
There's also an interesting phenomenon that my mentor alerted me to when I was interning in medical illustration. I had hit a snag doing a sculpture of an ear (I was copying another sculpture). I could see that it was wrong, but I couldn't see how to fix it. Jim told me to turn the two of them upside down and try again. It worked! He explained that the familiarity of the shape is stored in the left side of the brain. However, when you turn it to an unexpected orientation, the familiarity is gone and your right brain has a chance to come through and give its input. It works particularly well with faces. I thought that was pretty cool.