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I just did something I've never done. I had a copy of Discover that I'd picked up for my last plane trip. Day before yesterday, I needed to write, had no ideas so I picked up Discover and opened it randomly.
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?
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I have an "Idea File" that I try to keep up with. I put strange things that I observe in it--not ideas per se, but seeds that could grow into a story.
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.
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I've written stories from articles that struck me as interesting. I've written stories based on cues in a list of writing exercises. But I'll admit I've never written anything _entirely_ at random -- both of those, I picked what I thought would produce the best story.
Posts: 626 | Registered: Jun 2003
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My idea file is on my wall, it's filled with all sorts of bizar stuff. (my favorite is probably the fork I found in the road.) I don't exactally use the stuff but it makes me happy looking at it all.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I think it was OSC that talked about "dragging your net." I'm always on the lookout for little bits and pieces that can be used in stories, and as often as possible, I scribble them down immediately.
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.
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I buy the small pads that look like yellow legal pads and keep one of them handy. If something comes to mind, I write it down. If it's something important for a project that is already outlined, I will transfer it to the outline and tear out the page from the pad. The remainder of the pad can then be mined for ideas later.
Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004
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One of my favorite suggestions for coming up with ideas is one I found in an interview with a very prolific writer (I think his name was Red Smith) in WRITERS DIGEST.
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.
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I have a little game of mine: in various situations - but especially whem I get bored and I can't get out of it - I think at a strange phrase I heard or invented, or I choose a most common object arround me, and I just start doing some kind of brainstorming, and finally I come up with that "Something" that can make a pretty good start for some short-writing. Unfortunately, I don't usually manage to write down that particular idea, and it gets lost on the way...but I guess this could be a good start
Posts: 10 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Right brains may love reckless creativity, freedom of the pencil, spontaneous changes, and chaotic thoughts, but they certainly don't love writing.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Sorry pisigri, I was looking for information on plotting mysteries and stumbled on this. Check the archives here, people post good sites all the time.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I think the primary inspiration for my WIP originated with an article I read in Popular Science, talking about ways of helping the blind see by sending signals from a video camera to touch-sensitive pads on the tongue or forehead. Using this, blindfolded people can actually catch a ball or read large text. Absolutely fascinating stuff. "You see with your brain, not with your eyes."
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?!
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look, that thing about enjoying writing is pretty...strange (I understood I have to be extremely polite 'round here... )anyway...I think it's pretty easy to say things that are supposed to make people feel dazzled, but your line doesn't make much sense in my opinion, unless it is presented in a whole context.
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....
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I think Survivor's point is that writing must be clear, logical, and organized. That a good story is tightly-woved, a unified piece of writing, where everything works together for the good of the story.
Hence, people who love . . .
quote:. . . reckless creativity, freedom of the pencil, spontaneous changes, and chaotic thoughts . . .
. . . will find writing hard, laborious, tedious, and perhaps, loathsome because they lack the mental discipline needed to transform these random ideas into a coherent piece of literature.
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).]
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My point was much simpler than that. All reputable research on bicamerality in the human brain indicates that the right brain is predominantly involved with visual and spatial information, while the left brain is better at linguistic and linear logic. Right brains love dancing, graphical arts, structured music, and certain types of high level math. It is the left brain that loves writing.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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OK, so where does that leave people like myself, who are scientists used to logical, disciplined thinking, but who are also geologists who are visual thinkers and totally comfortable at weaving together a coherent story from the tattered shreds of earth history? Does it mean we use both sides simultanwously? switch back and forth? are out of BOTH of our minds?
Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
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mikemunsil, yes. People switch back and forth and also use both sides simultaneously. There are scads of research that shows that early music training before age 7, particuarly piano, leads to a stronger connection between the two hemispheres because music involves both creativity and disciplined thinking (tempo, order of notes, etc). A thicker connection means better problem solving and creative thinking as an adult.
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).]
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Why do you define brain size by ability to right with a hand? I'm lefty for hockey, righty for writing, lefty for lockers, righty for ...?, lefty when biking...
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I didn't define size, Phanto, I said "dominant", by which I meant the side that you use more. You use both, most people do.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I was wondering: here, in Romania, when a left-handed kid goes to primary school and learns to write, he is not allowed to use his left hand. How do things work in the US, are kids encouraged to become right-handed, are they allowed to follow their natural instinct?
Posts: 10 | Registered: Jul 2004
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My younger son, who is a "lefty", is encouraged by our school (in Texas, which is not the most progressive of states) to use whatever feels most natural to him. The result is that he writes with his left hand, draws fine lines with his left hand, fills in coloring with his right hand, and switches back and forth all the time just to piss off his brother.
Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
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My dad is left-handed and my mom was right. I'm right-handed but have worked to become more or less ambidexterous (sp?).
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.
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Well, Survivor, maybe that's why my head hurts and I tend to have anxiety attacks when I get frustrated in my writing.
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).]
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All this from my peevishness about the term "right brain" being used in silly ways.
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.
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My grandmother, who was a writer, was considerably ambidextrous. She could, say, write her name with her right hand, and, at the same time, write her name backwards with her left hand (so the two versions of her name were mirror images on the paper).
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!
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Punahougirl184: regarding your grandmother's mirror-writing, I thought everyone could do that. It is kinda hard to wrap your whole brain around it the first time you try, but if you don't think about it, it gets easy.
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.
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I could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading something about our brains being hard-wired for certain types of symmetrical motion. One of my friends (one of those illustrious southpaws) claimed to be able to teach me to be ambidexterous through the mirror-writing method. Needless to say, it didn't work....
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.
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) I remember we had left-handed scissors just in case.
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