BRAINSTORMING, MINDMAPPING, OR PLAYING MAKE BELIEVE

            Now that you have your spark of an idea for a novel, what do you do with it? This is when it starts getting fun.  There are several methods and I will share a few with you to get you started:

            1. What If – This is where you start asking questions. What if this happens, then what happens next.  When doing this, I look for a domino effect with the story.  I like to find something that is a natural result of what happened before and let it build until you have some scenes that feel like puzzle pieces of the story.  Each piece links together forming the story, but sometimes you need to take it a step back before you can go forward.

            2. Mind mapping – is a visual way of doing the – what if.  Take the subject you want to expand upon and write it down in the middle of a sheet of paper.  The first thing that comes to you that connects with that subject, write it down off to the side and circle it.  Connect the two with a line.  This can be another character, a setting, an object, or even a situation.  Continue adding more circles and lines to whatever you’ve written in the center of the sheet of paper. You can then add more circled subjects to those that you’ve developed from the original. Keep making connections, even if they don’t totally make sense at the time.  Eventually you will have some threads that you can’t let go of and have to develop.  Those thoughts are the ones you should use to develop your story.

Don’t throw the rest away; keep them handy so that if you find yourself needing more to work with later, you already have something to play with.

            3. I suggested in my earlier post that you should think about journaling.  Your journal can provide more ideas that you can now develop.  I am going to suggest that you have a book journal.  It is a record of you writing this book.  Some authors keep one with each work in progress. Each day as you journal, you can keep track of any new ideas for the story.  I will go into more detail about the book journal in another post.

            4. Brainstorming is another way to develop a story.  You could do it as a group or with a trusted writing partner.  I have a friend who is great for bouncing ideas off because she always sees something that I miss.  It’s also nice to have someone to turn to when you’ve written yourself into a corner.  Hopefully with a little planning, that won’t happen.

            5. I call it multi-tasking.  While you are doing something mindless, like washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting, or whatever – think about your story.  Keep it in mind while you go about your everyday tasks and besides helping you develop the story, it will work to pull you into your next writing session. 

            6. Take a walk and mull over your story.  Getting out and getting some exercise and fresh air can’t hurt and again is something you can do without thinking about it to allow your mind a chance to wander and ponder your story.

            7. Get out of the house.  Watch people.  Take notes describing the people you see, the sounds around you, the smells, listen to people talk to work on your dialogue.  You can’t write dialogue exactly the way people speak because it wouldn’t hold the reader’s interest.  But listen for the way people speak that might help your characters to sound like individuals rather than everyone sounding alike.  Again, I will have a later post that gets into more about dialogue later. Look for ways to describe gestures.  Watch body language and you interpret what it means when you see it.  Think of how you could describe a character better by how they move.

            Like an artist, you can describe what you see and use it later with your work.

            8. Start thinking about your characters, I have writer friends who go through magazines looking for their characters.  Sometimes it is easier to describe something if you have a picture in front of you.  One of the writers I know made an excellent suggestion.  We have a used bookstore in my area and she picks up used magazines just to find pictures of her characters.  You can take it a step further and use it for settings.  All those home and garden type magazines have great pictures of houses and rooms with descriptions and terms you can use in your writing.  The same thing goes with character clothing.  If you’re writing about someone who wears designer clothes, here’s a personal guide to description.

            9. Listen to the words in music; sometimes it will trigger a reaction that gives you an idea for your story.  Also, think about what music you were listening to and see if you can make your own soundtrack to use while writing.  If you have a strong connection between the music and your story, it can pull you back into the story for each days writing session.

            10. Start developing your characters.  Write down everything you need to know about them.  As you get to know your characters, they can help you develop your story.  I will post later about character development but now is a good time to start who your characters are and what their motivation is.  What do they want and why are you writing about them?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT – Start brainstorming your idea.

I look forward to comments and suggestions.  Next week – Genre and is this a series or stand-alone? Who’s your audience and who publishes what you write?

Virginia