Today I’d like to welcome Kathy McIntosh to the blog. Kathy is an editor, PR expert, professional speaker, and professed word lover.
BRAINSTORMING FOR FICTION WRITERS: Get Drenched in Ideas
Whether you have a novel plotted in your head, or have a few simple thoughts about a character, an event, or a terrific action scene, the end product can benefit from a good initial brainstorming session with trusted writer colleagues.
Brainstorming is particularly useful if you’re both at the point of beginning a new novel.
Brainstorming allows you to dig deeper into ideas and find fresh dirt. When you’re seeking a word or a phrase, the first three are often trite. If you scribble down a few more, you get past the top of mind, often-used, dusty ones to something with sparkle.
The same holds true for your plot and characters. Having one or two trusted friends help you dig makes the work easier and faster, and you get the benefit of someone else’s creativity.
You also have the opportunity for fun with other scribblers, a rare treat for solitary writers.
Suggestions for better brainstorming:
1. Be certain you trust the person you’re sharing your precious ideas with. Although some would argue you risk having your ideas stolen, my concern is for your self-confidence, your fragile writer’s ego. Your team members need to be able to accept your ideas or challenge them, suggest adaptations and alterations, without ever attacking you as a writer (or as a person!). Of course, you need to remember not to take comments personally. This is work and the words and ideas are not you; they are words and ideas.
2. Have a flip chart with lots of paper for taking notes on ideas. Record everything!
3. Come to the brainstorming session with your ideas or problems in mind. No make that with notes on your ideas and problems. These thoughts will be the board you’ll jump from to brainstorm. (Would that then be brainswimming?) This can be just notes you’ve dashed down, stream of consciousness ideas or more structured, depending on your style. Some people even have drawings to stimulate their thinking.
4. Have yummy snacks and easily prepared meals. Do remember to take breaks, possibly a walk. Refresh your creative mind.
5. Spend time before you begin to set discussion parameters:
Will one person who is a wiz at brainstorming lead all sessions or will each writer lead the discussion on his or her work?
Decide how far you want to go. Some writers think they need only a bare bones idea and then will be able to run with it. Maybe so, but the purpose of brainstorming is to pick the brains of another writer. He or she might head in a different direction and you might LOVE that direction.
6. Follow the rules of brainstorming:
No bad ideas, everything is written down.
Don’t worry about repetition. The same thing said at a different time may spark new ideas.
Don’t stop and discuss. Just record lots of ideas first and think about them later. Do ask for clarification. Be sure what you write down is not edited but is clear to all (a one word idea that’s perfectly clear in the morning may be meaningless by midnight)
Before you start, set time guidelines and stay within them. Maybe 50 minutes on each person’s main plot problem and the ways things get worse; 20 minutes on each protagonist and each antagonist; 20 minutes on the secondary characters. If you’re really on a roll that you don’t want to stop, decide together how much more time to allocate to that topic.
Think outside the box. If an idea comes to you, don’t let your internal editor tell you it’s silly. Speak up and share it. Trust that no one will belittle your contribution. (And if someone does, provide a gentle reminder of the guidelines)
7. Ways to Generate Ideas
Try using the question “What if…” when considering your plot and your characters.
What if your protagonist is a dwarf instead of an executive for a conglomerate?
What if your villain has always wanted to be on Survivor?
Use mind mapping or clustering, too! Start with a word (perhaps a description of your character) in a circle and branch out from there. I posted about mind mapping last year.
8. Be flexible.
Get up and stretch from time to time.
If one approach isn’t working to get ideas flowing, try another. There will be moments of silence, empty of ideas. Allow them.
Thanks so much for guest blogging today, Kathy! You can visit Kathy at her blog, Well Placed Words. I’m curious to find out everyone’s techniques for brainstorming—do you write it all down? Try to keep it in your head? What works for you?
And please join me tomorrow when Kit Dunsmore posts on Hiking Through A Quilted Garden: Metaphors For Writing Fiction.
Elizabeth – Thanks for “sharing” your blog with Kathy. Kathy – you have terrific suggestions for brainstorming. I’ve especially found it true that it’s important to choose brainstorm partners whom you trust. That’s one of the essentials, I think. My own work is much, much better because I trust the people who’ve helped me; they are both honest and supportive.
Great suggestions – I do this a lot in the classroom. I do it by myself for my writing – but it would be better with a buddy :)
These are wonderful suggestions. Thank you both.
Karen
Kathy, what a great post. I can fully attest to the benefits of brainstorming because I find it nearly always works for me. Last night at our chapter RWA meeting, we held a short impromptu brainstorming session between about six of us before the meeting got underway. It just works wonders.
I like these ideas. Thanks Kathy and Elizabeth. When I was teaching I did lots of brainstorming with my students and as a writer I often brainstorm on my own, but that’s pretty limited.
Never thought of brainstorming with a group!
Great ideas!
What a pleasure to have “found” Kathy through this guest post!
I have never heard of brainstorming with others. Another enlightening post!
As I was reading this I imagined my favorite writer-mama-pal sitting with me in a retreat environment, working and writing and sharing and laughing and enjoying words.
I talked with some 4th graders this week about using “what if” in their fiction.
Thanks bunches!!
Lots of good ideas here, thanks for sharing with us, both of you. I like the “what if” Q to stimulate new and different scenarios, too.
Marvin D Wilson
Very good ideas. Also a good idea to bring in your writer friends to work with you.
Helen
Straight From Hel
My best ideas come to me in the shower and I’m still looking for a way to record them. I need colored soap to draw on the walls with.
ann
The one thing I miss about my live critique group is the brainstorming. It’s not the same with on-line partners (but I get to eat all the snacks myself!)
Kathy, thanks so much again for your post! It’s definitely given me some ideas about brainstorming. :)
Thank you, Elizabeth, for the excellent interview with Kathy. And Kathy, thanks for the terrific suggestions.
I do have one question: I have a tendency to be overwhelmed with ideas. Can you brainstorm which ideas to choose for a novel? Or just write them all down and let it rest? Which, in your experience, works better?
Conda–I like to write everything down, even ideas that aren’t right for the current novel. So I have a Word file on my computer labeled “Random” and I have all kinds of bizarre things in there: snippets of scenes, conversations with characters who aren’t in any of my books, settings of places that aren’t in my current books, etc. I figure that, some day, I’ll need them.
Thanks for coming by! :)
I’d love to try this. I was skeptical the first time I heard about it (book by committee???), but I recently read that the first Indiana Jones movie came out of a brainstorming session, and it came out just fine. ;-)
Great post. Thanks!
Many thanks, Elizabeth, for inviting me today.
I’m honored.
Margot-
You’re absolutely right. If someone is negative or a tiny bit jealous, your great idea can die instead of being nurtured. Supportive folks are gentle and enthusiastic and remember whose story it is.
Jemi-
I want you for a teacher. Nothing better than an instructor who believes the students can contribute great ideas!
Diane and Crystal Clear- Maybe I’ve incited a brainstorm in your neighborhoods! Hope so.
Alex and Karen-
Thanks. I am so pleased to be here.
Mary – I wonder if those of us who are solitary might benefit from using an “imaginary” friend to help us brainstorm. Lucky 4th graders, to benefit from your visit.
Carol – Yup. Impromptu works, too. And RWA folks know the rules already.
Paul – Mind mapping and what if’s work when you’re alone, as I’m sure you know.
Marvin – Thank you. Yes, what if’s can work when you need to figure out yet another obstacle to make things worse for your characters.
Helen – I wonder if the atmosphere of a conference like the one you just hosted would allow for brainstorming. I’m thinking our minds might already be too overwhelmed.
Conda – Some ideas seem to have more oomph and others can’t sustain a novella or full-length novel. Pulling out a couple of favorites and brainstorming some flesh onto them might help you choose. It also helps you decide which one calls loudest at the moment. (With luck!)
Oooh, Elizabeth,
I like that idea of a file of random ideas or snippets. Sometimes even very old ones come back to grow into stories.
I think I’ll try that, even with words that I like that might stimulate me into a story idea.
Anne Elle,
I think your idea for colored soaps for the shower is terrific! Maybe a waterproof blackboard so we could take the ideas to our desks? I get my best ideas in the shower, also, and often rub them off with a too brisk toweling.
Wow – I’ve never brainstormed with fellow writers before. What an idea! I wonder if this is ever done at writing conferences?
Thanks for sharing!!
Corra
from the desk of a writer
Terry,
Okay, that’s a BIG point in favor of online critiquing!
Deb,
I didn’t know about the first Indiana Jones movie being a product of brainstorming, but I imagine that’s how they came up with worse and worse encounters and obstacles for him. Now I want to rent it and watch it again.
Corra,
I wonder if it ever goes on at conferences. Two obstacles come to my mind: First, it is VERY important to trust those you’re working with, because writers’ egos are frail. Second, there is so much information input at conferences that I suffer from overload and might not be able to accept new ideas or generate them for others.
That said, I attended a week long intensive with Donald Maass (free-expressions.com) and obtained incredible inputs from people I’d just met when we critiqued each other’s work. So…maybe we should create a conference for brainstorming?