100:10:1
The Problem
Especially when practicing, you need to write a lot. Writing short stories provides good practice, but they’re over quickly. Knowing what to write next can be a challenge, and some ideas start out promising but fall flat as you develop them.
The Forces Involved
It can be difficult to generate ideas while you’re writing. Just as writing and editing both become more productive when separated into two processes, writing and brainstorming can be separated.
Creativity can be divided into two different expressions: invention and problem-solving. Each mode engages your brain in a different fashion. We’re always alternating between them.
Writing tends to be a form of creative problem-solving fueled by invention: you have an idea, now you need to solve the problem of expressing it in words. Later you refine that expression through editing and revision.
Inventive creativity is about developing the vision itself. We can do this intentionally through the process of brainstorming.
Within a brainstorming session, there are two separate phases:
- Ideation
- Selection
Again, it’s more productive to separate these phases, saving our inner Critic for phase two.
During the Ideation phase, you pick a subject and then generate as many ideas as you can. Forcing yourself to generate a bulk mass of ideas without critiquing them challenges your creative muscles and often produces surprising results.
During the Selection phase, you again enter a problem-solving mode and begin to analyze and critique the ideas. It’s much easier to evaluate ideas alongside each other.
Therefore:
The Solution
Ideation
Pick a subject. For generating conflicts and themes for stories you might go with any (or all) of the following:
1. things people like you need or want
2. things people unlike you need or want
3. things frightening, intimidating, or unnerving people need or want
4. kinds of people (<adjective> <adjective> <occupation>)
5. interesting and unusual settings
6. murder weapons
7. striking images
8. items of great worth.
Work on one subject at a time.
For each subject, generate a list of at least 100 ideas. No editing, no crossing out or deleting ideas.
This could be a good exercise for a free-writing warm-up. Brainstorming counts towards your daily word targets!
Selection
Once you have a list of 100 ideas, evaluate them. You can use your own criteria, or use these:
- What’s most interesting to me right now?
- What would be most interesting to my audience?
- What’s possible for me to do right now?
Choose ten and only ten ideas to develop further. If you’re working with multiple subject lists, choose ten combinations that meet your criteria.
Development
Create ten story concepts based on the items you selected. Work on these concepts concurrently. If you get stuck on one, move to the next. Try to develop each to the point of a three to four paragraph summary.
Execution
Pick the most promising of the ten concepts and finish it.
Iteration
Discard any of the ten that aren’t working. Replenish their number from your brainstorming list. Repeat.
Next Steps
- Plan Ahead
- Mise-en-place
- Just Write