I is for Ideas Bouncing Theory

I think the most frequently asked question that an author gets is "Where do you get your ideas?" The first time I heard Brandon Sanderson speak, he told us his theory. I kind of love it, so I'm going to share it with you guys.

He said that every time he comes across something that he thinks is cool (inspired by a movie, a character, a book-- whatever), he writes it down, and sends it into his brain to bounce around.

Notice he doesn't just use the idea as soon as he gets it. That first idea is likely to have been done a million times already. He sticks it in his brain, and lets it bounce around with all of the other ideas in there. Any one of those ideas by itself could've been okay, but the magic comes when two ideas stick together. Usually when they stick, they are things that are unique. Different. They have their own sets of conflicts inherent to just plain being together.

When they stick, that's when you have an idea that will allow your own special twist on things, that will make it different from everything else out there.

He gave the example of his book MISTBORN. (If you haven't read it, ohmygosh READ IT! Seriously. It's fabulous. Even if you don't love fantasy, you'll still be able to appreciate the unfathomable amount of thought that went into it.) Anyway, Brandon watched a heist movie. I can't even remember which one, but after he watched it, he thought about how much he really loved heist movies, and stuck that idea in his brain to bounce around. He already had another thought in his head-- the magic system that he used for a previous book that hadn't worked out. He didn't love the main character or the setting, but the magic system was awesome. (And trust me when I say he wasn't wrong.) Those two ideas stuck, and he wrote a heist novel, where each person in the group had a different magical specialty.

Two common ideas--- a heist and a magic system where each person with a magical ability only has one ability--- that were unique and different and interesting when they were put together.

I don't know about you, but the idea of ideas bouncing around in my head not only sounds pretty effective, but makes it all sound SO MUCH MORE FUN.

The Way We Are: Countering Writer's Block

When I was a kid and I first heard about writer's block, I always assumed it was some mystical thing that came over writers that stopped them from writing. Something like how vertigo can stop someone from piloting a plane. Something that happened to them that they really couldn't control.

Maybe I just figured that authors had a magical something that allowed stories to flow from their brain on command, and that writer's block stopped the flow. (Oh my gosh. Wouldn't that be so cool?)(No, not the writer's block. That's almost never cool. The having stories flow freely from our brains.) Since then, of course, I learned that writer's block is basically not having thought through your story enough. Not having figured out the next part or the next scene. That it isn't just a mystical thing. (I picture it as a reinforced steel wall in my mind, behind which all answers to my plot reside. I have to beat and beat and beat at it to punch a hole big enough to grab out a piece of the plot, then I have to beat and beat and beat to get the next part.)

Getting those stories to flow takes so much work! But beyond that, it takes your mind being in a creative place-- mentally and / or physically. When you are putting in the time and the work and the effort to try to figure out the next scene or that next plot turn, or how to make that climax more spectacular, or one of the million little things you have to figure out along the way, there are things that can definitely trigger your creativity more. Things you see or hear or experience or places you can be that help you unblock writer's block.

So what's your go-to? What creative triggers

can you count on to help you get past writer's block?

For me, it's walking. Folding clothes. Looking at pictures of fascinating scenery. Watching movie trailers. Listening to my daughter's wildly fantastical stories. That last few moments when I'm lying in bed before I fall asleep.

Now it's your turn! Share what works for you-- it just might work for someone else, too.

To Write Them Down or Not to Write Them Down

At a writing conference (well, a symposium, actually) about three years ago, I heard someone on a panel talk about ideas. Sadly, I cannot remember who it was. Someone in the audience raised their hand and asked if this author kept a notebook of all his great ideas. The man said he didn't write down any of his ideas. He figured if it was a good idea, it'd stick around. If it didn't stay with him long enough to use it, then it wasn't an idea worth using in the first place. I found his answer completely fascinating. What a great way to weed out the bad ideas, and to discover what the really great ideas are!

Yeah. It took me a couple of years to realize that, fabulous concept or not, it's just not how I work.

Writing is a lot of problem solving. A million little problems present themselves in every manuscript, and your job as a writer is to find the best way to solve them. Some are huge enough that they affect the direction the entire plot is headed. Others are small and only affect a single scene. All of them have to be solved, and chances are you have a dozen of these little issues bouncing around your head at any given time, hoping for their chance to be solved.

Sometimes I'll be sitting in the car, waiting for my daughter's art class to end, and I'll figure out the perfect solution to one of the things bouncing around in my head. The solution that makes everything right. That missing puzzle piece. And then she'll hop in the car and we'll start chatting art, and the idea slowly slips away while I'm not looking until later that night when I think, "Now what was that perfect solution again?"

Does that mean it was a bad idea? No. It means I was forgetful and easily distracted and darn it, by now I should know better than to turn my attention away from it before it's either inked forever in my brain or inked forever on paper! Because for me, the really good ideas like to wander down those brain hallways that rarely get used, then they tend to get lost.

So what about you? Do you know when something is a really good idea because it tends to stick, or do you have to write good ideas down if you want to keep them?

The Way We Are: Figuring Things Out

Has everyone had a good holiday season so far? I have been loving it something fierce! But now we're on the downside of it and I just really wish it would last another week or two or seven. Not only has it given me lots and lots of chances to spend quality time with family, but it's given me time to clean and to WRITE! As I'm working through a first draft, it got me wondering....

Where are you when you get your best ideas?

I'm not talking about that initial spark of an idea for a new story. I'm talking about figuring out that missing puzzle piece. That idea of how to work your next scene, or where to take a certain character's arc, or how to have your character figure out that last piece of information they need for the ending scenes. The million things you have to work through as you are writing. Where is your best place for getting that kind of inspiration?

For me, it's most frequently in one of five places. In the car, in the shower, while on a walk, while making dinner, and while folding clothes. So... I guess the places where my body is busy doing something, but my mind is free to wander.

How about you?

That New Story High

I know several of you love to work on more than one project at a time-- either writing one project while editing another, or writing multiple manuscripts at the same time.

I don't.

It's not that one way is better than another. It's more of a one-way-works-best-for-you-and-another-doesn't kind of thing. I tend to put all my focus into the book I'm writing, then decide what book I'm going to write next. While I'm editing the first book, the second book percolates. When I'm mostly through editing, I pour my focus into the next book.

I've been revising for MONTHS. I love revising. I really, really love it. Revising comes with its own special high, just knowing that your book is that much better than it was before you started the revision.

But amidst the revision highs, I had almost forgotten how sweet the NEW BOOK high is. That high when you wake up in the morning already thinking about it. That high when you figure out the next scene. That high when the writing just works. That high that comes from creating a slice of the world that hadn't existed and bringing to life people to populate it. That high from creating something out of nothing. Know what I mean?

Where are you? Living off a writing-induced high? Or looking longingly at the memory of it? Or, even better, I'd imagine, living off dual editing and drafting highs? Gosh, I hope you've got either a writing high or a revising high going on, because there's just nothing quite like it.

Revising is like bedroom closets

I watched the show Hoarders for the first time a few days ago. Have you seen it? Oh my gosh, that show makes me want to cry! And then hyperventilate from the claustrophobia. And then empty my house of every single thing not required to live.

On the show, the lady's house was actually even worse than this one! She had to be pretty close to the ceiling as she was climbing over things.

Doesn't it make you start looking for escape routes? Obviously keeping every cool thing you come across isn't a good idea.

Which brings me to what I'm really talking about. Drafting is like bedroom closets.

When you're drafting, you come across so many cool things! Things you pick up that you want to take home and include in your own manuscript. Like things that happened to your main character. Sure it happened before the story started, but they shaped WHO THE CHARACTER IS. Some are cool things in the setting. Sure they don't move the plot forward, but THEY ARE JUST SO INTERESTING. Sometimes it's a subplot that went in a direction you weren't even expecting, and you ran with it because it was SO MUCH FUN. Sometimes you see a character in a movie or in a book that so enthralled you, you want a character with some of those traits in your book too. Sure, developing them has eaten a lot of words and isn't integral to the plot, but YOU LOVE THEM.

And doing all of that is PERFECTLY FINE. Really. Because during that "bring stuff home" phase, you might discover that element of your story that is the equivalent to the perfect pair of jeans that you don't think your wardrobe could live without.

It's really okay to have a draft that looks like this closet.

But let's face it: it can't stay that way. Readers will start looking for escape routes. That closet needs cleaned and organized.

Which brings me to my actual point. Revising is also like bedroom closets.

Have you ever stood in front of your bedroom closet and thought I have nothing to wear, even though there were tons of clothes in there? Sometimes there is so much STUFF, you can hardly see what's good. If you go through and toss anything that doesn't HAVE to be in there, then suddenly you feel like you can breathe again AND see what you really have to work with. It isn't hidden behind a bunch of stuff that may or may not have been cool, but is nonetheless adding in a positive way to your wardrobe.

Same goes for manuscripts. If there is so much extra stuff in it, regardless of how awesome it is, it can make it hard to see the plot. It clutters the story. It hides the truly good parts.

And then when all of the extra is gone, you can take a good look at the closet and think, No wonder I felt like I had nothing to wear. I only have two skirts! I don't have many dress shirts! I need a new pair of pants!

And just as easily, when you look at a manuscript without any clutter, you can see I need more description here! This plot turn would be stronger if I built up the opposite emotion right before it! My character just did something he/she had no motivation to do! You'll actually be able to SEE what changes need to be made.

And in the end you'll be left with a manuscript that the equivalent of a closet you can't stop staring at because everything in it's so darn perfect.

Happy revising everyone!
.

Quotes and Cookies: Escapist Ideas

In honor of Favorite Quote Friday, here's one I love:

“I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.”

~Philip Pullman

Of course, I don't believe you have to be AT your desk, because ideas come in a million different places. I think he means that they aren't going to come (or at least stick) if you aren't ready to do something with it. If you aren't ready to WORK.

And if they come to you and you don’t write them down, they’ll go away again! Ideas are like that. Flighty. Little escape artists just waiting for you to turn your back. Or you know, sometimes they're just waiting for you to blink.

And hey, everyone— it’s Friday! Let’s celebrate getting great ideas by having a virtual Almond White Chocolate Chunk cookie! Yum.

Photo courtesy recipebridge.com