Musings of a Depressed Visionary: Finding an idea -- or how to go from naught to write in seconds

It all starts with an idea. But what if you can't pin down this idea to anything? What if it is just an idea, floating in your head, which you find hard to describe? Impractical as it may seem, I tend to work this way, most of the time: I decide I need an idea, then I work out what the idea that I need might be. Sometimes, I am in such dire need of an idea, that I can't work around finding one.

Other times, finding an idea is easier than it seems.

This blog post is a tutorial for brainstorming.

But first, let's take things from the beggining.

I consider myself a writer. Cliche as it may sound, it's what I do mostly, most of the time. Writing doesn't have to be literal. It can be writing music, or a script, but most often than not, it begins with writing an idea.

Can ideas be written? I reckon they do, and if you consider yourself a fan of writing, then you might often catch yourself writing scribbles. Often, you write because something is in your head.

Other times, your need to write creates something in your head, which you write about.

So, how do you begin? Say, you decide that today is your 'write' day, and you need to write a story. What will your catch be?

An easy way to begin is often looking into your past. I admit that I do this more often than I need to. The past provides us with easy fodder for story writing. First of all, since it is your past, there is little chance that others know about it or have heard of the story. But then again, you risk making your writing a bit too personal. It is a secret of the trade, but the best autobiographical stories are not really factual. They might hold an element of fiction, or the story telling might be fictitious. Some writers claim to tell the story 'as truthfully as they can', but often this can be translated into 'as truthfully as they should'. Perhaps it is that your story from the past did not have the ending that would turn it into a meaningful story. Or perhaps, you want to revisit it up to a certain point and then change the rest of it. If writing is your power, then writing is in your power, and you should know what is best to do with it.

But unless your life has been truly uncommon, using the past may not always create the best stories. Sometimes you need to go beyond the usual to come up with something. So, here is my trick: Be random.

Start by writing some numbers down. Don't think of a pattern, just pick 3 to 6 numbers. Let's say, you chose: 2, 5, 3, 1.

Think of these numbers as story arcs. They do not represent an order, but rather, they represent a nearly equal (or weighted) amount of words. Number 2 should be twice in length than number 1. Then, randomly, give them an order of importance. Don't go for the obvious. Why make the 'larger' story arc (5) the 'basic' story arc? Try something unconventional. How about you make number 1 the basic story arc?

You now have on your hand a potential long or short story with 4 discrete story arcs, of which there is one that is up to five times as 'long' as the basic. How would you construct this as a story? Perhaps you can make the story arc '5' run throughout the length of what it is you are trying to tell. Now, you have come to another important part: Order. Your story arcs need to have some order in which they are told. Some can run concurrently, while others can start or end before another has begun. Since story arc '1' is the most important, it would make more sense to put it at the beggining or the end. It could either be a 'starting point' from which the other story arcs unfold, or it could be a 'coming-to' point, where they converge.

Or you can go for something more unconventional. Make story arc '1' a public event that is available to all story arcs. It doesn't have to be their story, it just needs to be there in the background, as these stories are told. This could make both '5' and '1' related story arcs. Try not to think too fast and far ahead at this point. Give your story arcs an order, as we said earlier.

Let's say story arc '1' is 'a'. Let's make story arc '3' a 'b', (spanning b-1, b-2 and b-3). Story arc '5' should be 'c' and story arc '2' will be 'd'.

What do you know so far, by randomly assigning roles into your potential stories?

You know that 'a' is the main (yet background) story arc, but it is supposed to be small. About a fifth smaller than the entire concept of the 'bigger' story arc. You also know that 'b' is a three-parter, 'c' is a the five-parter mentioned earlier and 'd' will be a two-parter. You have also semi-decided to relate 'a' and 'c'. So, your potential story begins with an important event (a), and this event leads to a main plot-line (c). During plot 'c', story arcs 'b' and 'd' develop.

Now you can try asigning actual plot contents to these random structures in your head. You might already have had some hunches -- random numbers and brainstorming tends to create incredible ideas in your head. I picked the general theme of 'armed robbery'.

Say plot 'a' is an armed robbery at a bank. Immediately tens of questions arise:

Why rob a bank?

Was anyone hurt?

Who were the people working at the bank?

Why was that old man withdrawing money in such a hurry that morning?

That woman... she seems indifferent to the robber. Why is that?

As you let your imagination go wild, images fill your head, and your head responds with more precise ideas about your topic. Before you know it, story arc 'a' has provided you with most of the subject matter for the rest of your novelette. Story arc 'd' (the two-parter) could be the story of the woman. Story arc 'b' could be the story of the old man. But, how about -- instead of making story arc 'c' be a result of 'a', you can make it the other way around, as it was earlier implied?

Let's have 'a' be both our starting and our ending point. It's how this story begins, and it's also how it ends.

Your novelette could then begin with 'a', telling the events as they happened at the end of the story. Without introducing your readers, just give a precise retelling of a bank robbery. Mention the old man. Mention the woman. Don't focus on them, focus on the robbery. Do something out of the ordinary. Have the robber kill the old man, perhaps when confronted. Do not make it tragic yet. Your readers do not know this old man. Then, take them back in time...

At this point, you have to clear your potential scenario candidates for the stories of the old man and the woman. It doesn't matter how conventional or not you are at this point. Good storytelling is honest. It doesn't have to be spectacular -- just realistic.

We know that the old man needs the money fast. But, how about we turn the story on its head? Perhaps the money is not really his.... or........

Writer's block.

Don't worry. It happens. It happens to the best of us, and it most certainly happens to the writer in us. If a story arc confuses you, move away from it for a moment. It might become clearer later on. Let's focus on the woman instead. We know her story is a two parter. Let's make her story start before the events of the bank robbery, and end after. Perhaps something occured to her, something which she found important at first, but which -- given the situation and the loss of a person's life in front of her eyes -- has become trivial. Perhaps she had a row with her father, but she offered to go to the bank in his stead nonetheless. The old man could have been her father, but she was lucky to give way to anger, and she is grateful for this.

But this may be too easy. Turn her story on its head even further. She goes to the bank before her father, to withdraw money she intends to give to her lover, whom her father dislikes.

Suddenly, you have your 5-parter story arc 'c'. It's the story of her lover, who turns robber / accidental-murderer, in front of his girlfriend's eyes. But she doesn't know. Mask him. At the beggining of the story, your readers shouldn't know. She shouldn't know either. But if story arc 'a' it is the end (and beggining) of the story, then what happens during the second part of the woman's story? Perhaps she returns to her lover's house. Scared of what has just happened. She doesn't know who robbed the bank, but she is scared. She knocks the door.

End your story there. Keep the reader immersed, panicked, wondering. Don't give them an ending but just a pathway of possibility. Don't even be explicit that the robber/murderer is really her lover. Rather, imply it. Leave the reader with the possibility of hope.

Then go back to your story, construct the old man's story accordingly. His is a three-parter, and you already have made up most of your story's end, so, construct his story around a different story concept. Don't make his death trivial, but perhaps allude to his social circle or family who might mourn his loss afterwards.

In just a few minutes or hours, you have constructed a story out of nothing.

It all begins with a robbery, in which a young man accidentally kills an old man, after panicking. Then, the story goes back in time. Perhaps a row with his girlfriend or lover about money. His (the robber's) story is the 5-part arc. Make it detailed. Explain how he plans the robbery after his lover exits the room. During your main plot, interweave the story of the old man. Don't make it relevant. Not all story arcs are relevant directly. Explain how he came to need to be at the bank. Make the readers care -- he will be the first person they realize connects to the main story; as they don't know yet who the robber is. Not until the end, at least. To that end, avoid unveiling that the young man plans a robbery. Make it happen unexpectedly during the last chapter of his story. Make sure to have placed both the woman and the old man in the same bank branch before he has entered.

When all your plot points are in order, execute it. You now have the basic premise and idea of what it is that you want to do. Keep writing, keep adding, and don't be afraid to take long or short breaks whilst writing. Sometimes it is best to move away and re-focus later, in order to create something truly interesting to read.

If you end up writing a story using this technique, or even this very story story featured here, I would love to know about it and read it.

Because... as you might have suspected, I just came up with all of this -- including the subject, content and the ideas within -- literally as I was writing about it. I had no idea what this would turn out to be. I just knew I needed an idea, and a reason to go from naught to write, in seconds.

Did it work in your opinion?

Notice: It has come to my attention that some website has reposted my short story 'The girl with the wooden umbrella' without permission. I would like to explain, first and foremost, that I am an avid supporter of endorsing and helping creativity in people. I am against 'copyright' notices, and I do not believe that any person owns the work they produce. Instead, what we produce, as artists, humans, engineers, scientists, belongs to humanity as a whole. But there is a fine line, and when someone attempts to usurp another person's work without proper permission, referencing or acknowledgements, then this goes against such notions of creative commons. My work is free and open for everyone to read, use and make the most and best of. It is not however open for direct or indirect exploitation of any kind, including passing it on as your own in order to make money. If you need to re-post something from this blog, feel free to do so -- I am happy that you care about it in the first place. But please, say where you found it, give a link to the original blog and cite the writer or the writer's pseudonym. That's how simple it is. The same rule goes for any derivative work. If you create a work directly based on something you read here, make sure to tell others about where you got the original idea from. All work contained in this blog is considered under a non-commercial creative commons license of attribution and share-alike ethos.

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This original work by Amadeus In Denial is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0) License. All work created 2006-2011.