THE CRAFT: Talk Your Way Out
In this week’s installment, a discussion about why flyin’ solo’s not always the way to go:
Folks who ask writers “where do you get your ideas?” are usually blissfully ignorant (or at least unaware) of the question’s depth. Here’s the painful reality about ideas, known all too well by anyone who has ever tried to write fiction: a story isn’t just one idea. It’s idea after idea, strung back to back, in an organized, insightful, and, God help us all, entertaining fashion.
So what do you do?
Well, some of this idea busting just takes care of itself, of course. After all, you probably wouldn’t be writing a story if you didn’t have some, well, idea about where it’s headed. But maybe you don’t, so you wing it and lean into that glorious, oft-serendipitous magic of finding your story. Maybe you have some luck, alternating between typing and thinking really hard. But there’s going to come a point where you need an idea and you’re just not going to have one. Or not a good one, anyway. Remember, the audience is smarter than you are.
So what do you do?
You could sit there and ponder. But that’s like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. And, well, we’ve already established that you don’t have any good ideas in those moments. Here’s a better solution: get a few trusted friends, go down to the bar, and ask them to bail you out.
No, really. It’s called brainstorming, and it’s a writer’s best friend.
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