#process:planning

[wrex-writes]

Where ideas come from, revisited

I’ve mentioned this before, but in the first episode of her podcast Out on the Wire, comic artist Jessica Abel describes how she developed her idea for her comic Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars. I loved this description and thought I’d share it with you:

There’s an activity in [her book on making comics that she wrote with her husband Matt] we’d done many times in our classes, where you randomly choose a physical characteristic, a job, and an emotional characteristic, and you put them together, and you build a character out of it.

It’s really funny, and fun, and it demonstrates definitively the power of juxtaposition—just put those non-aligned things together and your mind starts working. I can’t tell you how many students have gotten bizarre combos like “melancholy jockey who wears colored contacts”… and then gone on to actually love those characters and use them in stories.

Anyway, I had Matt give me those keywords for two characters, so I could draw some illustrations for the book.

Here are the prompts Matt gave me:

cheerful

spiked collar

X-games

worrywort

wears a skirt

tour guide

…And I came up with a roller girl and a 7-legged Martian.

The second part of the assignment is to put the characters together into a scenario, and build a story structure. So I gamely put Trish Trash, my rollergirl, on Mars, and invented a wacky caper plot involving a stolen suitcase, and then drew another illustration to suggest that storyline.  

…it was just an example for our textbook. I wasn’t trying to come up with anything deep.

But days later, I still felt myself drawn to the idea. On Christmas day, 2006, I jotted down a few notes:

Roller Derby is the biggest Earth sport.

Mars is the farm league – it’s not competitive.

Bad roads, too many rocks. Dust, wind.

Martians use wheels, very uncool.

All right, a farm machine breaks down and she gets this holo-image asking for help? Has to find an old martian. yeah, ok.

She gathers a girl gang in high school, and has all these sidekicks like old Wonder Woman from the 40s?

…that’s just goofy. clearly riffing on Star Wars and the silly illustration I’d done for the book.

immigration problems

all brown kids. backwater, political strife, maybe?

blonde Earth teams.

…which is where I start to feel the pull of my usual, more serious concerns in fiction: class struggle, institutionalized racism, complicated personal relationships.

About 20 minutes into making my first page of notes on this idea. And I was off.

Six months later, I had read up on leaf-harvester ants, bee colonies, various theories about terraforming Mars, and I was halfway through Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy. I went to a bunch of derby bouts and talked to players.

And as bits stuck to it, my idea grew from a silly Nancy-Drew-on-Mars romp, to a massive,  world-spanning story, touching on climate change, class conflict, and coming of age.

I built a world in my mind, and eventually, with the help of my assistant Lydia Roberts, I drew it. It’s now almost 9 years later, and I’m finally close to finishing the book.

Making this book has been an epic struggle. But it all stems from 3 prompts:

cheerful, spiked collar, X-games.

And Trish isn’t even really all that cheerful anymore.

I paid attention to my attention, and I dove in, way way in. Eight years and two planets in.

And let me say again: this is MY taste. Someone else would see roller derby and mars and be like, whatever! And keep walking.

I mean, that person would clearly be nuts, but hey, different strokes.

Learn to pay attention to what you pay attention to.

What she means by that last line is, notice when things you encounter in the world grab you. We don’t always do that. Think about the stuff you like and care about, and follow them like a trail of breadcrumbs.

Here’s the full transcript of the episode.

[wrex-writes]

sometimes i feel so overwhelmed by sheer possibility when i write... where do i draw the boundaries? how do i create constraints when my options are essentially unlimited? grateful for any & all advice!

Would you say this happens during the planning stage as you shape the initial idea into something more specific? Or does it happen once you’re wending your way through the narrative? I’ll assume it’s the first one for now. This was a really difficult question for me! So please, anyone, jump in.

For me, the key is to get as sensitive as I can to what I’m genuinely interested in. This doesn’t happen automatically. (In my head, I am hearing Marie Kondo saying “You must become more sensitive to joy.”) I had to teach myself to listen to my own taste. Not someone else’s taste, mine.

So let’s say you generate a list of places your story could potentially go, but none of them grab you immediately. None seem much better or worse than the others; they all inspire the same mild interest.

At this point, I’d suggest, slow down. Spend some real time with each one and imagine what it would be like to write it. Would it ask you to write things you find exciting? Or would you get sick of writing that story after a while? It’s impossible to predict accurately what writing a certain story will be like, of course. But if you need a principle of constraint, it’s a decent one.

For instance: a while back, I had an idea for a story. As I started to flesh it out, I found that a large amount of the story would involve two people chasing the same prize and trying to predict and outsmart each other while also independently coping with the reasons they wanted that prize in the first place. But I recalled from earlier stories that I find writing game-of-cat-and-mouse stuff tedious. While I appreciate it when other people do it well, I find it so laborious and crosswise to the way I think that I do a perfunctory job just to get it over with. So, maybe not the best way to go.

I also realized my initial idea would keep these two characters apart for the majority of the story, and their relationship was 90% of my motivation for writing the story in the first place. So I think, okay, what if these two people formed a strategic partnership à la The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? They want this prize for different reasons, which means when they get it, they’ll want to use it for mutually exclusive purposes. But they can’t get it without working together, so they do that, all the while trying to plan for whatever unpredictable showdown will happen when they succeed. 

Now that sounded like a dynamic I could get into. Then I thought, well, I also want to see what would happen if they start to understand each other’s positions and maybe even like each other. That way, I then realized, I could create additional tension, since as they become less self-righteous about their own goals, they’re no longer certain what they themselves will do at the moment of truth. Will they keep cooperating or go back to being enemies?

As I went through this process, I had to get away from asking “what would be good?” and asking instead “what most excites me?” I tend to get dazzled by other writers and covet what they’re doing without asking myself if it would stimulate me the writer (as opposed to me the reader). You can get ideas from other writers without sacrificing your own preferences; you just have to listen the part of you that’s like “uh, this isn’t really my thing after all.”

Ultimately, your dowsing rod as you wander through the forest of possibilities will be your own interests and taste, but it takes practice to cultivate your awareness of those things.

Anyone else have this issue? Thoughts?

[wrex-writes]

Could you maybe write about where to put all your brainstorm ideas and where to organize them for a single story. I used to use notebooks or word documents but it was too confusing and overwhelming to find things. Do you find all the info you need to know before you start writing overwhelming to look at/sort through? What do you do to stay sane, or not get anxious about it all?

Anon, I’m so sorry…this ask is literally years old, and I don’t know how I missed it.

So! Short answer, for me: I use Scrivener, which gives you a lot of tools for organizing your planning materials. I’ll create separate documents for each kind of information: one for, say, notes on each character; one for locations; one for secondary characters, if I have a lot; one for the story’s timeline, etc. Whatever I need. And before I reach the stage of detailed planning, I’ll create one document that’s just me thinking out loud to myself about where the story could go. Scrivener is great at helping you keep this stuff organized, but you could do a version of the same system using regular word-processing docs organized in folders.

Oh also: I forget what they’re called, but I know there are several websites for organizing story notes and planning documents. Followers, can you recommend any?

To address the more psychological side of this, though: notes are all well and good, but it’s useful to cultivate a tolerance for just…letting that stuff go. If it’s logistical info you’re worried about, you can always fix that stuff later. If you’re more worried about keeping track of, say, character motivations, themes, etc. the same principle applies: at a certain point, put the notes aside, close your eyes and just feel your way forward. (Metaphorically.) You can work out the details in the revision.

As a writer, you’ll always want to control the process more than is actually possible. And yeah, it’s hard to step off the cliff and trust the story will come out well in the end. But there’s a big cushion at the bottom of the cliff and it’s called revision. It’ll be okay.

[wrex-writes]

I have a few problems: 1.) If I write something, I have to be able to make a profit off it. Otherwise, what's the point? And 2.) I feel like I have to do all this other stuff (world building, backstories, etc.) before I can write something as simple as a character going through their morning routine. Do you or your followers have any advice on dealing with this stuff?

(Before I answer: when you say “profit,” are we talking literal, monetary profit? Or just any kind of benefit?)

So, stop me if I’m totally off base, but there might be two things going on here:

The second one sounds like a control issue. You don’t want to waste time and energy, you want to get all possible ducks in a row so the story will very clearly be good as soon as possible and your effort will pay off - and you don’t really have confidence that this will happen in its own time. Which brings me to…

It sounds like writing doesn’t have any present payoff for you. That is, you get no real pleasure in the act itself, so what motivates you is the promise of a future reward (and I mean “reward” in every sense, including the “stimulating the reward center of your brain” sense). And if that future reward isn’t certain, it can’t provide you with enough motivation to get through the process.

This sort of thing happens to me when I’m depressed and anhedonic. Anhedonia is when you can’t feel any pleasure no matter what you do. I have no idea if you’re depressed, but you could have a kind of writing-specific anhedonia, if that’s a thing? Anyway, it’s tough to deal with because…how do you get yourself to enjoy things? 

I’m not sure if I’ve ever done so successfully. I may have just waited those episodes out. All I can recommend is: try to get as sensitive as you can to what feels good in the moment, not as a down payment for future good feelings. Try to just…play. “Trying” and “playing” are, I admit, conflicting notions, but I do think it’s possible to coax oneself into playing. You can start as simply as listing words that sound good, or doodling little ideas you don’t actually write.

Folks, have you had troubles like anon’s? If so, suggestions?

[wrex-writes]

But what makes mundane life interesting to write about? I should be thankful I don't have to deal with the kinds of problems people put characters through, but my daily lives contain little to no conflict that make stories interesting, and barely any social interaction. Yes, I do occasionally go out and do things with friends or alone, maybe I fight with family members or coworkers, but what I want to read about is not what I want to live. Life is get up, go to work, do chores, homework, eat.

Sorry, I’m getting a little confused about which anon is which! But if you’re responding to this ask:

I’m not saying you should take your day-to-day routine and make a story out of it that’s fun and interesting to other people (although such a thing is possible). I’m not saying you should focus on external events at all. I’m talking about personal writing here, just for you, about your inner life - your relationships, pivotal moments in your personal history, your fears and desires, what you think of the world, etc.

You might then incorporate those things - in veiled and counter-intuitive ways, maybe - into your fantasy fiction. You said you’re relatively isolated; well, you could write about isolation. You could create a character who lives an isolated life and suddenly becomes un-isolated - what might that be like?

I’m talking about discovering what’s central to you, as a person, and including it in your stories. Not literally - don’t make your characters do homework if you don’t want to - but think about what it’s like to be you, on the inside, and let that seep into your stories.

That’s all I’m saying.

[wrex-writes]

Hello! I hope you're well, I was wondering if you might have some advice; when I'm writing I tend to get much farther ahead in my head then I am on paper, to the point I've finished & polished it in my head but I've only got a 3rd of it written down & my mind is already onto the next shine idea. This leaves me with a bunch of WIPs & a ton of anxiety about not finishing anything. I've tried not letting myself think about it until I'm able to sit & write but I usually can't shut off my brain.

I do think it will help to record those thoughts in some form as close to the time you have them as possible. I’m not sure why, but recording your thoughts externally affects and changes them, or at least changes your relationship to them. Two ways to make this easier and keep up with the speed of your ideas: 1) dictate them to some kind of voice recorder, and 2) figure out a system of note-taking that lets you get the ideas down without needing to spend time thinking about how you’re going to say them. (So, no complete sentences, no attempt to make them sound good. In other words, notes that more closely resemble what you’d say if you were dictating.)

It might also help, though, not to think of the writing process as merely writing down a story you’ve already crafted fully in your head. You might think of the head version as a very rough draft, kinda. This means when you actually start writing, the story will change. You can make it surprise you because it’s not identical to the story you already mentally planned. You can throw in radically new elements. You can change the ending. You can use the head version of the story simply as a jumping-off point for the story on the page.

These are just some ideas. Anyone else got others? 

[wrex-writes]

Any ideas for a bullet journal exclusively for writing? I feel it is a good idea for world building and inspiration, but no idea of how to start it or what to actually do with it.

Oh interesting. I don’t know much about bullet journals other than “notebook with sections” - I was under the impression they’re for time management? But if we’re just talking notebook with sections, I can imagine a using a system similar to Notebook.ai where you’ve got sections for things like:

characters (appearance, personality, personal history, etc.)

your world (political system, history, etc.)

locations

story timeline

etc.

Then maybe you could have a few freeform sections, like:

general notes (for brainstorming)

inspirational material (moodboard stuff like pictures, quotes, etc.)

feedback and notes from conversations

etc.

I’m imagining here that you’re dedicating one entire notebook to a single story, by the way. Then maybe you could have a separate, more freeform journal for fragments, ideas, notes on books you’ve read, stories you overhear, etc.? In general, I guess you’d think about the categories your writing and planning materials tend to fall into and then map out the journal that way.

I dunno, I’m just spinning this off the top of my head. Anybody else have a writing bullet journal?

[wrex-writes]

Hi your answer about making brainstorming more exciting actually really helped. Maybe it sounds odd but I never considered just mashing together different story concepts/tropes/etc that I like. I’ve been brainstorming and fleshing out ideas based on what makes the most sense to the original idea. And that’s where I got bored bc what makes “sense” is not necessarily what’s fun to write. Mashing together random concepts sounds much more fun :D Thanks!

Hey no problem, glad it helped!

Have you watched the X-Files? I used to listen religiously to a podcast about it, and they’d discuss how the stories got written. Like, one guy in the writers’ room would apparently be all “we should do an episode about the Satanic ritual abuse scare” and another guy would say “I saw a video of a boa constrictor eating a goat!” and they’d end up with a story about a Satanic school board that culminates in a guy getting eaten by a snake. It sounds like a lot of episodes were written this way. The writers would just…throw a bunch of unrelated ideas into the pot and they’d make a weird stew out of it. I think about that a lot.