Scott McCloskey's Blog: RainHand Books (Goodreads Digest) - Posts Tagged "idea"

I recently posted my opinions of the idea of offering your novel to readers for free on my blog, ordonline.net. I would love to hear the opinions of others in the reading/writing community. If you have two-cents you'd like to share on this issue, please share and make yourself heard!

(Original article can be found here.)

Here's a topic for all you writers out there (and I mean anybody that writes, publishing notwithstanding):

How do you create a scene?

What do you start with? Do you plan everything out meticulously with an outline and pie charts, or do you thrust your characters into a new situation and let the chips fall where they may?

For me, I find that coming up with a new scene, chapter, or even entire story starts from the smallest point, and expands out in a "big bang" of ideas that all eventually congeal into something worthwhile. Call it an unpolished way of thinking, but that's just what works for me. For example, if I was writing the arrival of Dorothy in the land of Oz, I might start with the Lollipop Guild. First I come up with the concept of a few munchkins with a song on their lips and a sailor-like attitude. Perhaps I like them, but what can I do with them? Ah, perhaps I can create an entire race of similar beings with a city -- the perfect place to start my protagonist (Dorothy, who I have already come up with in a previous scene) on her journey through the curious land of Oz! From here, I create the other munchkins and their personalities. I'll also need a reason for Dorothy to travel to the Emerald City...ah, here's where we can add the good witch Glinda. She'll conveniently get the plot moving forward after her appearance in this city, but...hmm...what's she doing there? Oh! The wicked witch, of course!

Like I say, sounds a bit convoluted, but that's how I work. Start at the finer details, and paint the overall picture from there.

How about you?

If there's anything I've learned about trying to come up with new ideas over time, it's that you just can't force it. There are times when no matter what you want your brain to cook up for you, the oven just won't come on. When I hit a situation like that, I turn the stove on simmer. Think about it for awhile, and then push it into the back of the brain and focus on other things. If you let the clouds gather over that idea you need, the brainstorm eventually unleashes itself.

I must admit, sudden assaults from my muse are not as frequent as they were when I was younger. I'm of the belief that teenage hormones help to beget those 3 am moments when you wake up with a sudden idea that simply has to be written down. Every now and then I still get attacked like that though, and it's always a good feeling.

I have an old manuscript I've recently dusted off and started polishing up again. Back when I first wrote it (about a year before TGL), I stopped about two chapters before the end because I wasn't certain where I wanted to go with it. Then TGL captured my attention, and it went into hiatus. Now I'm working on it again and finding that I have a lot of refinements to add that I'm happy with, but that blank space at the end has been staring me in the face for two weeks, reminding me that when I get to that point, it will still be there, looming and waiting. Yesterday I was driving home from work with a nice warm latte. I wasn't even thinking about that story, when I received a visit from the gift muse. Found myself shouting "Yes! That's perfect! Just what I needed there!" at nobody in the car. Had to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to grab a steno pad, so I could plan everything out before it leaked back out of my ears.

Made my day. My Lady Muse can be stingy at times, but when she does decide to visit, there's always fruit to bear.