Brain Game – Creating Useable Ideas, pt. 7
At last we are at the final leg of our journey to create a new story idea. We have a main character, a villain, and a place to write all our ideas down from the first half of the process.
Now we move on to filling out our story so it starts to take shape in our head.
At this point, I usually decide if I will plot the story fully or write by the seat of my pants. Yes, I do both. No, I don’t think one is better than the other. I tend to plot when I have a lot of characters, and/or in later books in a series. I almost always pants a first book in a series, or a standalone book from one or two points of view. Since this is a first book, and I’ll keep it in close third person, I’m going to pants it.
Contrary to what a lot of people insist to be true, I get writer’s block much more often when I’ve plotted the story already. I think it’s because it loses its sense of fun to write for me. My advice is do what feels most comfortable to you, though it’s worth trying both ways. Everybody is different.
Main Character Voice
The first thing I do when I’m brainstorming is come up with some distinctive qualities for my main character. This helps me imagine them, but also provides a baseline for creating the other characters.
Artistic comes to mind first. It’s not generally the first thing I would attribute to a science fiction character, but that might give us something interesting to work from. The militaristic background has been done a lot, so let me pull on this thread a little bit.
Say Xavara is a brilliant advertising executive. She comes up with innovative campaigns for nonprofit organizations. The campaigns are vivid and memorable, and she’s very good at what she does. She also chooses organizations that are trying to fix the world, in a sense. Her hero complex is already in practice.
I also often thing about nicknames. My name doesn’t nickname very well, so I tend to choose character names that can shorten into nicknames. Xav is the most logical, but I think Vara makes more sense. Zara then comes to mind, and I like that the best, but I think I’ll spell it Xara.
Antagonist Voice
I want Kalder to contrast enough with Xavara enough, but have some things in common at the start. Betrayal has to be keenly felt to be effective, and Kalder is someone that Xara trusts at the beginning of the book.
When I think about trust, I end up thinking about mentors. The hero’s journey includes a mentor, but I want to make Xara’s mentor be the person that betrays her. Kalder is someone who has encouraged her and someone she looks up to, but he isn’t everything she thinks he is.
His voice will be encouraging at first, but will increase in tension as the story goes on. When she refuses to help, his voice will turn to rage and violence.
Secondary Characters
We need some secondary characters to fill out the roster a bit. I think Xavara needs a love interest, a best friend, and a rival.
I think at first I will combine love interest and best friend. Often the main character doesn’t choose the best friend, and I find that unfortunate. I might not necessarily have them get to together in this book, if I carry it out into a series, but I’ll make that decision later in the story.
I follow the same methods for my secondary characters as for my protagonist and antagonist. I do try to give my characters very distinct appearances from one another. I also try to give them names that start with different letters. The more distinction I can draw between them, the easier it is to write them with a unique voice, and the easier it is for readers to remember them.
Name generator name: Aleic
Playby search: Aaron Taylor-Johnson
I also found a brother for Xara while I was searching. I didn’t intend for her to have a brother, but the model Zakaria Khiare looked so much like Xara that ideas began to spring to mind. This is usually a good sign that something can come out of it. You can always cut or edit characters later in the process.
Name generator name: Daned
Playby search: Zakaria Khiare
And last, a rival, a lower level antagonist, but ultimately pushes Xara to be better, so she can meet her challenges.
Name generator name: Rune
Playby search: Taylor Momsen (of Gossip Girl fame)
Aliens
I have two main ways I come up with aliens. Not that I’ve written a lot of aliens into my stories, but it has happened a few times.
Method 1 – Google aliens, click on “Images”, then take the attributes of several different photos and combine them together. Fairly simple.
Method 2 – Consider monsters in fairy tales, and update a version for your story.
I’ll use method 2 for the sake of an example. I scrolled down the wiki list, and “banshee” caught my eye. I looked more, but went back to it, so this is what I will use.
A banshee is somewhat non-corporeal, and has a disabling scream. So, if I create aliens that are intelligent, energy-based, mist-like beings who disable their opponents with sound, we have a fairly scary alien enemy. Took me all of one minute to create.
Setting
There are different ways to go about setting. I usually like to come up with a few settings at the beginning, and then I make up the rest as I go along.
Generally, for setting, I come up with a major theme, then I start asking myself what I would need there, and also what I could do. This is where a brainstorming session comes in handy.
We’ve established Xara is human, so let’s set her on a space station orbiting earth. It’s a closed, small setting, and perhaps she works for a broadcasting station and their clients. Let’s assume it’s cramped, and has little in the way of decor. The walls are metal, but everything is kept as clean as possible to avoid rust and contamination, which means a rather large sanitation staff.
Xara lives on the station with a number of other broadcasting staff. The station allows better control of the satellites, as well as gives the station some notoriety. Living on the station allows her to network with those staff and better position her ads.
Adding Depth
Layer 1 – Hero’s Journey
The top layer of my story is a simple hero’s journey storyline.
Normal person in an average society
Society becomes threatened
Normal person decides to confront threat
Normal person goes on a journey to acquire the skills, tools, and friends to fight threat, becoming a hero
Hero confronts threat
Xara will have to be taken to a place where she can confront the threat, so the space station must be a key for defending the planet. Perhaps she likes to fly on her spare time? Maybe she becomes a member of the security staff. I could go in a lot of directions to place her at the center of the action.
Secondary story layer 2 – School
Underneath my hero’s journey I want to give another flavor to my story, so I’m going to juxtapose a different storyline that runs in a different direction. If you imagine the top layer going vertical, this layer will go horizontally.
This layer is going to be Daned’s story, how he becomes the hero of his own storyline in the novel. I’m going to choose a traditional adventure school story for him, and let him become part of the in-crowd on Earth that eventually will let him break restrictions for Zara. Think Harry Potter. In the story, we’ll touch base with Daned as he copes with school, breaking rules, and eventually being the hero of the school, eventually positioning him in a pivotal place in the military where he and Xara can work together to beat their enemy. We will keep tabs on him via his communications to Xara, public broadcasts, and even a few chapters of his own.
One thing we don’t want to do is allow our layers to overtake the main storyline. There can be a different storyline below the surface, but it should push the secondary character to either help or hinder the main character in their ultimate goal. Think of it as two streams which join at the end before meeting the ocean.
But wait!
Did you develop ideas of your own just from the names and character photos? Did you see the characters coming to life, even though I really didn’t give much about the characters themselves.
This always happens to me when I develop stories this way. The stories take shape on their own. Your story is probably different than mine, but that’s the spectacular thing about writing. We can use the same things and still come up with something with our own storylines and voices.
Wrapping Up
That’s my process for creating a story. I hope something in it is helpful to you as a writer.
Related Posts:
Live the Process – Creating Useable Ideas, pt. 6
Level Up – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 5
Fight The Biggest Monster – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 3
Original article: Brain Game – Creating Useable Ideas, pt. 7.
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