J. Allen Wolfrum
I have two pieces white printer paper pinned to the wall behind my computer.
The first has a handwritten sentence that reads: "I have an unyielding faith that there will always be something in the box." I stole that line from a Steven Pressfield book, it was either War of Art or Turning Pro. In the book he tells a story about improvisational acting classes where the students have to pull something imaginary out of a box on stage and whatever they pull out of the box will be the premise of the next scene. Therefore, to be a part of that improv troop, you must have faith that there will always be something in the box or else there is no show.
For me, that translates well into my writing process. When I sit down to write, my intention is to write a scene consisting of 1,500 to 2,000 words. Before I sit down to write, I plan out the scene with bullet points. Each scene must have the 5 Commandments of Story: an inciting incident, progressive complications, a crisis, a climax, and a resolution. The 5 Commandments come from an amazing book on story structure by Shawn Coyne, The StoryGrid.
Writing down the bullet points for the scene gets my brain moving in the right direction and gives me a map for the work I need to do. What ultimately comes out on the page tends to be different from the bullet points I originally used to plan the scene. To me, that's where the creativity comes into play.
The second piece of paper pinned to the wall is typed and contains 3 things: The controlling idea of the book, the hero's WANTS, and the hero's NEEDS. I read those three things before I write each day. When I get lost in my own thoughts they guide me back to the right path.
For me, inspiration happens when I sit down to write. I have to be at my desk doing the work. At this point, I don't have a shortage of ideas, I'm short on time to implement them.
"I have an unyielding faith that there will always be something in the box."
The first has a handwritten sentence that reads: "I have an unyielding faith that there will always be something in the box." I stole that line from a Steven Pressfield book, it was either War of Art or Turning Pro. In the book he tells a story about improvisational acting classes where the students have to pull something imaginary out of a box on stage and whatever they pull out of the box will be the premise of the next scene. Therefore, to be a part of that improv troop, you must have faith that there will always be something in the box or else there is no show.
For me, that translates well into my writing process. When I sit down to write, my intention is to write a scene consisting of 1,500 to 2,000 words. Before I sit down to write, I plan out the scene with bullet points. Each scene must have the 5 Commandments of Story: an inciting incident, progressive complications, a crisis, a climax, and a resolution. The 5 Commandments come from an amazing book on story structure by Shawn Coyne, The StoryGrid.
Writing down the bullet points for the scene gets my brain moving in the right direction and gives me a map for the work I need to do. What ultimately comes out on the page tends to be different from the bullet points I originally used to plan the scene. To me, that's where the creativity comes into play.
The second piece of paper pinned to the wall is typed and contains 3 things: The controlling idea of the book, the hero's WANTS, and the hero's NEEDS. I read those three things before I write each day. When I get lost in my own thoughts they guide me back to the right path.
For me, inspiration happens when I sit down to write. I have to be at my desk doing the work. At this point, I don't have a shortage of ideas, I'm short on time to implement them.
"I have an unyielding faith that there will always be something in the box."
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