Working ideas

Cracks fingers*

My kind of topic! (Fired up)

There are many tactics regarding the formation of ideas. For some, it just comes easy to be imaginative. Around my circle of friends, I enjoy joking around and doing one man skits (voices included). By doing improvisational plays and even songs, I have become quite adept at story making.

#1- Practice. There more you do something, the better you become. Try making improv songs, or just improv rap (easier). Alternatively, try and provide your friends or family with jokes/ witty jokes. Doing so increases idea generation and creativity. It won't be easy, I promise. I wanted to be the "funny" guy and the "leader" of the group. Took me from 6th Grade till I graduated to get there (the funny part).

Have you ever truly watched an anime and made note of all the literary devices (symbolism, archetypes, etc...)? Simply re-watching it will make them blatantly obvious. There more you read books, light novels, visual novels, watch film and anime with plots, and play games with a story, the more adept you become at seeing these things and not only knowing how they are used but also why. The art that is telling a story is beautiful, complicated, and fun. So being exposed to all these stories will in turn give you more exposure, sub-consciously or directly affecting your writing (Ex. I didn't know THIS archetype existed. Oh wow, what symbolism. Hmm... this is quite the monologue).

#2-Comprehend Literature. Take an AP, IB, or College course on Literature, or just be exposed enough and discuss until you understand the (can't believe I'm saying this) Language of Literature. Because just as you analyze these works for what they are both superficially (work as a whole) and internally (the many components), doing so with your ideas will make you want to change some things or even add more. This will sometimes cause a chain reaction in the evolution of your idea/ story.

This next one is direct and simple. But trust me, it works. It's also something you see people do a lot when analyzing a piece (Anime and film are types of literature. True aficionados discuss anime in high detail because they do this and unintentionally TIP #2).

#3-Ask "why". Keep doing this, and every event, character, even setting will have meaning. From the time of day, to why the chair is blue.

Many authors of many works do this (myself included). You don't necessarily have to start from the beginning.

#4-In Medias Res. Start from the middle, hell, start from the goddamn climax! It's fun as hell, and working backwards is not hard at all, as you know the destination, so just work your way back. (This helps with planning plot twists.)

Sometimes you just can't get it right. It's okay to know point A and point B but not the line in between. We can see a clear example of this with the author for "Bleach". cough cough*

#5-Make it up as you go.

There is almost always a source of inspiration and influence (whether it be subconscious or direct). Examples include "Goku-> Naruto", "Bible"-> "Evangelion", "The 7 Samurai"-> "Samurai 7", Raptor Jesus-> Jesus Christ (no offense intended).

#6-Be inspired! Whether you adapt a work (with permission, or it has become old enough to be a public work) or draw inspiration for elements in your tale, go ahead. Hell, if your story was just one massive "What if...?" scenario of a previous work, but with different characters and setting, as long as the audience like it, go ahead.

Don't limit yourself. I wanted to stay in a specific genre. As I began making the story for my manga, I wanted to keep it Vanilla Shonen [happy ending]. (In progress from the age of 6. No, I'm not kidding lol, seriously. This thing's seen an unhealthy amount of revisions.) But now, it has become a partial deconstruction (see Evangelion). I also decided to take some characters/ situations that didn't fit in that I liked out. And just like that, more stories formed! I know have a total of 5-6 manga in planning (still a long way before artistically ready)! A Shonen [Deconstruction], Romance Mecha [Right!? But very unlikely, at least not soon], Romantic Comedy, Shonen Adventure Comedy Hybrid [Vanilla], Horror, and Adventure [Sengoku Era]! These were all created because I left my comfort zone. And you know what, I love them all!

#7-Fuck your comfort zone! Trust me.



I hope this helped. Please excuse my language as I'm quite passionate. There would normally be more emotion but this was already long as is. Still, my apologies. If you have any questions, or anyone else, feel free to ask (confused, clarifications, explanations, etc...). But most importantly, be open to everything. I'm not %100 correct. This is MY mind. What works for you may very. So be sure to value other inputs.

Music - take a song (preferably instrumental) that's fairly long (4+ min) and listen to it one or in a loop (depending on how much time you want to write, loop it 4 times and you're at 16 min). Just write what ever comes to your mind as you listen to the music and sculpt your story around that. It will shape the mood and maybe even the plot if you just let go.

I am writing - Start on a blank page with "I am writing" and then go from there, just let it flow. It's important that you don't over-think things (especially when you start out). You have to trust yourself and just write whatever comes to your mind.

Simple Character Creation - Create a character with a name, profession, a goal (what does he want to do in life? right now? any goal will suffice for this task), and one character flaw that prevents him from reaching his goal. This is a simplified character creation but it helps beginners especially.

For example to show what goals and flaws could be, have Jim, a student, he is in love with Karen and wants to ask her out, but he is shy (very simple). Then write for 5 or 10 minutes a scene with this character showing his goal and flaw.

Two Words - Take two random words (this is normally a group excercise where everyone writes two words and they get put in a pot and then chosen by everyone, but you can do it alone too: just google "random words" and find a generator; I won't put a link here, since I'm not sure if that counts as advertising). Using the two words as a prompt, write a story with the two.

Example: warehouse - snake. Let your imagination go wild. These prompts are open so everyone will probably write something different even with the same words.

Your Day - write down what you did today in listed events. For example:

1. Got up at 10 AM
2. Had breakfast: cereals with milk and a black coffee
3. Went to lecture for creative writing
4. Met person X in the break
5. lecture was boring but over, went home
6. saw two guys talking, heard something about "****"
7. saw a bicycle with its front wheel missing locked to a lamp post

Then make up one event that didn't happen, something exciting, anywhere in there. For example:

8. I looked down the street and saw an a girl run away with a bicycle wheel, rolling it in front of her instead of carrying it

Now write these events into a story.

As a follow up you can experiment with story and plot. This is a story - a series of linear events. To have a plot you have to arrange the events to make it interesting. Is the normal day in the life of a student interesting? No. Try rearranging the events, make more stuff up and try to have flashbacks etc. instead of jut a linear line of events.

1. Think of what you like to read about, to write about

You have to like to read books first before you can start writing some. So if you haven't done that in a while now, do it. You may get loads of ideas there, too. And you can also learn how people write.

So you have read a lot of books, ask yourself: "What do I like to read about?", "If I'm a popular author, what would I write about?". You can then decide the general topic for your piece. Of course, you can't write about something you don't like, right? So doing that will get you started with ideas. Then you should narrowing down your topic to a specific one.

2.Brainstorming

This, I have to say, it's extremely important. If you haven't tried it yet, at first it would seem like it's not really that necessary, but you will soon change your mind. The ideas in your mind, come and go. When you think about something, you may think then it's not interesting, then you cross it out and think about other stuffs. After that, you think of something else, which doesn't seem good at first, but the new idea would work wonders with the one that you have crossed out, but it's a shame that you have scratched it out of your head, so then you scratch out the new one too. So the idea of brainstorming is to preserve the ideas as it appear in your head, so you could look at 'em over later. So after deciding on the topic, start brainstorming. You would not waste your time.

3.Take a walk

Go out of your room once in while. If you can't think of an idea in that boring room of yours at first, then you probably wouldn't come up with anything later. So take your jacket and go somewhere, anywhere. Call up your friends and go out. Ask your girl/boy out on a date (if you have one, that is). Go to your favorite café and order some pasta. Inspirations can come from the most unexpected sources.

4.Arrange your idea.

Those guys above say sit on your chair and start writing freely. I generally agree with that, but not entirely. You have to think thoroughly first before you start writing. Only after you have been sure of everything: the plot, the characters, the setting of the story, the twists if you plan to have some, ONLY AFTER that can you start your writing and let your imagination run free, but not wildly. Don't ever alter the plot, not even when Adolf Hitler tells you to. Coming up with stuffs as you write and changing the plot mid-way can easily result in corruptions of other later plans you might have. If you have no choice but to change it mid-way, rethink your preparations.

5.What's that you want people to read about?

Every story has a meaning behind it, so you should think of what you want to deliver to readers. That way can help you concentrate on the things you want to write about. For example, you want to write about moral lessons, how you can be a better man etc., read a newspaper or a La Fontaine's story.

6.Read a lot, learn a lot

It's what it says. Read stuffs on this forum, or the latest thing happening, the Winter Contest, for instance, you could learn a thing or two.

7.Be true to yourself

Sometimes you come across an awesome story and you wish: "I wish I could write like him!". Well, don't be! Keep writing like you, put in weird jokes if that's you. You can get inspired by his writing, just don't try to be him.

8.Think out of the box

Like LtCliff said, don't think of common sense, it's too common. It's okay to use some stereotypes, but put what scream you in it. People don't like to read about what they have known already , right? Be the one who thinks differently.

9.Do normal stuffs

This would seem like the opposite of the above, but it's not, rather they support each other. Sometimes stories don't necessarily based on anything, it's based on you, but rather how you approach the idea. Do your ordinary daily things, but today, before and after doing something, stop and think about it. I think you will be amazed how you can see some interesting sides of the things you have always thought was so ordinary but never realized something about it.