Day 31: Generating Ideas

I'm not quite finished reviewing Brave New World, so today I'm going to go over how I like to generate new story ideas instead. I made a similar post about how to follow through on an existing idea, but didn't cover how I generate a bunch of new ideas to begin with. Many people do this uniquely their own way, but I find copying the methods other authors use to be a useful exercise. Introducing new ways of doing things can lead to many fresh ideas that wouldn't have come about otherwise. Here's how I like to generate a bunch of ideas all at once, and my process for selecting a good idea to run with.

Step one I've sort of covered in my previous post about this, and that's to listen to the boys in the basement. If you find yourself thinking about something over and over throughout the day (story related or not) it probably means that topic will catch other people's attention as well. Even if it won't, the event, person, idea, etc. must speak to you somehow if it keeps coming back.

Step two is to take those elements and turn them into something a little more formulaic. There are many ways to do this step wrong (or at least in a way that is more convoluted than it has to be). Let's say your basement dwellers can't stop bringing up chocolatier videos from YouTube, and that one serial killer TV show you can't stop watching. How can these two raw elements be turned into a story? Usually it comes from combining them somehow, but like I said, there's lots of ways to go wrong here. For example ...

A chocolate business has a murderous schtick where the employees chop up victims and mix it in with the chocolate, a la Sweeney Todd.

Sounds ok, right? But if you try to actually sit down and write a story with this, you may have a lot of trouble. It's a neat concept, and it worked for the Demon Barber, but there's a lot to be desired here. First and foremost, who is this about really? The chocolatiers? Which chocolatiers? Why are they killing people and mixing them in? Is it one person or all of them? Moreover, where's the conflict here? It may be ripe for conflict, but its not very concrete is it? Just chopping people up and throwing them in chocolate could be relatively smooth sailing for a while if nothing else happens. There's no story here without conflict, because there's no beginning, middle, or end to create based on the event which triggers said conflict. This idea is bunk because it leaves the writer sitting at a blank page wondering where to go next. It will have to be reformulated as soon as you sit down to write anyway, so why not start off with a better prompt to begin with so the writing flows naturally?

A chocolatier with a murderous secret uses his victims’ appearance in large busts and statues that he sells to unwitting customers. Little do they know that the inedible parts of the “very human” arrangements are evidence of his crimes. His reign of terror is threatened when one of the victim’s parents orders a bust for the victim's funeral. Dare he commit this riskiest of crimes that his darkest urges tell him to commit? To put his crime and obsession on full display before the family of his very victim?

Maybe it is inevitable that he would make the bust. If that's the case, then I could even go on with something like:

When the family sees the bust they scream out in horror at the distinctive features. The chocolatier thinks he’s finally finished, but then ...

There's a real start here. It's not just a raw concept anymore. There are people, in places, doing things, and a point of extreme conflict. The main character is obvious, and his motivations are hinted at. The antagonists are also obvious, it's the family he has to grapple with after creating the bust. This prompt also goes beyond the Sweeney Todd inspiration by changing the concept around, from hiding the victim's leftover parts, to putting them on full display. The conflict stems from that bit of originality as a cherry on top. Let's do another one.

A famous musician is constantly recorded in a disturbing voyeuristic dystopia, where everyone's talents belong to everyone. He makes a deal with the owner of a rare instrument (an instrument so rare that no one would ever recognize his playing) to play whenever he would like, but only in complete privacy. He also demands the purveyor’s total secrecy on the matter.

This one is almost there, but can you tell that it's missing something? It has a couple of characters (the musician and the owner of the rare instrument), and an antagonist (the society that is constantly watching him), but there's no conflict. From here, I usually like to include a 'when' statement. 'When X happens that totally throws the entire story for a loop ...' First though, I need to ask some questions, like why doesn't he just buy the instrument and play privately on his own?

Because of the complex nature of the instrument, the musician has to visit with the owner personally for setup and maintenance.

That solidifies the owner as an important character, but there's no conflict yet. Let's keep going. How do they avoid being recorded while the musician plays?

They meet at an ever changing location to avoid the roaming recording drones that comb reality for content.

This provides a reason to meet, and it makes the dystopian elements more concrete. Most importantly though, there is a chance for conflict here. The musician puts a great deal of trust in the owner to keep his secret when they have to meet in person to play. If the owner let's slip the next location, the gig is up. Breaking someone's trust is a huge point of conflict in any relationship.

Due to the nature of the arrangement, both men require a great deal of trust from one another. That trust is broken when the purveyor simply cannot resist spreading the music on the internet because it is so beautiful.

Now the conflict is there, but I don't think it is quite enough. Let's change it to,

That trust is broken when the purveyor simply cannot resist spreading the music on the internet because it is so beautiful, and also because he is the only owner of such instruments and needs to use the popularity of the musician to grow.

Now there's plenty of juicy conflict to draw on, lots of different starting points you could pick for an opening scene, two characters with a complex relationship and motivations, and maybe it would even say something about society and the attention economy by the end. Can you see the common formula between these two ideas?

A person has an occupation, passion, or relationship, when something happens that puts their occupation, passion, or relationship at stake.

From this you can add as many or as few details as you want. Sometimes I just pump out 5-10 of these and pick and choose which ones to add details to over the course of several days. I eliminate the ones I don't want from the batch, and focus on the one's I like.

A zookeeper has an obsession with finding the perfect display animal, but when the state government tries to shut down the zoo, that dream is put in jeopardy.

A superheroine who loves her powers feels obligated to save people, but when her powers start to hurt more people than she can help, she's torn between her obligation to the public and her own powers.

A spy with a grudge is on his way to take revenge when he finds out his would-be victim wasn't actually responsible for the crime he wants to revenge.

With a little practice, these become very cheap to produce. I wrote those three in about 5 minutes, and they have everything they need. A defined protagonist and a point of conflict. Plus they can always be added to. I hope these examples give you some ideas of your own, and make it a little easier for the basement department to send up good stuff.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley