Write Through It: Discover the best places to dig up ideas

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Welcome to your May newsletter. And welcome to all the new subscribers from the El Paso Writer's League. It was a pleasure meeting you and presenting my ideas on revision. (And a big thank you to Patsy for inviting me!) Thanks for signing up so that we can continue to talk shop.

I hope this finds all of you well and happily productive. As always, I encourage you to contact me with topics you'd like to see covered in future newsletters. Since my goal is to make "Write Through It" helpful and inspiring to you, your ideas are paramount.

Also, writing is a lonely process. I'm hoping this newsletter reminds you that you are part of a community (no matter how geographically spread out we may be) and, while we might write very different things, we all face similar struggles along the way.

Editors and agents decide whether to keep reading a submission or to Frisbee it over to the rejection pile within the first five pages. Make sure your opening pages are sharp, compelling, and impossible to put down. I offer a no-obligation way to do that.

Reply to this message to inquire about my f*r*e*e critique. I'll carefully review those critical first five pages, send you my written notes, as well as discuss your work with you during a 20-minute phone consultation. Today's competitive market demands that you always put your best pages forward.

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As you can imagine, I talk to writers all the time, both in my role as book coach/freelance editor and by choice. (I find writers to be Highly Interesting People and therefore seem to gravitate toward them.) Writers ask me a wide variety of questions about craft and about the publishing market, but there's one question I get asked more than any other: "Where can I get ideas? I want to write more than anything, but I have no ideas. Help!"

First of all, banish the erroneous and self-defeating thought that you don't have ideas. (There's nothing that will chase ideas away faster than the repeated insistence that you don't have any.) Ideas are literally all around us, twisting and turning in the ether. You only need to open yourself to them and pluck them out. If you can think, you can summon up ideas.

Secondly, don't listen to people who tell you that whole story ideas (complete with a compelling hook for the beginning, a middle that never sinks into a muddle and a satisfying, surprising end) just pop into their heads upon waking and play like a feature film across their brains. That may be true for a rare few (though I doubt it occurs exactly like that), but it doesn't help to hear it. The fact is, most of us have to wrangle with ideas. We nurture a fragile seed, watch it grow into something we hadn't expected it to be, prune it at times, fertilize it at others, change the lighting and watering schedule as it develops...you get the idea.

Stephen King has said that writers aren't inventors--they're archeologists, digging up ideas that are already in the universe. Regardless of what you think of Stephen King's writing, you have to admit he's had a bank-vault-load of ideas. So if one of the most financially successful writers of all time digs up his ideas, what are you waiting for? Grab your shovel!

Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike is closely based on the Jon Benet Ramsey story. You might "rip something from the headlines" (like Law and Order does), or you might more subtly appropriate some bit of news for your fiction. Either way, the news is a steady stream of ideas.

T. C. Boyle (often referred to as our the greatest living writer) relies on history a great deal for his fiction. His novels have explored the lives of Frank Lloyd Wright, Stanley McCormick, John Harvey Kellogg, just to name a few. Geraldine Brooks' novel, The Year of Wonders, gives a fictionalized view of England during the worst point of the plague. John Dufresne calls fiction "The lie that tells a truth," and there's plenty of raw, powerful truth in the best novels that shape themselves around a slice of history.

You are an unlimited store of ideas, dear writer! (Unlimited because your store constantly replenishes itself.) When you're at a loss for what to write about, but you feel compelled to write, dig into the rich soil of your own life. Flannery O'Connor said that if you only make it to the age of twelve, you still have experienced enough to write for a whole lifetime. However, unless you're writing a memoir, don't hug the factual starting point too closely or you'll miss expansive opportunities to grow your story idea.

Sometimes the quickest, most effective way to discover what you know is to make a habit of freewriting, which is the practice of timed writing (usually short bursts, 15 minutes or so) without editing or slowing down to polish your prose. This works best when you write by hand (and since writing by hand and using the keyboard stimulate different areas of the brain, it's wise to do both in any writing habit), and when you commit to not lifting your pencil off the page. Set an egg timer for your designated time, and literally write I have nothing to write about when you feel empty. Your brain will scramble to catch up and the ideas will start to flow. Don't judge what you write in any way. Some of your freewriting might be just plain weird, and some might be useable down the road. Just trap your brain's output on paper.

If an empty page and a potentially empty mind are too daunting to you, start your freewriting time by blowing the dust off your dictionary (not Dictionary.com) and hefting it onto your desk. Open it at random, latch onto the first word you see or the first one your finger lands on, and spend your freewriting time recording your thoughts on that word. It will never just be about that word, you realize. Your brain will fire off all sorts of associations and build an intricate network budding with ideas. Just let your right brain (a.k.a. your muse) go and keep that hand moving.

Yes, I'm encouraging you to eavesdrop! As long as you're not divulging matters of national security (not that you tend to hear that sort of thing at Starbucks), it is perfectly acceptable to discreetly take note of what you hear. (Discreetly...don't shove a microphone in a stranger's face or, from the next table, ask a couple embroiled in an argument to repeat their last lines and speak more slowly.) Some of the richest material is picked up this way. An added benefit: listening to how people really talk will help strengthen your dialogue.

Whether or not you typically read poetry, this is a great way to gather ideas. Since poetry is compressed language, it's often rich with imagery and emotion. It can set your mind on surprising, rewarding paths, ones ideas seem to just leap off. (A poetry side-note: experts have said that regularly reading verse can help strengthen your prose, especially when it comes to choosing fresh, vivid metaphors.)

You may be tone deaf. Your singing may trigger the most horrible yowling in your cat. No matter: Music can still help stimulate your brain's production of ideas. Sometimes the lyrics trigger important thoughts or memories, sometimes the music itself evokes a certain mood that helps your synapses make connections. Remember, all the creative arts are linked in subtle and complex ways. So when you're trying to deepen one, it makes sense to pay attention to the others.

Whether or not you can tell the difference between a Picasso or a Pollock, visit your local museum and just take in the art. Don't have an agenda in mind...just look and feel. The point is: Don't limit your idea-gathering to words. Sometimes pictures stimulate our brains in such a way that readies us to write. (This includes photos, preferable with people you don't know as the subjects.)

BOOKS

I know I've said it a trillion times (and will probably say it a trillion more), but reading is the most important and effective way to improve your craft. Read everything in the genre you're writing in, and read lots outside of your genre. You have your own voice, your own style. You won't end up copying unless you consciously set out to, but you will absorb ideas about style, structure, and story.

Start keeping a dream journal. Before your feet hit the floor in the morning, grab the pen and paper by your bed and record any dreams you remember. Dorothea Brande suggests writing first thing in the morning, in that liminal stage when we have one foot in our dream world and the other in the waking world. Don't put pressure on yourself and expect your dreams to add up to a ready-made story, though. Just write them down and revisit them from time to time. Ideas will often show up, especially if you keep at this practice and take notice of recurring themes and images.

This is the most important question in the writer's toolbox. Ask "What if?" of every situation you encounter. It's an open-ended question that naturally sparks and encourages complex ideas. For example, Robert Cormier got his idea for the beloved classic The Chocolate War when he watched his son leave school carrying the obligatory fundraiser chocolate. He thought, "What if a kid took a stand and refused to sell the candy?" And with focus and energy and commitment, that What if? question grew to a fast-paced, funny, sad, top-notch novel.

Whatever method you choose to scoop ideas out of the earth (and it's best to use more than one), you should remain aware of your mindset. How you think about your capacity for stumbling on ideas is far more than half the battle. The thought that only the few "chosen" writers ever come up with workable ideas is a dangerous and self-limiting mindset. Be open to ideas zinging toward you from the most unlikely of places; get in the habit of recording snippets of things that strike you as interesting (yes, even nearby conversations); open your mind to the rich world we all share and learn to see things as opportunities for your writing.

Thanks to Signa Strom, my fabulous Web Master/Designer at Epic Vision Coaching, you can now read newsletters you missed. Click here to browse past newsletters on topics ranging from the how to ruin a perfectly good manuscript to the best way to tag your dialogue.

Yolen is a beloved, highly successful children's writer, and she brings her passion to this book, a motivating read for writers in any genre. She acknowledges the difficulties inherent to the writing life, but she's able to celebrate them as well. Inspiring and entertaining, it's the kind of book you'll reach for when you feel discouraged or de-motivated.

"It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it."

Check out my Web site for other articles on writing and past newsletters, and, if you haven't already, to take advantage of my f*r*e*e 5-page critique (which includes a 20-minute phone consultation).