Hey all! How much brainstorming do you usually do before you start writing the actual story. Does anyone do a full breakdown of all of the story elements before they start writing? I feel like sometimes I spend too much time brainstorming.
It varies. Some stories I've been working on for upwards of a decade, some I sit down and write without thinking about it for so much as a couple hours, first. I really enjoy brainstorming and outlining and mulling over themes and the like - about as much as I like actually writing. I think it's only 'too much' if you never actually get around to writing anything. I'm probably in that class myself
I never know what the story will be until I'm doing the actual writing, so for me there's nothing to break down. By brainstorming if you mean the thinking/daydreaming kind, a lot. The whole time I'm making my coffee, doing morning stretches, or making lunch I'm brainstorming. If I'm stuck or am writing dialogue, there's a lot of pacing the floor and brainstorming. If you mean the kind of brainstorming that involves working it out on paper, usually not at all.
I love brainstorming with my critique partners. It's really motivating, gets me super excited about a project. But there's only so much I can decide before I begin writing, and I don't know if my ideas will work until I write them. A scene can sound great in theory, and even when I play it out in my head like a movie, but that doesn't mean it will work on the page. I guess I'm a slow burner at first - I get a kernel of an idea and leave it percolating for a long time while I finish another project. Once I'm ready for my new idea, I usually only plan and brainstorm for a day before I begin writing.
Oh, I think 'daydreaming' and 'brainstorming' are important elements of writing. These are elements that can be disparaged by folks who think you're procrastinating if you're not producing x number of words per day. However, I feel this kind of mind-activity essential. It makes the difference between producing words that don't mean a lot, and producing a story that makes sense and has emotional resonance. I'm not a fan of brainstorming with others—I want my story to be MINE alone—but lots of other people like to bounce ideas off other people before settling in to write. As long as you end up with a story, more power to your arm. I think what I'd discourage is the kind of overplanning or overdreaming that results in the story never getting written at all. I am a fan of the Tarot, in terms of what it can make us look at in our lives. And this is a card that pertains to that kind of activity. So many choices on offer, as pictured on this card, but none of them are real. They're still floating around on a cloud. If you become bedazzled by all the possibilities that exist for your story and refuse to actually choose one and stick to it, your stories will never get finished.
Hi Marty! I'm moving more and more toward very detailed outline/treatment in place of first draft. I'm working on a short story now that I expected to be difficult to write. I wrote a treatment containing all of my research, notes on characters and settings, and a pretty detailed breakdown of the story. When I moved onto the first draft, it flowed pretty easily. There's some satisfaction to be had in detailed outlining. It can contain the whole story, so it's quick returns in terms of story development. If you've already started drafting, it's handy being able to get changes down in the outline without having to redraft there and then. It allows you to not have to worry about where the story is going when you're drafting, and to know better when you can jump forward in your narrative, rather than feeling that to get from A to F you have to get through B-E. For longer stuff, I have to do some writing to get to know the characters and setting. I just sit and write a "draft zero" before I outline, one that I know will be abandoned. So I guess my approach is to alternate between outlining and writing until I know where I'm going. Which comes first depends on what I'm doing.
I don't brainstorm a lot before writing. After getting a story idea, I usually start writing the first chapter, and that's when my major brainstorming kicks off. When I see the character in their environment, dealing with their problem, well, everything else starts to grow from that. So for me, writing the story builds the story. It makes for quick first drafts, but a longer revision. I make an outline though, while writing that first chapter. Just a rough chapter index, to have something to write towards after that first chapter. A very detailed outline before I start writing would be a huge waste of time for me because of the way I brainstorm.
One of those things I 'didn't know I didn't know', but Jeff MacNelly, who drew Shoe, died in 2000, and his wife and a couple of other guys have continued the strip. http://www.shoecomics.com/
I've not really seen it since 1986 when I left the USA, but I do remember it fondly. Obviously the wife and the other couple of people are doing a good job; otherwise you wouldn't have noticed. That's great. So many great comic strips die with their creators or change out of all recognition.
I love this, Jannert. It hit me one day that there is the vague kernel of something and then there is that thing itself in its finished form. This transformation (in your brain) happens every time you go from just knowing about a certain book (or movie, etc) to having finished that book. The notion and the actual representation are extremely distinct, and when it comes to creating your own material, you have to accept to yourself that your masterful idea for a story could have been represented as X or could have been represented as Y, but it just so happens to be Z.
I think of stories in terms of projects. The story itself doesn't really exist until it's finished--define finished how you would like. I don't think it's worth taking on a new project until you have certain things figured out, like, beginning, end, and some idea of a middle, for me also a title, and how the story could be interesting and not generic--probably I should start including in that list what it is that would appeal to other readers and not just myself. That being said, I think once you start writing, brainstorming, while absolutely essential, should be treated as an additional responsibility, not a substitute for actually writing.
I feel like everything I've written went back and forth like this. Rough outline, write, write, write... revised outline, write, write, write... 3rd version of the outline, write, write, write. I was reading about the Stratemeyer Syndicate process, and thought I'd try something like that for myself. Stratemeyer would create a rough outline, maybe 1,000 words, and assign that to a contract writer who would develop it into a novel. I have been experimenting with isolating these different skills within myself, acting as the boss with the outline for awhile, then switching hats to become the contract writer and not pushing back against the outline, trying to work within it. I felt it gave me a clear sense of what I was actually working on at any given moment.
Interesting... I'm not sure I'd want to forego either side of the process generally, but I think it would be a fascinating process to swap outlines with someone and draft their work, especially someone who writes different things to me. I think that would be extremely enlightening. I love it!
To a large extent, I'm a discovery writer; of the 8 shorts I finished last year, I brainstormed 2 beforehand. For the others, I just started writing. I can't say that the brainstormed ones turned out any better, or worse, than the others, but I seem to recall that I wrote them faster than is the norm. I think one of them was done in a single sitting, weighing in at 4.8k. Maybe I should brainstorm more often, but I feel like I have slightly more fun when I don't (though brainstorming can in itself be quite enjoyable). I think brainstorming is highly useful, but much of the time I can't stop the ideas from piling onto the initial one. For larger projects, I might do some brainstorming inbetween chapters, if I find myself at a crossroads where one path precludes the others. I like to see where each one might take me.
I brainstorm all the time, and there's many scenes that I have fully written in my head before I ever even start the manuscript. I'm not one to outline or write things down, so I let my brain decide what the really good ideas are. The ones that stick around and demand to be written are the ones I decide to follow through with, and the others I just leave behind without any further thought.
I brainstorm before, during, and after writing. I generally start writing and then truly begin the hard work of brainstorming, but not always. This time I've been taking my time and discussing my story before just writing it down because I feel like it's helping me with my current story.
It was one of those things I had withdrawal symptoms over, for a couple of years after I moved here. I did love my 'funnies.'
