So, I’m trying to figure out this whole “concept” thing. Coming from screenwriting, it seems like there is more talk of the concept or a high concept than I’ve seen in book writing circles.
First, I had to figure out, what is the difference between a “concept” and a “hook.” If you look around the web, you’ll find a variety of folks giving you definitions of hook or concept or the high concept hook. And most of them are vague. It seems like the beast will make itself known to you when you come upon it. The thing to do is to generate enough ideas that eventually the beast can’t hide.
But how do you do that? Easy. Right?
Here’s my five-part approach to generating ideas:
1. Bore the heck out of yourself.
2. Drink a beer.
3. Think about all the things that made you angry from high school, or hurt or jealous. Something you can just totally wallow in.
4. Have another beer.
5. Write down everything that you came up with in number 3.
Now you have a list of great story ideas! Everyone hated high school, right? Everyone is interested in hearing about what hurt you. So, tada, that’s all you need…
Okay, I’m being a little facetious. There are exercises, wonderful contained exercises, to help you come up with story ideas. Read the newspaper, watch the news, copy someone else’s story and put it in another time and place. See, get drunk and wallow in past hurts doesn’t sound that bad an idea after these gems, does it?
It’s always, always bored the heck out of me to think about reading the newspaper in hopes of finding a story idea. I need it to be a game, a puzzle. There are story generators out there that will do what I’m about to suggest for you, but that’s boring. You just sit on your ass and let them throw random crap together. The difference between that and what I’m about to suggest is the filter of your mind, the ability of your very human brain to find patterns and make meaning. Javascript still can’t do that. Here’s a game that is fun way to feed your brain AND develop an idea. Use all the places you usually look for story ideas—newspapers, cafés, other people’s stories—to populate the game and then build your own adventure!
Story Game #1
1. Grab a stack of color-coded three by five cards. Make sure you have at least three colors.
2. Pick a color that you will use for your first list, second list and third list. Say, yellow, green, and pink.
3. Pick up one of the stacks (one color) and write out as much as you can about five settings, one setting per card. Make sure to include time, location, weather, and special info that may not be covered in those three. Let’s say that you are writing about Rome. One card might say, Rome, 250 AD, summer, hot and Mediterranean, and special notes: Christianity has taken hold of the empire and old gods are being displaced by monotheism.
4. Pick another card color. These will be character cards: Write as much as you know about each character here, but make sure to include: name, physical attributes, social position and flaw or fear.
5. Next card color will be for premises or theme: Write out something that feels true and important to you that works in one sentence. For example, Love conquers commonsense and nothing else (if it’s a bad day). Or find a proverb you believe in, something like: Advice most needed is least heeded.
6. Now, make sure you have at least five of each color and keep the numbers even between theme and setting. You can double the number of character cards.
7. Here’s the game. There IS a right answer and your mind knows it. Organize the cards so that the characters go with the correct setting and theme. Make sure all cards are matched to their set. Think of it as subliminal narrative sudoku.
8. Once you’ve gotten all of your card sets organized, pick one and start writing. Your brain will latch on to finding/creating patterns and sending you on your way.
I like games and puzzles and this is fun for me. What do you do to generate stories?
Angie, I think this is going to be fun and helpful. It fits right in: I’m changing the focus, though it’s not entirely clear how, of the story, using much of the same material and some new stuff I’ve been blogging, posting and writing about. I feel much in need of tying things into some kind of open-air bundle (sorry for the mixed metaphor) and this sounds like it will add more fun to what I’ve been thinking about doing: a character study of the clan I’ve been so involved with: not the individuals at this point, the group. I was excited but not entirely motivated. I can even do what you suggest in Scrivener — I think you can color-code your index cards. So: way cool. Thanks!
I hope it is fun and helpful. Scrivener is awesome. that said, sometimes there is another level of creativity you can get from physically handling the actual cards. Let me know how it goes. I really believe that your subconscious has the ability to put together patterns and come up with answers if you make it fun.
So, to answer your question: if I know why something/someone is important to me, it’s easy to ask it a question. In the case of my great-aunt, there were many things I didn’t know, but the first one is: what was childbirth like for her mother (my great grandmother. It opens up a whole lot of worms for fishing. Maybe that’s not quite a concept, but it gets me to this: where do they all think they’re going? Where did they all think they were going? Geez, I’m excited.
Sometimes I ask something/someone in my world a question. I find that what I bring to the asking determines whether I get an answer or not. When I do, which is rare, then I know that the content of the question is part of the story. When I don’t, there’s the open window for jetsam. Very convenient.