Idea Hunting II

Monday, August 29

In my last post, I wrote about my using news stories from various sources to spur my thinking process and get ideas. This post will speak of one of my projects.

Of the many ways I cruise around to find ideas for my stories, reading the local and regional newspapers provides me with the most inspiration for my story ideas. Even though my stories are basically science fiction, I take material from several articles to formulate a new story idea or even give life to an old idea that fell onto a rough patch.

So, during the last few months, I collected a certain section out of the regional newspaper that covers nation/world news. Then I pull the article titles off of the page(s) and place them in chronological order in my word processor. I sometimes add notes about the article as well.

My Goal: To collect six months of these titles and then start building my short story series involving a space station in a far away galaxy. I intend to weave the stories around a series of articles appropriate for the era. Using the titles of these articles, I plan to build fictitious articles that go along with the overall story arc. Whether it is one of the main characters or one of the secondary ones, a character would read several news headlines. I hope to use this as a method of foreshadowing the story.

To tell the truth, I do not know how this will turn out. I hope to spend the month going through all of my notes I have collected for the series and start building an outline for the whole thing.

Also, while going through those articles, I spotted items that I wouldn’t mind integrating into a short story in the series as well.

What about you? Are you working on anything particular?

Hunting for Ideas

Thursday, August 25

I know I have written about his before, but I feel that I should encroach the subject again.

Have you ever read a news article, watched a news report or heard a news report that triggered an idea for a story idea? The news item(s) doesn’t(don’t) have to be a major news story but something in the back of the newspaper or near the last part of a television/radio newscast that starts you to thinking.

This happens to me all the time. If I don’t watch out, I will saturate my mind with an overflow of ideas. Then there are times that the news doesn’t capture my imagination. The funny thing is that what did not catch my attention one time may catch it the second time around.

Yet, I find myself collecting these bits and pieces of information from the news stories and placing them in my journal for future reference. Then I go through the material on occasion to pull material for my current work in progress.

In the past, I’ve used news stories to help break a block in my writing. It allows me to expand on my story when I feel stuck. Then my story goes off in another direction. Yes, I usually have to put a note in my work to go back and foreshadow if there is a need for it. We do not need a new character to just appear on page 100.

Sometimes when I listen to or read the news, I do feel depressed in that it is usually about something that went wrong somewhere. But, I do not limit myself to the bad news. I also like to note the good news as well.

So the next time you watch/listen to the news on television/radio or read the paper, listen for those juicy morsels of information that may add some dimension to your story.

Welcome from the Nation of Procrasti

Monday, August 22

Hello, today, I speak to you about my resent visit to the Procrasti Nation. I also refer to it as the ‘Land of Later.’ My habit of putting things off until later has gotten me in trouble again.

You see, I had several chances of building my blog posts but decided to do them later. The problem with doing them later is that I tend to forget to do what I planned to get done until the deadline had passed.

That’s why I missed the last two entries of my blog. Thinking I had plenty of time to work on it, I found that I put the task off until later; then, I promptly forgot to do it all together. Thus, my trip to the Nation of Procrasti has gotten me in trouble.

I intended to write these blog posts and really do not have any excuse for not writing them. They don’t take much time to write. Most of the time, the ideas flow easily onto the screen as my fingers fly across the keyboard.

Anyway, as for ideas, I stumbled across two pages containing doubled-column lists of blog ideas. So, I can’t use the excuse of not having a subject for my post.

So, I stumbled out of the ‘Land of Later’ to start work on this blog post and still managed to get to it almost too late. I’m tired of not getting things done, so earlier, I sat down and wrote a list of 12 items that I wish to complete this week. My plan is to dedicate time toward each of these items on that list until they get done.

The list has been prioritized. Writing my two blog posts for this week is at the top of that list. It is among the top five in the list that will get the most attention. (The top item on the list is editing a first draft of the first book I completed.)

Other items on my list (not in any order of priority) are building a newsletter, building an article, reading a book, backing up my data, and doing a few items toward my writers’ group duties.

Now, the question of the week: Do you ever visit the Nation of Procrasti? If so, when do you most likely find yourself wandering in the vast fields of Procrast Nation to put off doing important work or activities? How do you get yourself motivated enough to get out of the “Land of Later” and start working?

Family Events

Thursday, August 11

Today, I wish to discuss another source for story ideas - family events or stories. I attend a family reunion every year. As usual, I volunteered to build a reunion newsletter which will consist of family stories, recipes and photos.

This year, one of the stories pertained to a life-sized doll that a cousin talked my aunt into making years ago. Using an old book on doll making as a guide, they took left-over cloth, stocking material and rags to build the doll.

When they got finished with her, Ellie, the human-sized doll, had a face with nose, eyes, lips and a chin. My cousin even put lipstick, a wig, and a hat on her. My aunt placed a pair of shoes on her feet as well.

Believe me, at first glance, she looked real. I said hello to her twice because I saw the silhouette out of the corner of my eye as I closed the front door. It turned out to be this doll sitting in a chair. I was not the only one who had done so.

On one occasion, my aunt had the doll in the back seat of the car because she had to store it someplace. She decided to give the doll to her daughter after she went to the store one day. Upon returning to her car on that hot day, she found confronted by a group of people who seemed to be worried about the “mom” who sat in the back seat of the car. They wanted to know why she left her in that hot car. One person even mentioned breaking the window.

When my aunt opened the car to let them look at “mom,” most got a good laugh out of it though some seemed to be embarrassed. She offered “mom” to anyone in the crowd who wanted her but no one took her up on the offer.

Then there were all of the capers of my cousin and her daughters pulled in an attempt to get rid of the doll. On one occasion, my cousin and her youngest daughter placed Ellie on a park bench with full intentions of leaving it behind forever. They got a good laugh out of the event but then felt guilty for abandoning Ellie and went back and retrieved her.

Eventually, Ellie found her way back into my aunt’s hands. She said that she just could not murder her and place her in a trash can. She donated the doll to an organizational garage sale and has not seen her since. We just hope she found a good home.

I remembered the first time I saw Ellie, the human-sized doll, and my reaction to her. I built a short story around her. My plan it to get that story out and finish it up. But, this is something I believe I could build as a part of a story somewhere.

Do you have a family story or event that you can pull a story idea from? I have many more of them, so be prepared to read them from time to time.

I'm Back

Monday, August 8

Hello, I am sorry for being silent on my blog lately. I look at it as me taking a three-month vacation which I should not have taken.

Again, let me iterate, I intend to write my two posts a week. They will come out on Mondays and Thursdays. I should be able to keep up with doing it twice a week. I plan on devoting most of my time working on my writing. I have many characters that are screaming at the present time wondering where in the heck I am hiding.

Over the next few weeks, I will be evaluating my goals and sorting through the material I need to work on and the material I want to work on. If I can trim some of my unnecessary items, then I would be happy.

My plan is to dedicate this blog to writing subjects. I hope I have something that I could contribute to those of you who may be stopping by for a visit. I encourage you to ask any questions that may come to mind. I hope I may be able to answer them. If not, I can see if I could find someone who could.

My question for this week will be, “If you were a dragon, would you prefer the hot weather or cold weather?” I ask this as the temperature outside tops 102 degrees Fahrenheit outside the window.

My answer to this question would be that my dragon would prefer the heat over the cold. My reason behind this is that chances are that it may be a cold-blooded creature and may need more of a warm climate in order to function.

Although in cold weather, it should be able to build a fire real easily with one puff of its breath.

What do you believe?

Judgment of Others

Monday, July 18

Recently, I attended a church potluck/religious discussion meeting. The subject: Being Judgmental. Being humans, we tend to judge others at the drop of a hat. It comes to us like second nature. Best example of our judgmental way is this phrase: “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” That is because as humans, we tend to judge someone as soon as we see them.

I am no different in that I have judged whether I like someone or not upon the impression I got when I first met him or her. Now, I can’t count how many times I found myself wrong in these situations. Thus the saying, “Jumping to the wrong conclusion.”

Another reason we may judge someone wrongly is that we humans sometimes don’t wait to hear the whole story or get all the facts about a person, event or situation. How many times has one watched television while someone was tried for a heinous crime and thought the person was guilty? This is especially true when the reporters broadcast information against the person and later in information turns out to be wrong.

Now, using the statements about being judgmental from the above three paragraphs, let’s apply some of them to our characters. One character stumbles across a situation already in progress. Two men fighting over a gun. One of them wore a security guard uniform. The gun slipped out of both men’s hands and landed in a trash can. Character A, who had entered the scene, assumed that the one wearing the uniform was the good guy and may choose to assist the man.

But, what if the security guard took off out the front door as the other man tore into the trashcan to get the weapon. The story twist I am trying to portray is that the person in the security guard uniform came in to rob the donut shop. The one going for the weapon could be someone defending himself or could be a plains-clothes police officer.

Another twist on bring judgmental is that what if the character was one of those unfortunate people who found herself/himself accused of a crime and found innocent by a jury. S/he moved to a new town on the other side of the country but her/his past caught up with her/him. How does this affect the character and the story? To me, this could provide some of the conflict in the story.

There are many ways one can use the characteristic of ‘judging’ to add dimension to a character. Is the person too sensitive and jumps to a conclusion too fast? Or does s/he hold her/his tongue until they get the full story?

A synopsis of a CSI: Miami episode from several years ago: a popular secretary is found dead. The company rumor-mill had indicated that she had met several times with the head chemist of a cosmetic company. The insinuation of an ongoing affair made its way around the company. The person responsible for the murder turned out to be the company president because she loved the chemist. But, the chemist was not having an affair. He had asked the secretary to teach him how to dance because he knew the company president loved to dance and he did not know how. He wanted to surprise her.

How is that for a study of judging other people? The receptionist judged the secretary when she spread the rumor of the tryst the woman had with the chemist. The same person judged the chemist as being unfaithful for the same reason. The company president jumped to the same conclusion and killed the so-call rival for her man’s love. Look at the trouble ‘jumping to the wrong conclusion’ caused.

A quick judgment on the part of one person could affect the relationship between characters and groups. The rest of the story can be about how the character searches for the solution for the problems and straightening out the problems that caused the conflict in the first place.

Have fun!

More Inspiration

Wednesday, May 11

Today, I decided to write on inspiration again. One of my favorite ways of being inspired is seeing something that is out of place. I start asking why is this thing out of place, and before I know it, I am trapped in a story idea.

Yesterday afternoon, I went into a store to get some things to eat on before I exercised. On the way in, I spotted what looked to be a silver camera with the screen torn off. I had planned to report it to the store’s manager but got distracted and didn’t think of it again.

At least, not until this morning. I remembered that camera sitting on a stack of area classified advertisement newspapers. One paper had been placed on top of the camera but it did not conceal the device too well.

What if I had my character find one just like it? What if s/he loved to play with broken gadgets and s/he managed to get the camera to come up? Would s/he find anything on the device’s internal memory?

All one has to do is to toss in a filmed murder of someone by a famous criminal and a mystery is born. The person who left it behind hoped that someone would pick it up and turn it over to the law.

Now, there are all kinds of questions that need to be answered:

Who left it behind?
Why did they leave it behind and where are they now?
Did the person who owned the camera put a message on the camera as well?
Who got killed?
What is your character going to do with this information?
Is the person who found the camera in danger?
If not, how does s/he find out that s/he is in danger?

I can keep this up and with each answer I come up with, I can probably build more questions that need answers.

So, does this give you any ideas for a story? I know I have ideas for one. Now, I just need to put my butt in a chair and hands on a keyboard.

Inspiration

Sunday, May 8

Inspiration can come from many sources. This past week, I found inspired by a situation that I did not anticipate. At times like this, I keep a voice recorder with me in order to capture the flow of ideas.

Yet, this time my voice recorder became source of my inspiration. Most of the time, I keep the device turned off and placed in my shirt pocket. But, a couple of days ago I heard a beep when I brushed my hand against my pocket. This beep is the one I get from the device when I stop recording. My curiosity piqued.

Sure enough, I found the on/off switch in the ‘on’ position and I had recorded a message. After inspecting the recording, I found that I had recorded the last 2.5 hours prior to discovering the device being active.

The content of the recording was series of crunching sounds where I walked over gravel, electronic noises of various devices, a radio in the background and various conversations. Nothing spectacular other than it did provide me with material that I could use to add suspense in my writing. Adding background noises that could heighten the intensity of a scene.

Now, the inspiration I got was an idea for a story. What if a character accidentally turned on the voice recorder s/he had in a pocket? What if said character had been attacked and the recorder picked up the sounds of the attack including the assailant’s voice? Now, I had not made up my mind if this character gets killed or ends up in a coma.

If s/he were killed, the main character would find this and use information on it to determine what went on. If s/he ended up in a coma and awakens not able to remember the events, s/he could use the information along with memory flashbacks to develop the story.

Currently, I do not know how I will use this information or the ideas that came from my inspiration. Have you found yourself inspired at the most inopportune time? How did you handle it?

Endangering Your Characters

Sunday, May 1

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a happy May Day. Let's all go out and have a field day. I plan on doing some grilling.

Currently, I’ve worked on a variety of writing projects. One group of projects falls under the title of “Endangering Your Characters.” In this series of articles, I plan to build samples of how writers can use safety tips to keep safe but also using them to either keep your characters safe or placing them in danger just to see how they get out of the trouble.

My first article of this series will be on using tips a person can use to make themselves a hard target. There are several sites on the Internet that offer tips which one can use in their personal life to keep safe and in their writing life to enhance a story. When I typed in the words “hard target” into my web browser, I get a list of sites with advice on how to make yourself a hard target.

Like me, you may have heard of some of these safety tips at various times in your life. One site I like to reference is a blog titled “Attacking The Page.” I advise you to visit the site and read through some of their safety tips. The first set of safety tips is the Safety Tip Of The Week of March 25, 2010: Be A Hard Target. And do not skip the comments because there are some good tips mixed in them as well.

What I did was to pick one to three of the tips and make my characters either follow or break the rules. What I use will depend on what is going on in that part of the book. If the character has no clue to what is going on, s/he may walk into a situation and find her/himself in danger. If the character has some training, the author can show the various steps s/he take to keep safe.

Observations - 2011-04-17

Sunday, April 17

Today, I wish to look at the subject of observations. As a writer, I try to observe what is going on about me. I look for something that when placed in my work helps make my writing seem a bit more real.

I’ve heard that the truth is more fascinating than fiction. So, we as writers tend to mix a truths in with our fiction. Writers tend to pull from experience to build stories and adding a little more detail, I believe, can make a scene seem more real.

To do this, I tend to observe things, events, and sounds. I make note of them and see if they would fit in any of my stories. Yet, I write Sci Fi and it usually involves creatures and peoples from different worlds. Still, I adapt what I observe to fit my world.

For instance, right now, some neighbors are shooting up and down a dirt road in front of our trailer. I know this because I hear the high-pitched sound of the four-wheel ATVs produce as they shoot past our property every minute or so.

What if my character, Marcus, had his ride taken? What if on this world, stealing one’s all-terrain vehicle is treated like horse theft was treated back in the old west? What if these vehicles were viewed as a lifeline for the person? What if his life would be endangered because of the ATV’s theft?

Now, how do my observations from the ATV above have to do with these questions? My argument would be that Marcus used the sounds the device made to track the location of his ATV.

As the ATV approaches, the whine its engine makes gets louder and has a higher pitch. As the ATV moves away, the whine decreases in volume and has a lower pitch. Marcus uses these sounds to track the location of his vehicle, so he can capture those who took it and retrieve his property.

For example:

Marcus pulled the limb down and looked over it. With the other arm wrapped around the tree trunk, he leaned out from the tree top and scanned toward the whining ATV. Trees blocked his view. He intended to give the teens he met earlier a thrashing for stealing his ATV.

Movement to his left caused him to look toward a meadow. One teen chased after a rormana driving the creature to the other teen. The second teen roped the hairy horse-like creature, which is not an easy feat to do on foot.
Returning his gaze northward, Marcus realized the whine of his vehicle no longer moved away. In fact, the whine sounded higher and got louder. Then the two men on the vehicle popped up over a distant hill as they hit an open section of the trail. One man kept glancing back.

Marcus released the limb which slapped him across the face. He jerked back his and as his feet slid off the branch. He grabbed a limb that stopped his fall. He lowered himself to the next limb. With each step he made down, the engine whine grew louder. Sitting on the lower limb, the two men and his ATV appeared around a corner.

Focusing on the men, he leaned forward in preparation to jump. A roar brought his attention to a creature that looked like a giant ape chasing after the two men.

Well, I would keep going but I think I got what I wanted to get across. I used the sounds from a vehicle I observed to add detail to my story. We all do it one way or the other. So, what have you observed lately that you would like to use in a story?