Mozart's Brain
Some Random Creative Writing Squibs, and How to Get Them?
Broadsheet No. 3 - So, What's The Story??
Wim Baren
Copyright January 2015
Westminster & York, Ltd.
ISBN: 978-1-3117-6690-8
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[A broadsheet is a short tract on a subject its author finds interesting, and in earlier times was often posted on trees. Hopefully, the readers will also find it interesting. Otherwise it will just hang on the tree until it shreds and drops off in tatters. Very sad?]
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"That's the story, an' I'm stickin' to it!!" -- Suspect under police questioning.
I thought I could easily imagine plotlines for stories, an endless number of them. And that from there, it'd be a snap to write down the notes, compose the story, and heigh-ho, off to the sales!
No.
Oh, don't mistake me. I'm probably about the same as most other people who want to create some beautiful, moving American classic, at least in regards to coming up with some images that are bright and compelling. But actually creating a plotline, a story?... That's a different thing. A lot different.
The leadership classes I used to facilitate for major corporations domestically and overseas included a module on creative thinking, and I intend to speak more at length about that skill - for be in no doubt, it is a developable skill, not just a 'you have it or you don't' situation - in the next broadsheet. The challenge for conceiving of a storyline is the sheer wealth of choices you have before you from which to pick.
OK. So you ask, how do I start? Where can I get inspiration? Lucky you, you've got millions of wellsprings to taste from.
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I read lots of history - everything from pre-Roman times up through the present day. The inspiration for one of my books came from seventh-century Byzantium, an especially colorful time in its history. But it could easily have been from seventh-century China. Or seventh-century Egypt - Before the Christian Era. So, my point is that one axis to follow for finding inspiration is to look at the spectrum of history itself. Within that, you probably have a favorite country or city or culture that you've got a preference for. So using these two lines - time and location - you have a lot of options.
Now, there is probably a kind of story that you like best. I used to devour what was laughingly called science fiction back before electricity, and that turned into what had become science fantasy, and then sword-and-sorcery and its offshoots. Only later did I find history to be more compelling than all the foregoing. So it works for me, and I can take real episodes from history and craft a story around real people, events and things - or I can make it up out of whole cloth, without referencing anything from reality. My point thus far is this - you have a banquet table absolutely laden with inspiring conceptions before you.
Eat!...
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So, what other ways to come up with a storyline are there? Well, another approach is to think about what kind of stories appeal most to you. There's probably no more than, oh, a couple of million categories to pick from. But in truth, you know what appeals to you, and you might find it easier to get motivated to write something along those lines for starters. Another thing to consider if you do. You may have an example in mind, a story you read that you swore was the greatest story in the history of the galaxy. Fine, but don't get cold feet thinking you somehow have to top that story. You probably won't. And trying to do that would likely mean you tried to imitate that story, and that would be forced, even unpleasant, a chore - and certainly would not be 'you.'
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Let's imagine you have an idea for a story. One thing you could be inspired by is the ending. Oh, you haven't thought about the ending yet?
Time out.
The ending in your mind, even before it's written down, could be the most inspiring part of your story. It's the pot of gold, the boy gets the girl, or vice versa, the entrepreneurial start-up venture gets sold for zillions of dollars, you discover the cure for every illness known to man in an obscure recipe involving Brussels sprouts, or the Earth gets blown to smithereens by alien contractors - compliments to Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide To The Universe - to make way for a new intergalactic superhighway.
Getting an idea about the ending is extremely useful early on. It becomes something that you can use to figure out what happened before it, to get that ending to happen - what characters might be involved, what could take place, who might get killed, who maybe gets the woman (or man). And that thinking leads to ideas for parts of the storyline itself.
A second way to get insights from an ending is to consider it malleable - like clay. I haven't the discipline to stick to my original ending for a story, and go back to tweak it this way and that, until I get to a second (third, fourth, etc.) version that makes me happy, and does what I want it to do. And all along the way, I keep getting more ideas about the plot from this tweaking that I make notes of, so that I might look at them later and see what they can add to the story. Adding these notes is important to me; they give me more mental connections, and that is a major part of generating ideas.
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A plotline for me becomes easier to develop if I have some ideas of my characters. I don't mean just the traditional hero -or anti-hero - but other characters that I can populate the story with. I used to think I needed to have the storyline already planned out, sort of. But if you've ever read any of Charles Dickens' wonderful novels, they are chock full of the most marvelously drawn characters, any one of which could have a complete story drawn around it. You only have to imagine what his Mr. Fezziwig was like, from his classic A Christmas Carol, or Mr. Barkis the carriage driver in his David Copperfield, to see what a well-drawn character looks like, and how it can fire your creative juices. And there is simply no reason why you cannot create equally distinctive characters yourself, and go from there. And as you do this, you will find ways to make your storyline more rich, more interesting, and more attractive to your readers.
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I'm now going to draw on some of my professional background, because I want to talk about how people can approach developing a story from a high level.
People can be divided into two kinds, the kind that divide people into two kinds, and everyone else.
Folks, I'm kidding.
Actually, people show a tendency to approach doing anything complex by blend of two different ways. One group's tendency seems to be to let its efforts be ruled with order and precedence. They frame out the start and end of the story, and then determine what the intervening bits have to be, working backwards from what has to have happened to the front, and then work from there to fill in the details, until they have a fairly complete storyline composed. It's a very linear process - not done entirely cleanly, because it is a recursive tweaking, but one in which there is a clear path forward. It's kind of like engineering a structure of some kind - goal, requirements, how-to's, prerequisites, sequence - you know, stuff like that. It sounds pretty pedestrian, but it is a very successful way to write creatively for a lot of people who are very good at it. Sometimes I think that this is a left-brain way of doing things. It is, not surprisingly, typical
ly used for developing business documents.
But there is another way. And Mozart, I believe, used this kind of approach, when he composed his works. And remember, his drafts of musical scores were finished products, no corrections, perfect at all points.
This second way is more organic, and draws on what comes into one's mind and is worked into an as-yet undefined slot in the story, with the writer's knowledge of possibilities that might come before or after. In essence, you don't worry about who you've created, what actions have taken place, or what logic is needful as you start. The idea is to get as much created and down on paper (or on screen) as you can, so you have that much more material to work with in front of you. It is a much more 'emergent' kind of approach, one that is difficult to try to use, because for many people it does not come naturally, but one that, for those who are more unrestrained in their thinking, is the one they unconsciously use.
Now, make no mistake. People use elements of both these ways of thinking and creating from time to time, and they are usually completely unaware of it. And when I talk a little more in depth about how our brains actually get to a creative flow in the next broadsheet, it'll help bring more light to what I've just said. I used both methods when developing the complex project plans for the equipping and deployment of the English fleet on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I, at the time King Philip had sent his huge Spanish armada out against her in the late sixteenth century.
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Well, maybe not.
But, it is true that these two methods of thinking and creating are used for both creative writing and business. They've been a boon for me. And they can be helpful for anyone. Just don't try to consciously lock your thinking into one or the other. You'll limit your creative juices and get frustrated, and that's not good.
With that, I'll wish Good Writing to all of you for now.
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About The Author, Wim Baren
Wim Baren is the pen name of the author, who has written various incidental business articles (boring) published over the past thirty years, who has tried his hand at several short stories (never published, owing to an excess of self-criticism), and who has had an abiding fascination with history and the many things throughout it that are so incredible that they could not have been made up.
The author attended an eastern college and then served in the nation's armed forces for three years in Viet Nam, a very green place with, at that time, a high metallic density to the air. From there, he realized that his technology education at college was already obsolete, and went to a small business school where he learned all about strategy and business and finance, and entered the financial services business, in which he labored until he realized that people wanted not so much advice as they wanted help on actually getting things done that they wanted to get done. He turned his hand to consulting in project management, became an independent consultant, developed professional education courses in projects and risk and leadership, even a software learning application (!), and generally made as if this were his final career choice.
But it wasn't.
And since I've turned my hand to authorship, this little freebie, among other similar offerings, was a quick inspiration that I thought I could share with others who might like a little literary confection, coupling the worlds of the real and fantasy.
Feedback (What you really think, but please keep it polite, respectful, as others would do for you) is really welcomed from you, as well as your recommending this little opinion to your friends and family, and neighbors, and passing strangers.
Reach me at
[email protected]