The Idea Fiend – Aligning Your Thoughts

If you’re a writer, I’m pretty sure you have days when ideas flood your mind like an overfilled dam. Whether those ideas are for stories, characters, worlds, or plot points, if managed badly they could get seriously overwhelming.

Align Your Thoughts

I’m currently working on multiple projects (when am I not) and the result is a growing folder of first drafts, story notes and, occasionally, quotes. I don’t have a plan for them other than, “I’ll get to it eventually.” And unfortunately that eventuality never comes to fruition.

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.”
― Mercedes Lackey

What I’ve started doing is the following:

• Create a Project:  I use X-Mind, a free mind mapping tool, to plan my ideas. Each idea gets its own bubble and I explore each one enough to have some of the basics covered.
• Make Notes: When I’m not at my computer I use my phone or a notepad to jot down the ideas. Nothing long-winded or detailed. I write short, simple points in bullet form, then link them as I see fit while the ideas flourish.
• Voice Notes: When I’m driving, I usually put my phone on the dashboard with the voice recorder on and just talk about my ideas. I probably look weird but… aren’t all authors?

Once I have all the ideas, I explore each of them using the age old method: Who? What? Where? When? Why? (and how?)

Things to cover

This method is useful for exploring various aspects of an idea. When it comes to story ideas I use them as follows:

• Who: Who are the characters in the story?
• What: What is the story about? What are the characters doing? What is their motivation?
• Where: Where is the story taking place?
• When: When is the story taking place?
• Why: Why are the characters doing what they are doing? Why is the story happening?
• How: How am I telling this story? Perspective. Genre. Style. Tone. Voice. Etc.

The same method can be applied to scenes.

• Who: Who are the characters in this scene?
• What: What is this scene about? What are the characters doing? What happened before? What will happen afterwards?
• Where: Where is this scene taking place? Where are the characters?
• When: When is this scene in the story?
• Why: Why are the characters doing what they are doing? Why is this scene happening?
• How: How do I start/end this scene? How do I move the story forward?

Things to keep in mind

While having a billion (exaggeration) ideas and jotting each one down is great, the truth is: you can’t write out every idea into a story. Here’s some quick tips on what to do with all of them:

Choose the best/favourite one.

Not all the ideas you have will be great. That’s a given. So why not choose your favourite. If that one doesn’t work, choose the idea that works best or is fleshed out more.

Test it out.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to try out each idea. Choose a couple of your favourites/best and give them a test trial. Take your characters for a walk, explore your world, tell part of the story, or analyse your plot in short paragraphs. See which one is worth focusing on first.

Let it simmer

This is a slightly “dangerous” one but could be useful. Let ideas simmer for a while and do something else. You might gain an epiphany while you cook/clean/game/exercise etc. Just don’t let them sit for too long or you’ll be counterproductive.

Ask a friend

Or a writers group if you’re part of one, or fellow bloggers/writers. Gain some fresh insight to help you make a good choice. Bounce the ideas off people you trust.

Draw it out

Or make an actual mind map or some visual aid – like the wall you see in detective movies. It’s difficult to see your computer files or notes in their individual spaces. Pin them up or use sticky notes with a couple of words then tie them all in using red string (wool is best… also, sarcasm – although now that I think about it…).

Above all else, enjoy the process! One of the worst things to happen is for you to hate the idea you were so excited about. Just remember: the (recycle) bin is a terrible place for an idea to be.

---

What do you do when you have too many ideas? Please share your advice, you never know who you might help in the process.

Advertisement

Mother Always Said – Update

For the month of September I will be writing ten 3000 word short stories for my Spring Death theme. That is about 2.5 stories a week. I wrote my first short story yesterday – Mother Always Said.

It is a tale of a religious mother who endures hardships at home with an abusive husband, and at church with a questionable congregation. Her son becomes part and parcel of her deterioration, and sets the stage for the rest of his life.

So the above image is the first rough cover draft, first idea that came to mind which I quickly put together before it escaped me. Carin Marais, a friend, writer and fellow Patreon, also sent through an amazing suggestion using the following image:

 

If you have any ideas, suggestions, comments, links or anything helpful, please let me know. If I use your idea, you will get recognition, as well as a PDF version of the final cover and short story (a reward usually reserved for Patreons). Thank you in advance! You can use the contact form if your idea is complex – I’m on my emails almost all the time (except weekends.)

---

Earlier today I wrote a poem “Darker than Black” inspired by this tale, exploring the boy who is now a man. If you haven’t read it, please give it a look see. 🙂

 

 

Sketching it out

It’s not that I haven’t been writing, it’s just that drawing has been my focus recently, trying to visualize my characters from my Walking by Faith post : Walking By Faith. Here are the sketches

Faith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been trying to capture the personality of my characters in these sketches and so you will see that the drawings aren’t complete. The focus is more on the facial features or recognizable features like the hint of the straw hat Faith wears or the look of anger/sadness/despondence on Aaron’s face.

Please do keep visiting the site as I work on finishing my stories and novels. Thanks!

One for the Kids!

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed.

2 Timothy 2:15 – Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

This is the verse that echoes through the church building Friday evenings, by a loud chorus of high-pitched individuals, ready for a great evening of fun and learning. Working with kids is such a blessing and I am indeed grateful to the Lord for having brought me to this ministry. At such a young and teachable age, kids are able to listen and take in what is being taught to them with a child like faith…don’t we sometimes wish we had that kind of faith: taking the truth at face value.

This blog post however is not about how teachable kids are or having a childlike faith, but rather on writing for kids as a means of reaching them without necessarily preaching to them. Writing stories for kids, stories that would contain biblical values, principles, truths, verses maybe even characters that the kids can embrace and relate to, all of whom would point to Christ and His work on the cross. Of course I would not want to minimize Christ nor His works, nor would I want to dumb down the gospel for the sake of my stories. However, I do want to reach the kids on a level that they can understand and grasp the crux of the stories, gaining some knowledge about the bible, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit and about God.

I found a great post  on writing biblical stories for children and its on par with what I am trying to achieve. It was written by Rose Ross Zediker who is a Christian author. The post below belongs to her and you can read the full article here: http://www.writing-world.com/children/bible.shtml

Biblical Retelling

A Biblical retelling must stay true to the Bible verse. Don’t add characters or character names if they aren’t in the Bible story. Choose a point of view and stick with it. Most Biblical retellings are in third person, but some can be told in first person.

Rephrasing the dialogue of a Bible verse can get tricky. The language must be kid friendly yet not change the meaning of what the character says. Keeping your target age group in mind, find and replace the difficult words in the text with simpler words. Look for words children may be familiar with but don’t really understand. Sin is a simple word yet children may not really grasp its meaning, try to define those types of words by inserting an explanation of the word.

Enrich your story with the addition of emotions, actions and setting details. A few simple words like water jars and robes transport the children into the Biblical life style and holds their attention.

The first paragraph of The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25 NIV) says:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

A retelling in the first person viewpoint of the expert in the law could begin:

Finally! I had a chance to test Jesus by asking a question. I knew the laws. I stood with my shoulders back and head held high. I looked into Jesus eyes. “Teacher,” I asked “what must I do now so someday I can live in Heaven?”

A third person viewpoint may be retold like this:

A smart man who knew the law wanted to test Jesus. The man smoothed his robes as he stood. He raised his eyebrows in question. “Teacher,” he asked, “what do I need to do now so I can live in Heaven when I die?”

In both retellings, actions were added to show the man’s confidence in his own knowledge. This makes the story more interesting for the child but doesn’t change the meaning of any of the original verse.

Contemporary Retelling

A contemporary retelling is a modern story with a beginning, middle and end. The theme of the contemporary Bible story retelling must reflect the lesson of the Bible verse. Apply the verse’s message to a real life situation. This real life situation must be believable so the child can apply the lesson to their daily lives. You can’t tag on the moral of the Bible verse at the end of the story. The lesson has to unfold during the story and the readers need to care about the characters and situation.

The following is a synopsis of a contemporary retelling of Luke 10:25:

A young girl and her mother wait at the bus stop. The young girl notices the people around her. She sees an old man in worn clothes and thick glasses approach the bench. The man politely asks a businessman for the time. The businessman frowns at the old man and refuses to tell him the time. The young girl can’t figure out why the businessman is being so mean to the old man. Two teen-age boys walk past the bus stop. Again, the old man politely asks for the time. One young boy looks at his watch but the other pulls him along, telling him not to talk to bums. The old man worries that he’s missed his bus. The old man looks sad and the young girl knows that Jesus would want her to help. She asks her mother if she can tell him the time. Her mother says yes and the young girl shows kindness to the old man by telling him the time so he doesn’t miss his bus.

This modern retelling synopsis is true to the Bible verse. Two sets of people won’t tell the elderly gentleman the time. However, an unlikely source, a young girl shows this stranger kindness. The theme of the Bible verse is shown in the last action of the contemporary story, the young girl helps the elderly man by telling him the time.

Copyright © 2007 Rose Ross Zediker

Ideas

Its been a  rather hectic week and my mind has been busy with ideas, thoughts approaches and different techniques to use to “flesh out” the stories/writings that are circling in my mind. I’ve been asked by a few people “Nthato, what do you write about?” and I always reply to them, saying “Stuff!”. I myself know that such an answer is just not satisfactory! People want details! So for those seeking details, those who are curious about what I want to write about, let me give you some ideas which I hope will appease your curious minds.

Ideas:

There are about four stories battling it out in my mind for attention, all of which are on various topics but I will focus on two main ones. They are: The Sword of the Spirit – based on Ephesians 6:17. This is, right now, nothing more than a short story about the Bible. What about it? Well as you can imagine, if the Bible is called the Sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God) surely there is power to it and I agree/believe that there is. So this short story revolves around this “character” who has an unused Bible, yet knows of its contents but unable to use it to its fullest/truest potential ( 1 Corinthians 2:14 – But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.) That’s about as much as I have right now and what I want to do in this story is not make it seem as though reading the Bible saves people (though people have been saved Through reading the Bible) but that the Bible is a powerful “User Manual” that has God’s inspired word within it. If you are one of God’s chosen children (by God’s grace alone can you be one), the Bible can LEAD you to salvation for does not Romans 10:17 say “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Indeed it does! The Armour of God – bases on Ephesians 6: 14-17 (18 too as bonus haha) Now this has been my favourite idea and has been running through my mind since I heard this verse back in March while I was at the International Church of Dresden (Germany). The idea is that I have this “character” who starts off with just one of these pieces of Armour and goes on a journey (adventure really) to find the other pieces. The journey is a great test/challenge with many obstacles which help the character understand the pieces of armour better as to how they work, why they work and how to use them. No this won’t be a Pilgrim’s Progress kind of journey but I will say that hearing/reading Pilgrim’s progress (as much of it as I have read) has inspired the whole Adventure idea more.

Brainstorming. Brainstorming. Brainstorming.

                 I really look to finish all the brainstorming and sit to write out the final work soon. Until then…I’ll keep you “posted” hehe! Any suggestions, comments, ideas as to how I can improve my ideas will be much appreciated and Yes you will get recognition should I use your idea ;). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1:2)