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Written by Elizabeth Genco
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Tuesday, 28 June 2005 |
Cat got your keyboard? Don't suffer in silence and solitude. Gather some friends, make for the nearest bar, and get some work done. Part one in a two part series about writing well with the help of others.
That old saw of writerly questions, "where do you get your ideas?" amuses me these days.
(Yes, I know that every writer talks about "where do you get your ideas?" like it's the most fascinating thing in the world. Bear with me for a second here.)
Now, there was a time, and it wasn't that long ago, when the whole "ideas" thing really stressed me out. Thanks to my rather ass-backwards way of waking up the writer's gene, I wasn't exactly overflowing with story ideas. In my case, "I need to write" came first. That led to "what the hell do I write about?" puzzlement, which shortly gave way to "I have no ideas!" whining. What, me writer?
These days, I have "ideas" coming out of my eyeballs. I have notebooks stuffed with them. I have a "projects queue" on my hard drive that could easily keep me in business for the next decade or so. Every time I turn around, there goes another one. I'd throw in a "for serious!", except that I know I'm not alone in this. "Ideas" are not the problem.
Ah, but yes, they are. Which leads us back to why "where do you get your ideas?" makes me chuckle on the inside.
Folks who ask writers "where do you get your ideas?" are usually blissfully ignorant (or at least unaware) of the question's depth. Here's the painful reality about ideas, known all too well by anyone who has ever tried to write fiction: a story isn't just one idea. It's idea after idea, strung back to back, in an organized, insightful, and, God help us all, entertaining fashion.
And that, of course, is the real challenge. It is also, in my case, where the panic really set in.
So what do you do?
Well, some of this idea busting just takes care of itself, of course. After all, you probably wouldn't be writing a story if you didn't have some, well, idea about where it's headed. But maybe you don't, so you wing it and lean into that glorious, oft-serendipitous magic of finding your story. Maybe you have some luck, alternating between typing and thinking really hard. But there's going to come a point where you need an idea and you're just not going to have one. Or not a good one, anyway. Remember, the audience is smarter than you are.
So what do you do?
You could sit there and ponder. But that's like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. And, well, we've already established that you don't have any good ideas in those moments. Here's a better solution: get a few trusted friends, go down to the bar, and ask them to bail you out.
No, really. It's called brainstorming, and it's a writer's best friend.
Okay, so maybe a bar-side gathering every time you're stuck is overkill (or perhaps just impractical). Take just one trusted friend to the bar, have a drink and hammer it out. If you're lucky, your partner can be a big help in these endeavors, and you can talk story over booze without leaving home. Or pick up the telephone.
(Booze is optional, of course. But it can make brainstorming a lot more fun. You know, within reason.)
My point is, you don't have to go it alone. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that you shouldn't.
At the end of the day, we're all just one person, made up of a certain series of events, places, names, and faces. And stories, of course. We take a set of perspectives from our lives and funnel it into our storytelling because that's what we have. So it's only natural for us to gravitate towards the same thought patterns, ideas, and solutions to story problems. You've gotta break out of that rhythm somehow. Other folks are going to see the solutions that you can't, because they aren't you.
Think about some of your favorite TV shows. I'd bet good money that they didn't spring fully formed out of the head of whichever Zeus sat at the typewriter. They probably started in a room full of writers, batting ideas around. Think of your favorite recent movie. It's probably not the work of just one guy. TV shows and movies are often written by committee (I include re-writes here). And they're the better for it. Why? Could be because one guy doesn't have the ideas of three or four guys.
Not everyone is going to be right for the job, of course. I do believe, however, that everyone has got someone in their corner who can get creative when the sticky story wickets show up. Doesn't have to be a writer, of course -- there's not a soul in our society who doesn't have story coming out of their ears -- but perhaps it is. And maybe in return you can help them out somewhere down the line.
Those of you at home who are flailing indignantly in your chairs, don't think you're hiding. I know you're out there. You're saying, "I don't want anyone else's ideas. This is my story. I'm the writer! I have all the power!" Yeah, okay. In other non-news, you're nipping stuff left and right, whether you know it or not. It's fine, dude, it really is.
Why be so uptight about it? I've seen this in action, and it's a beautiful thing. Some writers get together, and they start trading ideas around. Someone's stuck; solutions are freely given for the writer to take or leave. An idea for something totally unrelated pops up. "Sure, you can have it," says one guy. "But I want it back if you don't use it." The energy of the conversation shakes up your synapses and you think of things you never would have otherwise. Next thing you know, you've got your story plotted. You can go home and lay some words down.
Plus, you know, brainstorming can be really fun.
Maybe you are really uptight, and you "really really" gotta come up with every damn thing yourself. That's cool. But you can still benefit from a discussion with carefully chosen, trusted partners. Even if you don't use their ideas, their input and the act of talking can help you get a better handle on those that you already have. And your own opinions, of course.
Just so there's no confusion, let me be explicit here: I am in no way suggesting that you talk your story over with every guy who crosses your path. Too much talk and you run the risk of your projects withering right on the vine. "Carefully chosen" and "trusted" -- you know. No need to belabor that point.
Ideas are just that: ideas. There are a million of them. Good thing, too, since you're going to need just a few short of that in your writer's lifetime.
Nonetheless, some writers I know are dead set on getting through the mid-story idea shortages on their own, for one reason or another. I'm not here to criticize anyone's process -- if it works for you, it works for you. For me, that's needless suffering, and (more importantly) it's not very productive. If that's how you've been working -- because you're paranoid, because you think you "should", whatever -- it might be needless, unproductive suffering for you too. Just something to think about.
Writing is a hard enough job. When the going gets tough, there's no shame in calling in the troops.
Just be sure to offer the troops booze. Or a strong cup of coffee. And your gratitude.
Elizabeth Genco writes a zine called PLATFORM and has a number of projects in the works. She lives and works with Leland Purvis in Brooklyn, NY. |
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