PhotoShopTimeRyan
06-27-2006, 08:00 AM
Brainstorming
A guide in being creative in your writing
By: Ryan “PhotoShopTimeRyan” Gilbert
INTRODUCTION IS IN ORDER
Before I begin, I want to state that I’m sure everyone reading this enjoys a good story. It is something that’s entertaining that will either make them laugh, or make them cry, make them think, etc. They start at the beginning, get intrigued as the middle approaches and by the end they are either happy or sad, depending on what type of story it is, or satisfied or dissatisfied, depending on how the storyteller told their story.
As the writer it is your job to tell your story through the printed word. In some aspects that old clichéd saying is true: “the pen is mightier than the sword”. When you write, you have the power to influence someone’s life for better or for worse.
This isn’t going to be one of those technical guides to creative writing with a lot of big words that will go over your head. I want to write this in a way I feel comfortable and you readers feel comfortable when you... well... read it.
About the writer: Ryan Gilbert is a writer living in the Atlantic Region of Canada known as Saint John, New Brunswick. He writes mostly scripts for mediums such as stage and radio. He’s currently writing the story for a manga-based web-comic called Life Study along with California artist, Vanessah Howard. Check out Life Study at http://lifestudy.comicgenesis.com
PART 1
THE CONCEPTION OF YOUR IDEA
I thought it would best to start this series of articles with what the writer begins with, “The conception of your idea”. After all, it is an idea that starts you off. But where do ideas come from? Well, they come from many places and many things when you think about it hard enough. They can come from real life events, both happy and sad. Or out of the blue while you’re doing something like mowing the lawn or re-stocking the toilet paper on the toilet paper roll.
What type of story do you want to write about? Something really funny like a comedy about a family of aardvarks with their own vaudeville act? Or how about a drama that involves emotions flaring up and arguments happening at least 15 times? [Note- By the way, please feel free to use the aardvark idea if you want. I’m not in the mood to write that]
Something you want to think about as you are formulating your idea is think about what do you want to say with your story. What do you as the writer want to say with the material you create? That is a big reason why you want to write in the first place. You should have something to say with your work, no matter what it is. Even if it is something like, “The cost of erasers is getting too high these days!” You can totally make a story about how erasers are getting too expensive in many different ways. You can go for the realistic like, a guy going to an eraser store, seeing the price for an eraser, gets so upset that he starts his own eraser store to lower prices on erasers but then has to raise the prices because he needs the money for funding his store. Or maybe even something abstract and artsy like two erasers talking about how much they love the high life and how they feel the economy works in their favor.
You may ask yourself, “How can I get an idea in my head? Where are the sources of ideas?” Like I mentioned earlier, inspiration comes out nowhere. It can strike out from anywhere and at anytime no matter where you are. One great source is real life. Like perhaps you know someone or some people with odd quirks that would make into a unique character or maybe you are in an environment that you feel could work as an interesting story. You can make those things into many different types of stories. It all depends on how you want to present it. You can make it real and relatable or something offbeat and quirky.
If you ever come up with an idea for a story but not a whole lot else, I suggest writing it down, but then again, once you get the idea for the story, other stuff might pop in your head pretty quickly like characters, settings, plot points, etc. Still, write these things down. Take your time with this. You shouldn’t just jump full throttle unless you want to experiment as you work out the idea. One of the greatest thrills for me as a writer is when I’m working on a project; I’ll sometimes get a brand new idea I never saw before in the original conception, even as I’m writing the story out!
One of the main reasons people get into writing is to show people their own vision of the world around them. How they believe the world works or should work, what they think makes people tick, etc. Also, they write stuff that they can identify themselves with. So a great place to dig deep into getting an idea is to write something that you can identify yourself with that either caters to people who feel the same way as you do or even something you have never seen before yourself. There is never anything wrong with being original and standing out. These days, it’s very hard to come up with original stuff what with so many things out there for so many different mediums. So, if you have a completely original and fresh idea, go for it! I did mention that you should be pacing yourself with your idea, but if you get something in your head and you feel comfortable with it that you want to write it, work on it as soon as you can. After all, if you bide your time too long, someone else might have all ready have done a story with the same idea you had.
Stay tuned for articles about where to go with your idea, how to break writer’s block and much more!
Keep on brainstorming
-Ryan
A guide in being creative in your writing
By: Ryan “PhotoShopTimeRyan” Gilbert
INTRODUCTION IS IN ORDER
Before I begin, I want to state that I’m sure everyone reading this enjoys a good story. It is something that’s entertaining that will either make them laugh, or make them cry, make them think, etc. They start at the beginning, get intrigued as the middle approaches and by the end they are either happy or sad, depending on what type of story it is, or satisfied or dissatisfied, depending on how the storyteller told their story.
As the writer it is your job to tell your story through the printed word. In some aspects that old clichéd saying is true: “the pen is mightier than the sword”. When you write, you have the power to influence someone’s life for better or for worse.
This isn’t going to be one of those technical guides to creative writing with a lot of big words that will go over your head. I want to write this in a way I feel comfortable and you readers feel comfortable when you... well... read it.
About the writer: Ryan Gilbert is a writer living in the Atlantic Region of Canada known as Saint John, New Brunswick. He writes mostly scripts for mediums such as stage and radio. He’s currently writing the story for a manga-based web-comic called Life Study along with California artist, Vanessah Howard. Check out Life Study at http://lifestudy.comicgenesis.com
PART 1
THE CONCEPTION OF YOUR IDEA
I thought it would best to start this series of articles with what the writer begins with, “The conception of your idea”. After all, it is an idea that starts you off. But where do ideas come from? Well, they come from many places and many things when you think about it hard enough. They can come from real life events, both happy and sad. Or out of the blue while you’re doing something like mowing the lawn or re-stocking the toilet paper on the toilet paper roll.
What type of story do you want to write about? Something really funny like a comedy about a family of aardvarks with their own vaudeville act? Or how about a drama that involves emotions flaring up and arguments happening at least 15 times? [Note- By the way, please feel free to use the aardvark idea if you want. I’m not in the mood to write that]
Something you want to think about as you are formulating your idea is think about what do you want to say with your story. What do you as the writer want to say with the material you create? That is a big reason why you want to write in the first place. You should have something to say with your work, no matter what it is. Even if it is something like, “The cost of erasers is getting too high these days!” You can totally make a story about how erasers are getting too expensive in many different ways. You can go for the realistic like, a guy going to an eraser store, seeing the price for an eraser, gets so upset that he starts his own eraser store to lower prices on erasers but then has to raise the prices because he needs the money for funding his store. Or maybe even something abstract and artsy like two erasers talking about how much they love the high life and how they feel the economy works in their favor.
You may ask yourself, “How can I get an idea in my head? Where are the sources of ideas?” Like I mentioned earlier, inspiration comes out nowhere. It can strike out from anywhere and at anytime no matter where you are. One great source is real life. Like perhaps you know someone or some people with odd quirks that would make into a unique character or maybe you are in an environment that you feel could work as an interesting story. You can make those things into many different types of stories. It all depends on how you want to present it. You can make it real and relatable or something offbeat and quirky.
If you ever come up with an idea for a story but not a whole lot else, I suggest writing it down, but then again, once you get the idea for the story, other stuff might pop in your head pretty quickly like characters, settings, plot points, etc. Still, write these things down. Take your time with this. You shouldn’t just jump full throttle unless you want to experiment as you work out the idea. One of the greatest thrills for me as a writer is when I’m working on a project; I’ll sometimes get a brand new idea I never saw before in the original conception, even as I’m writing the story out!
One of the main reasons people get into writing is to show people their own vision of the world around them. How they believe the world works or should work, what they think makes people tick, etc. Also, they write stuff that they can identify themselves with. So a great place to dig deep into getting an idea is to write something that you can identify yourself with that either caters to people who feel the same way as you do or even something you have never seen before yourself. There is never anything wrong with being original and standing out. These days, it’s very hard to come up with original stuff what with so many things out there for so many different mediums. So, if you have a completely original and fresh idea, go for it! I did mention that you should be pacing yourself with your idea, but if you get something in your head and you feel comfortable with it that you want to write it, work on it as soon as you can. After all, if you bide your time too long, someone else might have all ready have done a story with the same idea you had.
Stay tuned for articles about where to go with your idea, how to break writer’s block and much more!
Keep on brainstorming
-Ryan