Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Turning an idea into a story

This is topic Turning an idea into a story in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by weslarson (Member # 5940) on :

I went back through the titles of this forum and didn't see this addressed, although it has likely been discussed at length. If this topic has already been beaten to death and beyond, please point me to where I can find it. Otherwise, I'd like some feedback.

I get these cool sci-fi ideas in my head, but don't know how to write a story about them. I have watched and read way too many bad sci-fi movies books that have some really cool ideas, but crummy stories. I've picked up from OSC that the story needs to be about characters in order to have any staying power, and I realize that's what's lacking in much of the lame science fiction that's out there. So, fine, I create a set of characters that are believable and even likable. But that still doesn't give me a plot! That's where my cool ideas always get stuck, and that's why I haven't written them into stories.

Any advice?

-Wes

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

I think the key is to just keep mulling over the idea and approaching it from various angles. Think about what sort of people might be living in whatever situation you've envisioned, what sorts of things they might be doing, what sort of conflicts might arise out of their activities or their desires. If they're headed in some direction (i.e., say, using up their unrenewable fuel sources) what sort of conflicts might arise from that?

I read in Steven Koch's The Modern Library Writer's Workshop (I _think_) that one of the keys to finding stories is to ask, what happens when...? Because plot is about change, or action, so if you ask a question wherein the answer is some sort of action, there's your story.

I usually start with characters. I'll envision a character doing something or wanting to do something, and I think about how he might have gotten into that situation, what he's going to do now that he's in that situation, or what he might do to get what he wants. I've sometimes started with a more nebulous concept, but i immediately try to boil it down to characters. Who is this concept most likely to affect? How? What might a certain character do about the situation?

Posted by Inkwell (Member # 1944) on :

Frequently, when I have a specific character in mind (or even a vauge 'type' of character), I'll start by thinking "what would make life hard for this person?" Or, perhaps, "what would make this person feel threatened or stressed enough to do something."

Often enough, that will get me thinking of situations to put that character in, which forces me to figure out how to get him/her out of said situation(s).

However, I don't often begin the story planning process with characters. I usually begin with an event, or situation (war, emergency, unexpected side-effect) that is inherently exciting or filled with potential drama, then fill in the gaps with necessary characters. I still allow the characters to drive the story (to keep the reader vested), but keep the overarching problem at hand in mind so I don't lose focus. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm writing an event-driven story instead of a character-driven story...just that I'm starting at a different point in the pre-production process, if you will.

But that's what makes us different. Most of us have our own ways of developing our creative ideas into a form that flows best (for us) on the written page.

It sounds like (to me, at least) that you need to try some role-playing with those characters, if only in your head. 'Nebulously,' as annepin put it.

But always remember that a character's actions are only as interesting as his or her motivations.

Just my two cents.

Inkwell
-----------------
"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

Posted by nitewriter (Member # 3214) on :

"But that still doesn't give me a plot." No it doesn't, and it won't. You're implication seems to be that plot and characters are two independent facets of a story. In reality they are a synthesis, a fusion. Take some characters and a situation which poses problems for one or more of them. Show how they confront and handle this, along with the influence of those problem upon them. The result is plot. Characters + conflict & change = plot.

If you're not getting "plot" the conflict with which you confront your characters may not be strong enough or convincing. Sure we have to care about the characters, but what they face has to be strong enough to make us care.

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

OSC suggests taking two different ideas and merging them together to tell a story. He also uses the "What happens next?" or "What ELSE could happen?" method to drive stories forward.

But I share your pain. This is the hard part for me as a writer. I have great ideas, wonderful characters, fascinating environments, nifty concepts about technology and society (I like to write near-term science fiction mostly) but I have trouble driving the ACTION.

Some books that have been recommended to me/I've been reading:

On Writing, by Stephen King
Plot, by James Bell
38 Mistakes Fiction Writers Make, by Bickham

Many others, my booklist isn't with me right now. I'll post more later!

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

You could also try to see if the "assignments" in the Hatrack River Writers Workshop "Writing Class" can help:

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum5/HTML/000006.html

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

My method is just to write out the idea as if TELLING what the idea is about.
This gives you a basic plot you can play with. At worst, it gives you a basic plot, a synopsis, an outline. That fixes the basic concept. Then one can create the characters and modify or ignore the piece as needed.
When I do these pieces, the characters are just there to get the concept developed, interchangeable usually. The scene or story idea is what I am after, to spin something around the concept.
Links to where you can see examples of these can be found at
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/004024.html at the bottom of the string.
These story ideas I post, are free to use in any way you want, by the way. I am pointing them out to show a possible solution to your problem.

[This message has been edited by rstegman (edited August 05, 2007).]

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I've just been working on this topic as part of a workshop I'm presenting in an on-line conference in October. It's a hard one because so many people will have different approaches and they can all work. The one that does NOT usually work are to just start writing with a single cool idea and no story. But you seem to have figured that out.

If you haven't read "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card -- do. He has a section where he gets into this...but you should read all the sections.

As for characters....if thinking about them isn't what's natural for you then don't worry about them YET. Start with something else. We all have our strengths and to be perfectly honest, not everyone cares about characters. Personally, I do and can't stand scifi or fantasy that doesn't have good characters but I've read the stuff -- PUBLISHED -- and people like it. So, to each his own. OSC is a good writer and has a lot of great advice but never make the mistake of thinking that everything he says is right or applies to you. He offers advice...it's up to you to use it.

My advice would be to take your little idealette and torture it for information. You can do it in your head, on a piece of paper, or on a word document. Write the idea at the top and start demanding answers. "Why?" "How?" and "With what result?" are some good ones. Don't accept the first answer your idea gives you, either. That's usually cliche. Keep tearing into it until it coughs up some real answers. Be brutal.

Another thing you can do is to bring together two or more different ideas...the more different the better, to be honest. Think about them all at the same time and try to find bridges between them. You can often find stories in those bridges.

Once you've got a plot you can live with, you'll probably want to do some world building. (Another part of the book I suggested.) After that, since it's your weakest facet, start on the characters. Card also has a book on characterization that is very good and I highly recommend, especially to someone who doesn't haev an affinity for the topic. I tell you what -- I've seen evidence that you don't HAVE to have strong, believable characters in stories because people are willing to write the utter rubbish put out there by authors such as David Eddings, but wouldn't you like to do better?

P.S. When you write a character to support the plot, be wary of pushing him around at your whim. Once you have the plot, and create a believable character that seems to match up, let the character have his head. If the plot goes astray because it occurs to you that the character would never do X, let it. You may come up with a more interesting story for it.

[This message has been edited by Christine (edited August 05, 2007).]

Posted by JeffBarton (Member # 5693) on :

We're all different, aren't we. I most often think of situations or plots as the start of stories. My mind is plot driven. The problem is then to make up characters with the necessary background, personality, motives and skills to be involved with that plot. I try to put growth, disillusionment, corruption or change of some other sort into the character as (s)he works through the conflict of the plot. That’s harder for me than plotting the action, so I spend more time on it. I work on keeping the character consistent and believable – which needs a lot of help from Hatrack critiquers. Likable characters aren’t so important to me. My MC and POV characters shown on the forum so far haven’t been cuddly or adorable.

[This message has been edited by JeffBarton (edited August 05, 2007).]

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I kick the ideas around inside my head, sometimes for years...usually they only emerge into some more concrete form when I can see a beginning and an end. Sometimes it just stays in my head...sometimes I jot down a few notes...sometimes I begin something and stop.

Not always, though---my current novel lurches just a few steps ahead of my writing, with me knowing a few things about what happens without knowing at all when it happens.

(I've got this appalling new idea---knowing just what happens in the story and knowing just how I want to tell it---but it's another of those ones that rips off somebody else's work. I mentioned this in a post a couple of weeks back---this is yet another idea with that problem. I haven't written that one down, either.)

Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :

I use a modified form of Christine's torture method, in which I apply time and social pressure to the poor idealette. I tell my wife or my friend that I thought of a great plot . . . they look at me expetantly . . . and I have to expand my cool idea or neat character into a full story arc on the spot. The pressure of having to say something out loud that makes sense and has a beginning, middle, and end, helps me grow the idealette into the rough outline of a story. Then I've got something to work with. The approach works marvelously . . . for me.

[This message has been edited by J (edited August 05, 2007).]

Posted by Antinomy (Member # 5136) on :

The opening hook is not the first thing I work on. I like to apply the “what if” factor as a story outline. Then develop a main character, add some challenges along the way and a satisfactory resolution at the end.
“What if’s” are really easy choices for SF stories. Here’s one off the top of my head:

What if a rocket ship crash lands on a strange new planet and the MC is the only living survivor. Injured and unaware, he is found and taken in by some primitive cave man types and now he has to live with them.

Posted by Marzo (Member # 5495) on :

For me, stories inevitably start out with a vague sense of character or setting, never plot. Either a character drifts (or springs) into my head, and I think, "cool, I really want to write about him/her," or a place (real or imagined) develops in my mind's eye and I find setting a story there irresistible.

I then start to focus on how I can highlight what's interesting about the character or setting. For character, I contemplate how they developed the personality they have, and thinking of those outside factors usually generates a setting - and events, therefore story - that compliments or contrasts with them. With setting coming first, there's usually a few facets of the broader picture I'm particularly interested in highlighting (say, shoemakers or cloth merchants in particular), and characters and scenarios will present themselves as I imagine what that way of life in my interesting setting would entail.

But, as you've said, these are just ideas, and maybe the seeds of a plot.

Making plot and story out of ideas is something between carpentry and fermentation, for me.

The broader sense of what story I want to accomplish will build over time, the more I ruminate on it. But to force the narrative arc to further itself beyond a daydream of "this is cool," I have to constantly ask myself: What's the point? And then what? What's changing? How will this matter to the reader? And the best question of all: How can I send my MC through the wringer?

Sometimes things which I thought would evolve into different, unrelated shorts or novels have to merge because they aren't strong enough to hold themselves up alone. This is fine, if a little displeasing to have idea darlings share the spotlight. It ultimately yields a more multifaceted main story.

This is all the advice I can give: Ferment and cobble.

Keep pestering yourself to wonder what kind of story would best suit your characters. Do they need something with lots of action? All right, so how will we get things to explode, figuratively and/or literally? An anarchist plot? Some kind of space station malfunction? Think of every possible action that'll give you the reaction you want. Reverse engineer from your needs as a writer seeking story, and you'll find the elements necessary to make that conclusion happen.

Good luck! :)

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

It's funny how different people are about this kind of thing. I was discussing it on another forum earlier today.

I always start with a scene that I see. I see this character and something is happening to her. Then I have to convince her to tell me who she is. Then I ask her, "What scares you the most? What would you absolutely hate to have happen."

Once they tell me, they're toast because that's what happens. *grins*

Then being a reasonably nice person I ask, "What do you really care about? What do you want most?" Then if they're lucky by the end of the story, having probably lost what they care about most, they may get something they want, after struggling for it of course.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

quote:
The opening hook is not the first thing I work on.

If this works for you that's great -- after all, it's results that matter more than anything else. I have to say, though, that for me starting with the hook is the surest way to quite writing after a page and a half. I'm actually pretty god at writing stand-alone hooks. When I was a teenager, I must have had about fifty of them. I never could work them into a story, or invent a reasonable character out of them. Or, if I could get a little ways into the story with some good plot and characterization, it would turn out before long that (ironically) I had started in the wrong place.

Posted by Snorri Sturluson (Member # 5807) on :

The world is full of interesting people but that doesn't mean even half of them are worthy of a biography. It seems, historically speaking at least, that great people require extraordinary events. Consider Abraham Lincoln; his presidency was defined by the Civil War. What if the civil war hadn't happened during his presidency, would we remember him? If Augustus Caesar flipped burgers down at the local fast-food joint, would anyone care to read a story about him?

Of course, it was Abraham Lincoln's election that sparked the civil war. It was Augustus Caesar who created the Roman Empire. Great people are defined by the events in their life, but their life also creates the events that define them.

If a story is too plot-driven, then it seems like the characters are passive and just along for the ride. Any single character could be removed and replaced with someone totally different and the events would stay the same. Well, at least the events are interesting (hopefully) but the story could be more.

If a story is too character driven, then who cares? I'd much rather read about Ender Wiggin saving the world from Buggers than to read about the interesting way Andrew Wiggin brushes his teeth. With no great events, the character's life is mundane. With no great character, the events are detached.

Of course, there are rather successful books out there that focus on one or the other. From what I remember, the Joy Luck Club had very few worthwhile events but a lot of great characters. Childhood's End, on the other hand, had great events but I'll be darned if I can even describe a single human character from the book.

I would say, then, that is would be worth while to not only consider "what else" could happen but also how the same events might be different if the characters were different.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Never mind.

[This message has been edited by Christine (edited August 06, 2007).]

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

Event story:

quote:

The Queen died, and the King died.

Event and character story:

quote:
The Queen died, and the King died of grief.

Events are cool but characters make the story a story.
Develop your characters and the story will begin to suggest itself. It will start to grow over the 'trellis' of events.

Most plots resemble others in one way or another, whether it is the general thrust or in particulars. Treatment of character and milieu is what sets individual stories apart.

OSC How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as Character and Viewpoint are great reference books and most libraries (at least here in Australia) have them. If not, they are worth buying.

Anyone remember what the 'I' stands for in "M.I.C.E. Quotient"?

[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited August 06, 2007).]

Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :

Idea.

Milieu, Idea, Character, Event.

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

Idea!
I knew I was missing Ideas in my stories.

Posted by WouldBe (Member # 5682) on :

I start with a fairly defined situation, setting or predicament that interests me and then try to fashion characters to exploit the situation. I don't worry about plot points until the important characters have a voice, through writing as if I had a clue what the plot was. As you would guess, I'll often start at the wrong place, but I don't mind the re-writes as long as the characters are interesting. The plot turns often don't occur to me until late in the story. The closest I come to worrying the details of the plot early on is thinking through character arcs. Transformations that the characters must make often suggest the starting and ending point of the plot.

Posted by weslarson (Member # 5940) on :

Thank you all for your input. Unfortunately, I was already suspecting many of the answers posted here--especially that there's no easy, surefire, works-every-time method to doing this whole "writing" thing.

Why do I have to enjoy doing something that's so hard to do?

-Wes

Posted by weslarson (Member # 5940) on :

Also, as far as "likable" characters, I don't necessarily mean cuddly, or friendly, or even "good guys". There are lots of bad guys that are fun to read. Since I've been reading Harry potter recently, a number of those characters spring to mind. Draco, Snape, Kreacher--all antagonists that are unbearable beings, but interesting characters that make me want to know more about them. I like to read them.

-Wes

Posted by The G-Bus Man (Member # 6019) on :

This probably doesn't help, but I create the characters first and revolve the ideas around them. If I come up with an idea first, I create that character around the initial basis of that idea, then finish the idea around the character.

Posted by HuntGod (Member # 2259) on :

Lots of good advice but it seems to me you were asking how to develop a story to accompany some cool idea or gadget you've come up with.

What I suggest doing initially is looking at how this idea/gadget would affect the world around it. Maybe apply an existing plot from another story and see how it would be different with the new condition.

Example, cell phones, an innocuous device that you use every day. Add it to an older period piece, particularly espionage fiction and it can COMPLETELY change the storyline. It obviates many plot complications but in exchange adds several new ones.

Stephen Hamilton does this in Pandora's Star, the idea of Gateways/Wormholes is not new. But he sat down and really looked at how they would affect society and the culture that emerged from it. Then he wrote a story in the society that stable gates would bring.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is the same, he writesd what is basically a hard boiled detective story, but he has a core technology that puts a nice new twist on it.

I hope that helps.

Posted by The G-Bus Man (Member # 6019) on :

On that note, you should really think how your device/gadget will effect how things are done in your world, especially if it violates a known law of physics (going faster than light, etc.)

Here's a great, science fiction-specific page that talks about the law of unintended consequences:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3al.html#consequences

Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :

In How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by OSC, Card uses the automobile as a great example of looking at how a device might change the world.

How could the designers of the automobile realize the impact cars would have on the environment, smog, or foresee things like drive-in movies, drive-up tellers, drive-through food, or even traffic jams and drunk driving. The Wright brothers never could have imagined using an airplane for something like 9/11.

So the results of a device aren't always logical and straightforward. Sometimes, the results are wild. So think of wild possibilities. What if everyone had this device. What if everyone considered it a necessity. How could it be used outside it's intended purpose. What is the worst that could happen.