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Like a big old brick wall.
I started to understand better why when I was reading Les Edgerton's Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go
. (Recommended, by the way. I don't often learn new things from writing books these days, but I did from this one.) Edgerton argues that "surface problems" aren't enough to carry a story, because they don't launch the character on a journey or force him to change (i.e. to have a character arc) the way a "story-worthy problem" does.Edgerton says you have to just keep asking yourself "why?" questions. To get from a surface problem to a story-worthy problem, he says, you have to delve into the psychology of the character. Why is this character doing this? What is the psychology behind his actions?
Out of the blue I had a still from a scene float up into my consciousness. I knew there was more story to be told in my NaNo novel world, but I had no idea what it was. And here at last was something, just a fragment of a scene. And that scene led to another scene. So now I have two context-less scenes that are intriguing me, but I'm not sure how to branch out from here. I think I am going to write brief descriptions of the two scenes on notecards (which is how I developed the NaNo novel) and then do my best to mind-map outward from there.
I'd love to hear your advice, dear Reader. What do you do? How do your ideas start and how do you help nurture them until they're worthy of an entire novel?
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But for the ones that become novels, I just keep writing and writing, coming up with new scenes that are sometimes unrelated and seeing how my characters react. Then I get a better idea about them so I can write the real scenes. But, it's a laborious process and maybe not the best. Maybe I should check out that book!
For me, I usually get a flood of potential ideas when I am working on a project. I jot those down as I get them. I let them steep, like a rich tea, until they are "ready" to be written. Then I pick one and go for it. Usually, the one that gets picked is one that has moved from an interesting idea to a larger story. And I totally agree that to be a strong STORY, the character must change.
Nice post...
Being what she is, there is of course the chance that someone will decide that she is too dangerous and try to 'remove' her for the good of society. This of course gives me a whole different area to persue: the different ways she could deal with the problem If she's questioning why she bothers going to all the effort of protecting humans, will she change her mind and go with what's natural, or will she find something that shows her why SHE wants to do it that way?
Hope that wasn't too much of a ramble :/ Or even vaguely helpful: it's worked for me so far, and I usually find working with a different character for a while leads me to an idea for the 1st project that I might not have thought of otherwise.
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www.welcometothecrazycorner.blogspot.com
I get ideas from all kinds of places, including news stories. When several of these ideas collide, characters start to form in my mind, and from there the story takes shape.
Problem is: how do you get the idea for a good story...Many ways. Look at tragic stories among friends and family (death, bankruptcy, losses of all kinds)Or read the newspapers, they report all sorts of killings, murders etc That's what Agatha Christie used to do. And today, after so many decades of "thriller and mystery genre" books, she's still the Queen of Crime Fiction. Why? Because she wrote superbly? No she didn't. It's all because of her storytelling, that's why!