My oldest daughter is about as creative as they come.
Okay, that’s a significant part Mommy talking, but the kid really does make up some wild and crazy stories. And she’ll invent worlds and friends and bizarre situations. Leave the kids in their room to play for a couple of hours, and who knows what it will be transformed into.
And a few years ago, when she was six, she wrote a play (well, technically it’s a work in progress, and even more technically, it’s not exactly ready for Broadway, but the point is still there. Play. Creativity. Vivid imagination leading to story.)
So I figured the creative writing competition for private schools would be fun for her. At her level (for homeschooling, you go by age, so she would be in 2nd grade this year), the kids are given picture prompts and they have to write a story that includes at least one. For example, a footprint, a glass of water, a girl with a watering can, a panda. I plunk the kid down and we start to talk about it. I’m anticipating an adventure story about a girl tracking a panda. Instead, I get nada. Big. Fat. Nada.
Actually, that’s not true. I get stress. Writers Block. Deer in the headlights.
All of which is a long and rambling lead-in to the point of this, which is brainstorming and getting the juices flowing from a thought, a word, an idea.
With La Child, I ultimately decided to focus on oral storytelling for the competition, and work on written creative writing at home. To that end, I set up a blog, so that she could just have fun with it. But we did the same thing. We sat at the computer and I asked her what she wanted to write about. If she didn’t have an idea, I suggested one. And that was about all it took. If she stalled out, I’d give another prompt, but have found that I rarely have to do that. It’s the act of talking it through that gets her started and going. (The image is a screenshot of a story that she and her little sister wrote in alternating sentences, with me transcribing…and only transcribing. No corrections for run-ons or whatnot. I was a human record-o-bot. The pictures came after they finished the story because, hey, that’s what makes the blog fun!) 
All of this got me thinking, because I do much better talking out my brainstorming, unlike some of my writer friends who can do it all in their head. In fact, just yesterday I was on the phone with another Whine Sister and part of the conversation from my end was “so here’s my problem, actually, maybe it’s not a problem, I don’t think it’s a problem, I just need to talk it out…). We WSers can talk in code.
But the talking it out works.
How about y’all? Are you an in-your-head writer or a talk-it-out writer? What state of mind do you have to be in to really get the ideas flowing. (The ideas, not the fingers to the keyboard or paper; for me, that’s totally different!)
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I do most of it in my head – -or like someone else said (Sherri?), with myself on paper. I enjoy talking with other WSers about their stories… but talking in general only helps me when I’m well and truly stuck. Or when I am doubting myself — which unfortunately is a lot — but that said.. I LOVE it when I have my cp’s thoughts in writing. Then I can analyze and organize and put it into action more easily. Isn’t it weird how all of our brains work differently? Wish I wanted to talk about it all though– I’d get to talk to my far away friends more often!
Yes, exactly! I was just thinking I might have to try talking things out as an excuse to call people more often.
Not a writer, but if trying to solve a problem, I need to view it from all angles — inside and outside of the box. If it’s still something I can’t get a handle on, I talk about it with friends until I get the “A-ha!” moment.
Sometimes I can do it alone, in my head but talking about plot/character problems is most oftenwhat saves me. Sometimes just saying it out loud to the DH or critique partner can prompt the idea that will solve the problem. Other times I need full-on brainstorming.
I can do some in my head, but I need to talk, especially when I’m on a tight timeline. For me, the talking and the bouncing of ideas lets me get outside the bear-trap of my brain, which seems to trap one idea and hold onto it for all eternity, never wanting to let go, even when the idea needs to be euthanized. Now, the character stuff, I can do by myself all day. I like reading the craft books best when I’m creating a new character because it spurs me to think in a gazillion different directions. Sadly, craft books do not do that for me for plot.
Yes! Bear trap brain. That’s it exactly. I need to talk around things I want to do that don’t work for the book. I can do it alone, but it’s faster, more fun, and usually gets me where I need to be more seamlessly, if I can banter.
Exactly.
I do it in my head, but when I get stuck, I always talk it out. usually with O’Reilly because she is a GENIUS.
Great now she’s going to get the big head — we’ve been trying to keep that secret.
hehe…. getting the big head here…
I’m all in my head. Sometimes I talk to myself, but that’s it. I even have trouble talking to others about books once they’ve been written and published. I can write about them. I’m visual. I think it might have something to do with the kind of learner you are, how you best process information.
If you tell me directions, I’ll say “got it.” And really, I don’t at all and I’ll end up lost before admitting that I tuned out of the conversation somewhere between take a left at the stop sign and drive another mile to… I need to read the directions or forget it. Same with things my husband and I discuss or things the kids need for school. If it’s not written down in front of me, chances are that I’m missing some major details. Book plots, forget it. All in my head, or sometimes I take notes and work things out for myself on paper. Now if it’s idle gossip or useless information, I can discuss it and remember the conversation for years. What is up with that?
Sherri,
I envy that ability to work alone. The part about writing things down is cracking me up. DH was going to show me a map on the computer this AM so we could coordinate pick-up point. I told him he either needed to print out a map, or else we could get on the cell when I want to pick him up and coordinate that way. Why do men keep insisting that woman have a built-in GPS?
And so, heard any good gossip lately?
LOL! We’re just the opposite. I do have a built in GPS, and Don can get lost in our living room. Hmm. Wonder if he’s reading this….
It’s probably a good thing that at least one party has built in GPS.
If I’m not stuck, I don’t like to talk about them during the writing. But that getting unstuck thing is hard.
I have that very same trait, Sherri. Give me some other family’s dysfunction, and I absorb every word. Listen to my own family about the mundane? Not so much.
Is that what you meant? I tuned out.