Discuss @David Flin 's latest article here
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The Write Stuff: I've got an idea for you
- Thread starter AndyC
- Start date
- Location
- Derbyshire
Nosmo King is a fantastic hook.
Reminds me of how a sign down the road had slightly worn away to read: AUTHORISED PE SO NEL ONLY leading me down a similar mental musing.
Reminds me of how a sign down the road had slightly worn away to read: AUTHORISED PE SO NEL ONLY leading me down a similar mental musing.
- Location
- Derbyshire
That reminds me. Need to get that idea written tonight.
- Location
- North Solihull
- Pronouns
- she/her
I'm definitely of the school of "more ideas than I could ever reliably follow through on", but even then there's utility in having prompts and ideas to push forward on a specific story.
You've mentioned Tarot before, which inspired me to buy a deck (some very reasonably priced decks are available from The Works, I suspect places like Zen have their mark-ups). I'm going to use them to add some random chance into a project I've been working on this weekend, as they feel more thematically appropriate than just using the =Rand() Excel function.
One of several motivations for starting the Vignette Challenge was precisely to provide the kind of random prompt that might serve to take writers out of their usual idea comfort zones. Theme suggestions from members of the community are doubly helpful for this reason.
Another tip not mentioned in the article - one that seems obvious but where the utility only became so apparent to me personally when I started actually doing it - is to always keep an ideas notebook handy for scribbling down all the odd thoughts and prompts that come e.g. while on the bus, in the shower, from random overheard conversations, and from dreams (thanks especially vivid med-withdrawal nightmares). I'd strongly suspect this practice is both second and professional nature to the author of the article, but its something that I can't recommend highly enough to people starting out.
The pay off comes several months later where, if not short of a main idea for a story, you'll have to hand a source of potential plot elements, characters, setting details, snatches of conversation to which context can be added or invented. Quite a few of my vignettes from the past year have arisen from a cross-pollination of two different "I'd like to do something using..." ideas.
You've mentioned Tarot before, which inspired me to buy a deck (some very reasonably priced decks are available from The Works, I suspect places like Zen have their mark-ups). I'm going to use them to add some random chance into a project I've been working on this weekend, as they feel more thematically appropriate than just using the =Rand() Excel function.
One of several motivations for starting the Vignette Challenge was precisely to provide the kind of random prompt that might serve to take writers out of their usual idea comfort zones. Theme suggestions from members of the community are doubly helpful for this reason.
Another tip not mentioned in the article - one that seems obvious but where the utility only became so apparent to me personally when I started actually doing it - is to always keep an ideas notebook handy for scribbling down all the odd thoughts and prompts that come e.g. while on the bus, in the shower, from random overheard conversations, and from dreams (thanks especially vivid med-withdrawal nightmares). I'd strongly suspect this practice is both second and professional nature to the author of the article, but its something that I can't recommend highly enough to people starting out.
The pay off comes several months later where, if not short of a main idea for a story, you'll have to hand a source of potential plot elements, characters, setting details, snatches of conversation to which context can be added or invented. Quite a few of my vignettes from the past year have arisen from a cross-pollination of two different "I'd like to do something using..." ideas.