Story Origin Writing Tag

Writing Tag seems to be all the rage across social media these days...

​I enjoy hashtag writing prompts on Twitter. #musemon, #bookishtues, #1linewed, #thurds, #SciFiFri, and #SlapDashSat are my favorites.

I was recently mentioned in a tweet by  Elysia Lumen Strife, an author and friend. In it was a link to her recent video blog post, asking other authors to answers a series of questions regarding story idea generation.
Apparently, her video was inspired by other book vloggers (see links below) answering the same questions. It would seem we’re entering a new phase of social media tagging.

---

The YouTube Tag!

 (insert ominous music here)

via GIPHY

Because I like Elysia’s tweets (and she likes mine back) I’m going to join the fray and tell you all about the things no one ever wanted to know about me and my writing process.

So here goes!

---

CURRENT STORY:

• What is your current story idea that you’re working on right now?
  • I have two at the moment: a novel and a short story entry for Writers of the Future. The novel is my first attempt at writing high-fantasy. Here’s my logline so far:
    • The high prince of a dwindling warrior clan fakes his death and hides among his father’s enemy as a refugee, struggling to discover the cure to White Claw, a disease that is driving his people to extinction one generation at a time. Will he find it in his lifetime, and if so, will his father accept aid from an enemy?
  • The short story is set in a human colony on an alien world and has two themes: Man vs. Nature, and Individual rights vs. one’s responsibility to the community.

---

SPARK OF INSPIRATION:

• Do your ideas begin with characters, plot, world building, or something else entirely?
  • My stories tend to start with a plot, or at least the “what if” question.
    • What would happen if <insert crisis> happened?
    • What would people do if <insert tragedy>?
    • How would someone respond to <insert external threat>?
    • What would I do if <insert antagonist> did <insert awful treatment> to me?
  • After that, I come up with my characters and a rough outline. I tend to world-build as I go.

---

BRAINSTORM: ​

• How do you puzzle piece your story elements together?
  • I started out as a Pantser, but over the last few months I’ve learned how to make my stories more coherent by outlining the plot first, and then discover the details later. I’ve recently come across Dan Wells’ Seven Point Plot outline as presented at LTUE 2010. I’m using his method to rewrite my current WOTF submittal, as well as all my future stories.
• Do you start with the ending and make your way to the beginning or vice versa?
  • Historically, I start with the beginning and ending scenes clear in my mind and let the story meander until I got to the point where I needed to figure out what had to happen to get to my destination. I don’t recommend this process. It’s fraught with rewriting and adding to make the overall plot seem natural. But I didn’t know any better. As they say, you don’t know what you don’t know.

---

KEEP OR TOSS:

• How do you know when you want to keep or dump a story idea?
  • If I don’t get really excited about a concept, there’s no way I’m going to get a reader excited in it as well. Maybe it’s a great idea for someone else, but if I don’t lose sleep thinking about all the possibilities, it’s not a story for me.

---

ORIGINAL IDEA:

• How much of your original idea for your story is actually used once everything is finished?
  • It depends on the story. In my self-published novel, I’d been dreaming about that world for a decade before I finally decided to write it down. I kept everything (to my chagrin) because at the time, I didn’t understand the first thing about the writing process. That’s why plotting and brainstorming are my new friends in lieu of pantsing.
  • As as example: my fantasy novel is loosely based on my original idea. The setting is nothing like what I’d first thought, but the conflict and characters are true to the theme I’d wanted to explore.

---

HIDE OR SHARE:

• Do you share your book ideas with friends or keep them a secret?
  • For the most part I keep them secret. That’s just my nature. Only a few trusted friends (my critique group) and family members know about current and upcoming projects.

---

DREAM:

• Have any of your book ideas originated with a dream/nightmare?
  • No. But I have had dreams about the worlds I’ve created.

---

DOPPLEGANGER:

• Have you ever had an idea for a story but then see a similar premise in a book/tv-show/movie?
  • All too often. But I usually attribute that to the lack of fresh ideas in the world in general. Some say, every story has already been told a hundred times. Especially when we default to using well-beloved and familiar tropes. The fun part of writing and generating new story ideas if finding something fresh. I think that’s what makes for an overnight bestseller. ​

---

BIG SCREEN INSPIRATION:

• Have any of your favorite movies/tv shows sparked ideas for scenes in your book?
  • I don’t think anyone can say they had an idea that wasn’t influenced by the media or pop-culture, even on a subconscious level. We’re influenced by the world around us. What we take in becomes a part of us, so everything we do or create has been sparked by something we’ve allowed in.

---

NOSTALGIA:

• What’s the oldest/first story idea you remember coming up with/writing down?
  • I’d always had a vivid imagination, but the first story I remember writing down was sparked by a breakup in college. She was my first real girlfriend (I only went on two dates in high school) and after she broke up with me I wrote a short story about two kids (Jimmy and Jamie) who met in a sandbox, they became best best friends. She later had to move away, but Jimmy always remembered her because she taught him how to build the world’s best sandcastles.

---

If you made it all the way to this point, congratulations! You have immense patience and intestinal fortitude.

via GIPHY

---

Vloggers:

By The Brooke
Bethany Atazadeh
Lenn Woolston