AUGUST, 2019
FIVE IDEA ENGINE KICKSTARTS—
JUST TO GET YOU WRITING
By: Alice Orr
Every Now and
Then the Idea Well
Runs Dry. That’s
what it can feel like
anyway. And it is
likely to give a writer
what, where I come
from, they used to call
a conniption fit. Not to worry. As Anne
Lamott says, “Help is on the way. One
hundred percent of the time.”
Get Out Your Writer’s Journal.
Remember the Writer’s Journal? I talked
about in my last column, “Your Life as
Idea Central.” A notebook that is special
in some way for you personally. If you
don’t have one, get one. If you have one,
open it up. Either way, prepare to be
gifted with help ala Alice.
Read Through the Following
Story Idea Kickstarts. Do so quickly.
It’s a gut reaction you’re after, not a head
one. Pick the possibility that strikes you
hardest. Maybe because you’d love to
write it. Maybe because you dread writing
it. Either way, your gut is engaged. Your
imagination is sure to follow.
Here we go. Five Story Kickstarts.
1. You have a particular fear. What
would happen if that fear materialized?
For example, what if those brakes you’ve
been meaning to repair on your car gave
out? Think of all the possible conse-
quences of that occurrence. Make the
absolute worst of those consequences
into a story situation or a scene for a
novel.
2. Make a list of people who fre-
quent a place with which you are fa-
miliar. Your neighborhood laundromat,
your favorite deli or diner, the place you
most enjoy stopping for a cocktail or a
beer or a diet soda. Choose the three
most intriguing, or potentially most in-
triguing, of those people. Imagine past
histories for them and present circum-
stances. Go way beyond what you actu-
ally know about them. Specifically, give
each of them a serious life problem they
are struggling with, and write how those
pressures cause them to interact in a
story or a scene set in this place.
3. Choose a favorite, or better still, a
least favorite relative. Recall an incident
from that person’s life, or create an inci-
dent that could have happened to that
person. Choose a situation that puts this
person in extreme conflict, maybe even
life versus death. Build a scene or story
around this person, that incident, and
what happens to her or to him.
4. Think of a close relationship you
envy. A family relationship, or a roman-
tic one, or a friendship. (The envy lends
emotional intensity on your part.) Imag-
ine a situation that alienates these indi-
viduals from each other, maybe causes
them to hate one another, or even makes
one want to kill the other. Build a story,
or the beginning chapter of a story,
around what happens. Maybe make your-
self a character in that story.
5. Go through photographs of peo-
ple and scenes. Choose two photos.
Imagine a connection between them and
build a story or scene around that con-
nection. Make sure there is something
disturbing or unsettling or even danger-
ous involved in the way these people and
scenes connect. Make that threatening
element the heart of your story.
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