Three Steps to Finding a Story: Step One

How do I know what I think, until I see what I say? 

W H Auden.

STEP 1 is designed to help you discover/uncover/find, your MAIN CHARACTER.

Deep in your imagination there are probably many characters clamoring to have their story told. Staring at a blank page or a computer screen is not the best way to find them.

Mind-Mapping, Cluster Drawings and Brainstorming are similar terms which describe the technique I use in workshops to help people bring that character up from the subconscious imagination to the conscious mind. It's a process that helps you find what you think so that you can begin to say it.

Here’s how it works.

• Draw an oval shape, or bubble, on a large piece of paper. There’s nothing special about this piece of paper. As you can see, my example was drawn on a used manila folder.
• Write in the bubble: Who Is The Story About?
• Draw at least twenty – yes twenty – lines out from the bubble.
• Write down a different idea for a character at the end of each line you have drawn out from the bubble.
• Once you start, don’t stop.
• Don’t mentally censor any idea. 
• Don’t cross out or erase an idea. 
• Don’t worry about spelling. I nearly didn’t write prodigy in case I miss-spelt it. (And I did.) I also crossed the l on lost - now I can chose between a charcter who has lost their memory or toasted it or has toast for a memory.
• It doesn’t have to be neat either, just so long as you can read it. It's FYI.

Have a close look at your Character Bubble. My list has some other really odd things on it: Pink Slug. Time Travelling Cat. A Star Goes Super Nova. Oh, and the Ninja Librarian. I would rather not have written Pink Slug but the thought was there so down it went. ‘Pink Slug’ was a bit off the wall and right now I can’t imagine writing a story about a pink slug but it did lead around the circle to ‘stowaway on a space craft’ which I rather like.

By censoring one seemingly silly idea I risk blocking other ideas – one of which might be the best idea.

Before we move onto STEP 2.

What’s the key thing that makes a story an engaging story?

• Conflict?
• Dramatic action?
• A strong character arc?

They are all correct but what do they really mean?

I’m grateful to Marion Dane Bauer for her simple definition.

The main character has a problem that s/he has to struggle to solve, or wants something that s/he has to struggle to get.

Read that quote again:

The main character has a problem that s/he has to struggle to solve, or wants something that s/he has to struggle to get.

Your character can struggle

• With themselves
• With other people
• With society
• With nature
• With the supernatural
• With machines
• With destiny

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_(narrative) for a more detailed analysis of what each element in that list means.

Now have a long think about the ideas that are branching out of you Character Bubble.

Is there one character that

• appeals to you more than any other?
• gives you lots of potential to build struggles into their life - struggles that will take your character on a journey that your audience – the people you are writing this story for – will want to go on as well. Maybe you are the audience. The same thing applies. (We’ll look at those struggles, later.)

You’ve got a week to ponder over which character grabs you.

Take your time and trust your instincts.

Give your subconscious, your imagination, time before you move on to STEP 2 which I’ll post next week.

If none of the characters around your bubble grab you. Go through the process again but this time

• draw 40 lines

AND

• set a timer for 10 minutes.
• In that 10 minutes you are racing the clock to put down 40 ideas for a character.

Why the timer? It pushes your brain to shut out the nasty, internal, nagging critic and in some way gives that part of your brain that is imaginative and creative permission to imgine and create.

(If you’re interested in learning more about how this process works read Henriette Anne Lauser’s Writing on Both Sides of the Brain.)