Writing How-to: Week 1 - Ideas and Prewriting · 3:35pm Apr 2nd, 2016
Welcome to week one of my five week how-to for April. In this five part series I will be going over how I come up with ideas, how I write them, and how I edit them into a finished product. Pictures, examples, and personal touches included!
This week is all about coming up with the initial idea. Everyone wants to make a good article, essay, or narrative, but if you don't know where to start it can drain your inspiration rapidly.
When I was a kid, I use to think of the word 'Prewriting' as the idea of writing the entire plot into an outline, but since I had no real plot ideas to begin with, I ultimately gave up. That ignorant thought stunted my growth as a writer. Prewriting is not trying to write your draft, prewriting is trying to come up with the idea for your first draft.
There are many ways to come up with ideas, some may work for you, some may not. Here are the types of prewriting I'll be going over in this post, these types can be used in any form of writing. Freewriting, clustering, listing, and freeform.
Freewriting -
Freewriting is the process of spending 5, 10, or 20 minutes just writing about a particular subject. During this time, you want to concentrate on a subject and write about them until the time is up. You do not stop for corrections, edits, or judging. If you happen to draw a blank, switch over to another subject and start writing about them. When you're done, read through it and see if you can't form an idea in your head of what you want to write about. If you don't, pick a different subject and write again.
Example: Spend 10 minutes writing about Twilight Sparkle as quickly as you can. Your grammar/spelling does not have to be correct. "Twilight Sparkle is a book horse she likes reading and studying she is an element of harmony she became an alicorn in season 3..." Your writing doesn't have to be canon, or even correct, it's about you. If you come to a stop during this prompt, switch over to one of the other elements, or move on into something that Twilight Sparkle does, such as magic or learning.
Clustering -
Clustering is a bit different from freewriting. You pick a subject, item, person, or place and make it your topic by writing it down in the middle of the page and circling it. Then, draw a line and add something about that topic. Do this until you can't come up with anymore relations to your topic, then circle those relations and draw a line from them, and repeat the process until you're satisfied. When you're finished, look through and try to imagine a few ideas for a plot or narrative you might want to write about.
Example: Write Twilight Sparkle and circle it, draw lines from it and write down stuff about her. Friendship, alicorn, magic, pony for a few examples.
Listing -
Listing is a mix of both freewriting and clustering. Take 5, 10, or 20 minutes and think of a specific topic, then, in a listing format, write down words that relate to your topic as quickly as you can. If you think of a word that doesn't match your topic, write it down anyways, as it may spark an idea when you read it back after you've finished. Depending on your time, you should be able to come up with dozens of words, and it should look like you've written a very strange grocery list. When you're finished, read through them and see if you can't come up with an idea for a story. If you can't, pick three words you wrote down and begin another listing using them as topics.
Example: Pick the topic of magic. Spend 10 minutes writing one or two word's in a listing pattern. Wizard, harry, unicorn, horn, oblivion, spells, tomes, fire, lightning, mountain, and dragons are just a few small examples I've come up with by thinking of 'magic'. Not all of them relate to magic, but they do to me in specific ways. Remember, writing is about you and your experiences, even if the subject isn't.
Freeform -
Freeform is the concept of creating ideas in your head before you write them down. This can happen at any time during the day. In the shower, lying in bed, in the car, and so on and so forth. Basically, it requires you to be thinking of writing at all times and have multiple subjects rushing through your head. You should be prepared to write down your idea, whether it's in your phone's notes, on a piece of paper, or even just a few words on your arm to help you remember.
Example: When I was coming up with the idea for "Twilight and Luna Make a Porno" I was thinking of multiple types of romance stories. I first heard about the Monthly Shipfic group in January, at the time they were doing Appledash stories. So, all through January I spent time thinking up stories for different ships. I never wrote any of them down, they just stayed in my head. For example, if it was going to be "Topic 1 x Topic 2" then it was going to be "Subject 1", if it was going to be "Topic 2 x Topic 9" then it was going to be "Subject 4".
The idea for "Twilight and Luna Make a Porno" was originally freeformed to be a Spike x Rarity shipfic, where Rarity needed some money and the only thing that would do was making a porno with the only male friend she had. With that basic idea from freeform, I then took the making of a porno and combined it with the shipping prompt given to me, which was Twilight x Luna. It turned into something fantastic.
Final Thoughts -
When I prewrite, my most used process is freeform. It's how I thought up Hours Loom, Above the Fire Sky, Twilight and Luna Make a Porno, and The Wrong Hole. Clustering is my second most used, while freewriting is a distant third. These are just the styles I use, and they may or may not work for you. You'll definitely want to try them out yourself and see what sticks. Remember, this is just creating the idea for a story, it does not have to be perfect the first time around, or even the fourth time around.
~TheTimeSword
