The Idea Process for Writing - My Long Winded Short Answer

I posted this a while back on my Play-dead.com but thought it would be better served on this page. Essentially, I thought about "writing" one day, and here are a few things I thought.

You would like to write a novel, a short story, a play, or something but are not sure where to start or how to go about it. Well, there are endless "How To" books and some great College Courses you could take to get you started. Some of the books and the classes will have you sit down with a piece of paper and just start writing. Others may have you write a detailed outline before you start. The bottom line is there are countless ways you can learn about writing and the creative process. But one of the first things you need before you sit down and write, or even outline, is an idea.

What's The Big Idea

For example; To write on this subject, I had an idea. You see, I write Murder mystery plays and many times, after the productions, people have come up to me and asked questions such as:

"Where do you get your ideas?"

"How did you come up with that?"

Each time I hear those questions, I try to provide an easy answer - but the truth is, I don't know how to explain it easily. In the simplest terms, I get ideas and some of them become stories or plays. But to explain the whole process of where my ideas come from, why they pop into my head, and then how they get transformed into word on paper, would take a while.

Over the years, the more I heard the question about my ideas, the more I was forced to think about the where, why, and how. I've thought about the "where I get ideas" and the "how I get ideas" and the deeper I thought about it, I realized there is probably an infinite number of answers, just as there is an infinite number of "How To" books, blogs, and articles written to "teach" you to be creative and how to get ideas.

As a side note, I've also noticed that the same people who posed the "where do you get your ideas?" query, would inevitably go on to tell me about an idea they have for a story or a play, so it was clear they were able to get ideas, in much the same way I did. So this "where" question is many times an ice breaker that leads further down the rabbit hole.

The questions (sometimes) turn from the "creative" Avenue and make a hard left up the "technical" street.

"Do you write in the morning or in the evening?"

"Do you use a pencil and paper or a computer?" If I used a pencil was it a Number 2 or did I prefer a pen.

"What kind of pen?" If I used the computer, "what software did I use and which is best?"

I believe every person who starts out writing is eager to know how other writers write. I confess that I asked those same questions and read many books on creative writing. Essentially, novice writers who are just starting, want to know if they are doing it right. It doesn't hurt to ask or to read as much as you can but I can tell you, after asking all of the usual questions and reading most of the books - beginning writers will uncover this nugget of wisdom - there is no "right way". The bottom line is you simply need to try different methods and find the one in which you are most comfortable.

Example - I found that writing in the early morning is the best time for me. (maybe not for you)

The reason for me - My brain is not overloaded with the crap of the day. My thoughts are just waking up and are still hovering in a dream-like state. I'm not thinking about what a lousy day I had at work and the rude guy that cut me off on the highway or I need to call and find out why my cell phone bill went up. I found that when my mind has been active all day, I don't feel very creative. Writing to me is very much like daydreaming - and early in the morning, I find it easier to daydream. Now, with that being stated - maybe the end of the day works for other people. Maybe all the events of the day provide a catalyst for a creative process. Find a time that works for you.

I've read that Marcel Proust had a padded soundproof room that he locked himself away in to write. He had issues with outside interference - such as people or sounds. He needed quiet to remember all things past. On the flip side, I read that Charles Dickens was the complete opposite. If there were a dinner party going on at his home, he would simply bring out his writing-table into the room and continue to work while socializing. Two great writers with two completely separate styles. Again this proves the point, that there is no right way.

On the technical side, I began by writing things down in a notebook. I moved on to use a typewriter and then a word processor and now I use a computer to write most of the time. I don't have a particular brand of software that I use, I've used plain old Word and lately Open Office. These writing methods are the habits I have developed and that I am comfortable with. Whatever method you develop will become your habit. The possibilities are endless, however, the basic stories you can come up with are not endless. Only the way you tell it.

What Do You Mean?

As far as ideas for stories or plays, it has been proposed that there are a limited number of plots or formulas that a writer has to choose from. Every book, play, movie, etc.. is just a variation of those basic plots. As an example, a Murder Mystery: someone gets murdered and someone figures out who did it. Pretty straight forward.

Other genres such as romance have the standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. And there's the "Hero's Journey" where a common person is suddenly thrust into some type of adventure where maybe he or she has to travel a great distance, overland, sea, or even within to overcome obstacles and solve some problem or defeat a force such as evil. Most fantasy/ adventure books and movies use the hero's journey as it's core: Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, Rambo, etc...

So when someone asks, "Where do you get your ideas?" it's pretty safe to say, I get them from the formulas that already exist. The trick is taking those ideas and creating a variation - one that is so unique, people won't recognize it right away. An idea - is in essence, a method to reinvent a story that has already been told. It like taking a cliche and wording it so that it sounds brand new at first. You can bring your horse over to the creek. But if he's not very thirsty, odds are he will just look at the water and probably not drink. (You see what I did there? Spinning an old cliche with extra bits. Writers do that a lot.)

Song Remains The Same

When the TV show "Lost" was running, I made a joke by saying, "I liked this show the first time when it was called 'Gilligan's Island'". Granted, Lost and Gilligan's Island are completely different TV shows - but the basic formula is the same - take a bunch of different character types, put them through a catastrophic event: shipwreck/plane wreck, throw them onto an island that's cut off from the rest of the world and watch how they interact. Granted, Gilligan never encountered a smoke monster or different time streams - but by adding those plot devices into the 'castaway' scenario - the survival cliche gets hidden below.

Type + Type = Conflict 

Disaster movies also use a formula of throwing different "types" together while having them work toward a common goal - and that is usually survival, finding a way out, devising a way to be rescued, etc.. . To make this idea or the plot more interesting, you add in "Conflict".

 Conflict - is the 'stuff' that moves the story along and makes it interesting. This conflict can be different devices but mainly it will come from characters interacting as they work toward something. One character wants to solve a problem this way, while another wants to do it that way. Conflicting types of characters make it interesting - for example -let go back to Gilligan, shall we? The Captain and his first mate. A Millionaire and his wife. A movie star. The Professor and Mary Anne...etc.. A key ingredient of any good story is having different types of characters who will interact, clash, and argue. If seven people who were all passive vegetarians were shipwrecked on an island, it would get dull after 5 minutes. They may fight over the last coconut but that's about it. Throw in an aggressive meat eater and you create conflict. The conflict is the substance you use to hide the fact that this plot has probably been used a million times.

Building ideas Outside the Building 

So, I maintain that the key to creative writing isn't so much in your idea but how you present the idea. Here is an example of my spin on the murder mystery formula:

I wrote a play called "I'm Getting Murdered In The Morning" and the setting was a wedding reception. I got the idea when I was at a friend's wedding reception. I wrote another mystery play called "Stay As Dead As You Are" that was set at a High School Reunion. Any guesses where I got that idea? Ideas are easy.

My Process

For most of the murder mystery plays I write, I get an idea for the "setting" first. The setting can be also thought of as - a plot of land in which I'm going to build a house. The play - is my house and I need somewhere, some land to build it on: a wedding reception, a corporate meeting, a talk show, and so on. Next, I need to fill the house with people to live there - these are the characters.

 I then think about what kind of characters would be in this place?

Well, a wedding reception, of course, would have the bride and groom, the best man and maid of honor, and so forth. Since it will be a murder mystery, it follows that someone will have to be murdered. The goal for the characters will be to figure it out or solve the mystery. In this case, my A to B to C is pretty much laid out in advance. You can read Sherlock Holmes or any Agatha Christie and find that formula already set in stone. My goal is to take that formula - the A to B to C and make the journey creative so that it's a little different or creative. The use an analogy - there is a set route you have to drive to work or your local store. But if you wanted to, you could take a side street or another way and still arrive at these places. It may take longer but you can get creative with the way you arrive there. Same idea.

So, my answer to the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" would be, I take standard formulas and rework them into something that appears different. But then the question that would follow, or at least one I would ask is, how do you do that?

 How do you take something that has been done a million times and mold into something that appears brand new?

Stuck in the Muck

To that question, I will use an old cliche and that is "free your mind". I will explain, a friend of mine reads every vampire book that comes out. He is a fan of every TV show and movie related to Vampires. He knows all you can know about the subject. He writes stories and screenplays all about vampires, which is fine because right now, there is a huge market for vampire-related stuff. Problem is, he knows nothing else.

His mind is totally and utterly locked into the Vampire genre. Unfortunately, in the vampire genre of story-telling, (as of this writing) it is so hot and since there are so many stories, movies, etc.. all the really good "spins" are being taken and beaten into the ground. Now, since that is all he reads and watches, his chances for creating something new are getting smaller and smaller every day.

So what should he do? Move onto Zombie related stuff? No! I suggest he read or watch something other than vampire-related material. Something completely 180 degrees the other way.

 Why?

 Because, new and inventive ideas are applied to all genres: drama, comedies, action-adventure, romance, sci-fi, and so forth. As strange as it may sound, even though I write murder mysteries, I do not read or watch that much material related to murder mysteries.

Long ago, I learned to open the creative side of my mind up to all possible sources of input. I became a fan of everything. I rarely watch prime time television or mainstream movies. Instead, I watch old foreign films: French, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, etc.. New foreign films. Documentaries. I don't listen to popular music. I listen to classical, Jazz, Blues, World Beat, Alternative, experimental.

The basic idea is to absorb everything that is out there that is left of center. (Meaning not hot right now) Because everything that is out there - is doing the same thing over and over. They are taking a cliche idea and reinventing them into something different. If you remain open to all forms of stories, films, music, whatever, you open channels to new and different possibilities.

Same Old Song and Dance

I remember enjoying the movie "The Magnificent Seven" when I was a kid. I took a film course in college and saw the Akira Kurosawa film, "Shichinin No Samurai" (Seven Samurai), and realized that the "Magnificent Seven" was a remake of that film.

I went on to learn that another Kurosawa film called "Yojimbo" was remade 3 years later as a "Spaghetti Western" called "Per Un Pugno Di Dollari" or "A Fistful Of Dollars" with Clint Eastwood. And then in 1996, it was re-made yet again as "Last Man Standing".

The funny thing about this is that the original story of "Yojimbo" was taken from a novel called "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett.

So, here is a case where an old detective novel was read by a great Japanese Filmmaker who reworked the basic idea into a Samurai film. Granted, Kurosawa has made many Samurai films, but the point is the source for this film had nothing to do with Samurai material.

Seven Samurai was seen by another great filmmaker from Italy named Sergio Leone. Leone reworked the Samurai idea into a Western. Eventually, the American director Walter Hill reworked the Western idea into a gangster movie.

The same idea spun three different ways into something new. If Akira Kurosawa hadn't opened himself to other ideas or literature beyond his Japanese heritage and found an American Crime Novel called "Red Harvest", "Yojimbo" would never have been born. And if Sergio Leone had only stuck with traditional Italian cinema, he never would have seen "Yojimbo" and we may never have heard the term "Spaghetti Western".

Bottom Line: Don't limit your imagination by limiting your mind.

Working the Cliche

I have found that many people don't recognize the Cliche factor of most stories until you point it out. Cliches aren't obvious because the public's disbelief has been suspended so deeply, it resides in a fog somewhere in the back of their minds.

I have this "bit" I do with a friend of mine that's based on a line I heard from a local stand-up comedian. The comedian said he was watching a rerun of "Three's Company" the other night. "It was the one where there was a major misunderstanding."

We took the premise of the joke and found we could apply it to almost any TV show. At parties or other social functions, as we are standing around interacting with people, one of us will start the bit:

"Hey you know, I was watching an old Don Knotts movie the other night. It was great!"

"Really? Which one was it?"

"It was the one where he got real nervous and scared."

"Oh, yea. I saw that one! "

"And then I saw an old "Leave It To Beaver" the other day, maybe you'll remember it. It was the one where Beaver does something he wasn't supposed to do because his friends talked him into it. Then Ward finds out and has a talk with Beaver that has a moral lesson."

"Oh Right! That's my favorite episode! Speaking of which, did you ever see that one "Gilligan's Island", where they almost get rescued but Gilligan somehow messes it up at the end?"

As we go on with our bit, the light of recognition comes on in the eyes of people around us and someone will finally say, "But, that's EVERY episode!"

My point exactly. Sometimes you can take the cliche and reuse it over and over and no one will realize it. Some people make a living doing that. Andy Warhol became famous for painting ordinary objects: Brillo Pad boxes, Tomato Soup Cans, etc.. Common objects we see every day but presented in a new and different way.

Once you are aware of the cliches and the basic plot lines, the "creativity" comes in by trying to dress the cliches in new clothes, maybe a new hairstyle and see if you can sneak them into the party without anyone noticing. It's similar to the old saying that you have to "know the rules before you break them." If we take the old "romance" plot of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" and twist the ending where suddenly the boy doesn't want the girl back - or "doesn't give a damn" - you have "Gone With The Wind".

If you take a few standard plots, one about a washed-up prizefighter who is supposed to "throw the fight" but doesn't want to. Then take a sub-plot about two bad guys who are hunting down a stolen briefcase for a crime boss. Mix in a little romance and weave a few threads that connect all the stories, you may have something.

But maybe not.

Perhaps the public has already seen it. But what if you chop up the stories? Take the beginning of the story and put it at the end. Take the ending and move it to the middle. Take the middle and use it at the beginning. That way, no one will notice the cliches but even if they do, how they are presented seem completely original. Then you have "Pulp Fiction".

Again, once you recognize the cliches and become aware of them, they are much easier to manipulate. So, this my short answer of how, where, and why I get my ideas.