Writers in the Storm

By Sharla Rae

Some writers brainstorm on their own, some do it with another writer or a group of writers. My personal favorite is 'what-ifing' with my critique group. Along the way I learned a few things. I think the biggest lesson was that if I walked away disappointed, it was probably my own fault.

There are websites that go into scientific details, spouting lots of brainstorming terms you'll soon forget. I'm not going there. I'm speaking from plain old practical experience and what's worked for me. I hope it works for you too.

Pinpointing exactly what you want to brainstorm is the first step.

Sound easy? Sometimes it is. But sometimes, puzzling out exactly what's missing in a story needs a brainstorm session of its own. If time is short and you need to pinpoint the problem yourself before taking it to your posse, here's a few blogs that might help.

• 4 Steps For Organizing Plot Ideas For A Novel by Judy Hedlund
• For discussion points: When Middles Sag by Elizabeth Craig
• Kara Lennox’s Plot Fixer Series:

Part 1 – Your Premise Isn’t Compelling
Part 2 – How To Fix a Weak Opening
Part 3 – A Lack of Goals
Part 4 – Is Your Conflict Strong Enough?
Part 5 – Raising The Stakes
Part 6 – 5 Tips To Help Improve Your Story’s Pacing
Part 7 – Pick Up the Pace
Part 8 -  Is Your Plot Predictable
Part 9 – Plots That Rely on Coincidence and Contrivance

There are as many possible topics to brainstorm as there are stories. Below are a few common topics that are frequently discussed.

• Brainstorm a plot for a particular character personality you want to write and the reverse, finding the right characters for a story plot that’s begging you to write it.
• Brainstorm how to choreograph a scene - action, fighting, even a love scene
• Brainstorm how to write yourself “out” of a corner.
• Brainstorm a character’s psyche, that is how a particular personality should handle a situation.
• Brainstorm where the story begins – 1^st chapters are the hardest chapters in the entire book.
• Brainstorm the turning point in the plot, how to get there and what comes next.

Showing up with a problem is not enough. Being prepared avoids wasting your time and someone else's on explanations or background information. It's also the best way to get more our of your 'what-ifing.' 

Before the Brainstorming Session:

1)  Explain the specific subject you want to brainstorm.

2)  Prepare an outline of facts you already know about the story. Keep it as short as possible but provide all the information needed to help you brainstorm. The blogs listed above might help organize your thoughts.

3)  List ideas that won’t work so your partners don’t waste time considering those scenarios. Of course, realize that they just might tell you how to make one of those scenarios work.

4)  E-mail the outline a couple days before the group meets so they have time mull over some ideas.  (This saves a lot of time at the meeting) If it’s not possible to e-mail the outline ahead of time, at least be prepared with handouts.

During the Brainstorming Session:

1)  Make sure everyone is clear about “what” you expect to accomplish. Invite questions. Don’t be surprised if you don’t have all the answers to those questions. Sometimes the questions engender an 'ah-hah' moment that is key to a fruitful session.

2)  Be open to all suggestions. In a good brainstorming group, one idea will trigger another and then another. Don’t automatically discount anything. Some of the craziest suggestions inspire the best results.

3)  Take notes. You might think that you couldn’t possibly forget the best of ideas, but it’s the little details that really count. I repeat, take notes.

4)  If you are brainstorming another writer’s work, study the outline ahead of time, be prepared with questions and if you have time, jot down ideas. Above all, remember that in the end this is the author’s book, not yours – no matter how brilliant your own ideas might be.

5)  Have fun. Most of the brainstorming sessions I’ve attended include lots of laughter and we're all excited when a scenario comes together in a great scene or story plot.

Not everyone has a critique group or even wants one. That doesn’t mean you can’t start a brainstorming or plotting group. 

The benefit of meeting with the same people each time is familiarity.  Once the group has a feel for your writing style and the type of stories you like to write, they're  better equipped to offer appropriate solutions to your story problem. Some might argue that new faces will offer new perspectives. That could be true but remember this new group will still need the background info.

Be as picky about choosing a brainstorming group as you would be choosing a critique group. For some ideas you might like to read my blog: Critique Groups: How To Find Your Dream Team.  Joining a group that includes even one ego-maniac who believes his or her ideas are the end all - be all will put a damper on the entire group's productively.

Can you brainstorm with non-writer friends and family? Some writers tell me their spouses are great at brainstorming and in my own experience, friends will jump at the chance to brainstorm ideas. The problem? Most don’t understand story craft and sometimes that’s problematic. So the answer to this question is … whatever works for you.

Websites on brainstorming: Some of these take a scientific approach but it's fun to explore all methods. You'll also find ways to brainstorm by yourself.

Brainstorming at Mind Tools
7 Unique Brainstorming Techniques
Brainstorming at the Writing Center
5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers

How do you brainstorm? What works best in your experience?

by Linda O. Johnston 

If you’re a writer, what’s your favorite part of writing a story--and how do you make an element your favorite?

How about character?

I always like to focus when I’m starting a new book on determining who my protagonists are going to be.  What are you going to do to them in your story, and how will they deal with it in a way that makes you, and your readers, care?

If you do it right, characters are a shoo-in for being your favorite part of your story.

So how do you decide on your characters?  So much about who your protagonists are depends on the kind of story you’re writing.

If it’s a romance, you can imagine even as you start thinking about your story who you’d like your hero and heroine to be.  What will make them attracted to one another?  Their appearances?  Sure.  But there’s got to be more.  Something about the personality of each of them will draw the other.  But there also must be differences and flaws so they’ll not run into one another’s arms at the very beginning but fight their attraction till the end, and the happily-ever-after.

There are as many different kinds of characters as there are real people.  It’s so easy for a writer to fall in love with their human creations... and that’s half the fun of writing about them!

So... yes, a writer’s favorite part of a story can be its characters.

But wait!  There’s also plot.

Do you love figuring out what happens to your main characters, and why?  How does that plot develop in a way that keeps you writing and will keep readers reading?  Oh, yeah, if you have the most fun deciding what will happen in your story, then plot can be your favorite element.

Your plot depends a lot on what you’re writing--what genre or subgenre.  Plus, there are different ways of plotting.  Let’s say the story is romance, yes--but romantic suspense.  Now you have the fun of figuring out even before you begin not only who your characters are and what their characteristics are that keep them apart, but also the external factors, like danger, that they additionally have to overcome.   That danger can make them work together, fight together... make love together.   So plotting a romantic suspense story can really be enjoyable.

Or make it a mystery.  Yes, there can be a romantic interest there, but the focus on that kind of plot has to be on figuring out what the mystery is--a murder, or something else?  And if someone is killed, who and why--and how will your protagonist figure that out?  It has to be over the course of the story, and plotting it out can be lots of fun.

Yes, plot, too, can be a writer’s favorite part of a story.

Then there’s setting. 

It’s important in the development of both the characters and the plot.  In fact, location can be a character unto itself.  And just think of how much fun you can have if you decide on someplace far from home... and just have to take the time and effort to go research it!

Okay, maybe it’s too far and too expensive.  But there’s always the Internet to help.  So, location as a favorite part of a story?  Sure!

For example, a story set in Alaska, like my Harlequin Nocturne ALASKAN WOLF, may have similarities to others in the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters, but the atmosphere is quite different from the others such as the first story, ALPHA WOLF, set in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, or the newest one, UNDERCOVER WOLF, set in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Acadia National Park.  In my Pet Rescue Mystery Series for Berkley Prime Crime, and the series from which it spun off--my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series--nearly all the stories are set in Los Angeles where I live.  L.A. becomes a character of sorts, too, and helps the stories develop.

Okay, what else can be your favorite part of a story? 

That’s up to you.  But you can also have fun with minor characters and subplots.  They each help to support the protagonists and keep the stories going.   For example, in my Harlequin Nocturne miniseries, the protagonists of one story may become supporting characters in subsequent ones.  That’s because, the main characters are always the hero and heroine in romances, but the covert Alpha Force military unit remains the background for all the stories.  And in my Pet Rescue Mysteries, I usually have something else going on besides the murder mystery, often involving--what else?--rescuing pets.

What part of a story I’m writing is my favorite? 

Usually it's a combination of factors, that can often change.  Mostly, I like to get to know my characters, get them talking to me about who they are and how they want to address whatever is going on in the story.  And they do talk to me--usually when it’s late at night and I’m taking a bath or lying in bed.  I always have pen and note cards so I can jot down what they tell me.

They’re all different.  Lauren Vancouver, protagonist of my Pet Rescue Mysteries, is quite different in her outlook and activities from her predecessor Kendra Ballantyne, from my Pet-Sitter Mysteries.  The various characters in my Alpha Force Nocturnes are always unique, and yet many--but not all--of them have the common trait of being shape shifters.  And, yes, the werewolves talk to me, too.

So... do you know, starting out, what your favorite part of what you’re writing will be?  Or does it come to you as you’re writing?

Is everything equally fun? You know, as I reread this, it’s pretty clear that everything is entwined (as if I didn’t know!).  So maybe you have a favorite element and concentrate on it as you write, but each other element must fit with it for your story to work.  Keep that in mind as you both plan and write.

Now, how about you as a reader:  what’s your favorite part of reading a story?

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 31 published novels, with more to come.  She currently writes the Pet Rescue Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, a spinoff series from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, also for Berkley .   The first Pet Rescue Mystery, BEAGLEMANIA, is part of the Penguin Group’s Read Humane Program promoting animal rescue and the Humane Society of the U.S. , and its spokesperson is Nora Roberts.  The second Pet Rescue Mystery THE MORE THE TERRIER, was an October 2011 release, and the third, HOUNDS ABOUND, was an April 2012 release.

Linda additionally writes paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne--the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters, and her first Harlequin Romantic Suspense, UNDERCOVER SOLDIER, is a July 2012 release.

Our guest today is Amy Sue Nathan, a debut Women's Fiction Author, with great tips on how to get out of your character's way.  I've heard great things about her novel, so be sure to check it out! Here's Amy:

When I hunkered down to write a novel about a divorced mom in the suburbs whose ex-husband had suddenly died, I had a little bit of trouble separating the words and actions of Evie, my main character, from my own words and actions.  After all, I was a divorced mom in the suburbs whose ex-husband had died suddenly.  Yet, I wasn’t writing a memoir, nor was I writing a novel ripped from the headlines, based on a true story, or even inspired by one. While the springboard for The Glass Wives was born in truth, I wanted the main character, Evie, to bear little resemblance to me. But when I started writing, I kept forgetting that.

I inserted myself into the pages and the characters (all of them) much more so that was necessary, or warranted, or let’s face it—desirable.  This method did not allow for individual characters to take shape with their own arcs, their own back stories, and their own drive toward the end of book.

In those first drafts the characters were all different parts of me instead of whole characters unto themselves. No wonder they seemed so familiar.  No wonder the story had little conflict and lots of resolution (chronic conflict-avoider at your service). No wonder the writing was, dare I say, flowing.

After getting plenty of feedback on the quiet nature of my story, how the conflict wasn’t intense enough, the characters exciting enough, I was convinced that no one “got it”. What did they know?  But the story taunted me.

I needed to tell the story of a single mom and a newfangled family. I wanted to tell the story of moving forward after exponential loss.  I needed to give single moms a voice louder than my own.

So I kept writing.

Then one day, while revising a tense, emotional scene for the umpteenth time, a scene I had been told was not tense or emotional enough (jeez) I kept thinking how I would never do or say the things Evie needed to do and say in that scene.  It was barely believable, I thought. I felt bullied by my attempts and annoyed at my intention to deviate from reasonable ways to behave in that situation.  The situation I’d created on the page!

And then it hit me.

I didn’t have to think it was normal or okay or reasonable or meaningful or necessary.  Evie did.  She was her own person.  And frankly, she told me to go blow. To go blow and keep writing, I should say.

I adopted WHAT WOULD EVIE DO as my mantra and posted W-W-E-D around my computer, my desk, on the notepads that surrounded me in my various writing stations around the house. Some muses have harps.  Some muses have wings.  My muse had four simple letters.

Seeing the WWED acronym everywhere changed my thinking as if it were a light turned on after hours in a pitch-dark room.  It was so damn bright it almost hurt, but made everything clear.

After that, anytime I thought about myself in a situation presented in the book, I said it aloud: What Would Evie Do? It was direct. It got me back on track.

When I wasn’t writing, but was thinking about writing or when a scene or line of dialogue was harassing me while I was doing something else, I doodled WWED instead of doodling hearts and flowers and squiggly lines. I wrote it on napkins, grocery lists, and a few times, on the top of my hand. This acronym lifted me out of my own head and life and landed me in Evie’s.  And then I grew quite comfortable there.

The result was that Evie behaved very differently than I would most of the time.  It became natural to write in Evie’s headspace, on her behalf, fighting her battles, suffering her losses, winning her wars, and baking her cookies.

Without that writing and character revelation I believe that The Glass Wives would be in a drawer, or defunct file folder or in yet another round of mild-mannered revisions.

Allowing Evie to have things her way is what enabled me to finish the book, sign with an agent, and for him to sell the novel. It is what enabled me to revise it again with an editor.  And then get a book cover. Start promotion.  Schedule events.  Plan for book clubs.

So, What Would Evie Do now?

I think she’d tell me to leave her alone, and finish writing my next book.

Amy Sue Nathan’s debut novel, The Glass Wives, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Griffin, May 14, 2013. She hosts the popular blog, Women’s Fiction Writers, and has been published in many newspapers and journals.  Amy is the mom of a son in college, a daughter in high school, and two rambunctious rescued dogs.  You can visit her website AmySueNathan.com and follow her on Twittter @AmySueNathan, where she tweets about writing, par