murder.booklocker.com

I found an intriguing post on writing and some innovative ideas for getting the juices flowing when as a writer you are faced with a brick wall. I think this would work particularly well with writing groups, but a clever, solitary author might be able to make it work as well.

This is the first exercise (there are four in all):

“[Julie Czerneda] didn’t necessarily call it so much a search for story as a search for potential plot points along a story. Writers grouped off into threes and viewed illustrations by A.B. Word. We basically brainstormed as many scenarios as possible from an illustration after five minute study. The importance of the exercise was not to construct a plot, but to find possible components of a plot (some of which you will discard, of course).

“We shared our points, then each group traded illustrations. Suddenly, the stakes were higher. You had to get more creative since the more obvious plot points had already been spoken for. I found that while the ideas were fewer forthcoming, a few of the remaining ideas were necessarily more intriguing.

“Czerneda’s take-home points were that if you tried too hard to write a story immediately after the viewing, you might lose energy the exploration provides. She suggested writers allow the ideas go way off target to get what they’re looking for.”

The post is entitled, “The Most Dastardly Plot of Willycon.” Willycon appears to be a subsidiary of the Wayne State College Science Fiction and Fantasy Club.