These are notes I took from a wonderful writing symposium called Life, the Universe, and Everything. We have a lot of talented people in Utah and visitors with a great deal of knowledge. Any Misinformation is the fault of the note taker.
– One writing teacher has a writing practice called 100. Each week, the student create a hundred first lines of stories you would want to read. Do it every week. Gives source material when you get stuck.
– Every story can start a lot of different ways.
– Train yourself to get ideas and write them down. Training your subconscious to keep a lookout.
– The more you let your mind wander or let your mind wander can come up with ideas.
– If an idea can stick with me for one or two weeks it may not be very good.
– Come up with a great idea and execute it. I.e. Bear discovers fire.
– What stops you from writing is not the lack of ideas what stops you is the lack of self-confidence.
Q: what do you do to practice to stretch your abilities?
– Love writing prompts.
– Go to submission grinder: looking for stories to get a theme. They have a general tone.
– Being in a place of curiosity and wonder can harvest ideas.
– There are things that are important to you.
– If you got an idea that is cool. And tell the idea to three friends and tell friends and see how three people respond. Read the first two pages of a story to a writing group. You can tell they like it by them telling you how to create the word.
– Put up a wall of fame of past success (awards, fan letters, etc.) To put on your wall to be used as encouragements.
Q: how tell if an idea is bad?
– Am I still excited about it after a month?
– If something starts getting old to you, as the creator, then question it.
Q: Killing your darlings
– Kill ideas you think your audience wants but they don’t. Admit a mistake and fix a mistake.
Q: What are some structures to put in place for you to weed out ideas? Or how long spent on them b before pushing to the side?
– For NANO (https://nanowrimo.org/ ). ask what is the most interesting thing that will hold my interest for the next year of writing. Am I the person who should be writing this?
– The process for a novel is slow. Have to think about and throw ideas into a box. For short stories start in a flash and have a good sense of what the story wants to do.
– Coming up ideas happen when you are doing research, or traveling, or reading articles. Get out of your box.
– While doing revision and a part is not working? How to fix new parts of an existing story?
– One will have a friend who can act as a sounding board. Has a whole new different who can give your ideas.
– Draft 0 is the long head manuscript. Use a lot of post-it notes. Read out loud and read the story out loud. Ideas bubble up and you write down those new perceptions. Then review those post-it notes and sees which ones should be acted upon.
– Switching the medium and use a different technology or location. Change the font or place you sit. Handwrite your text.
Q: what Personal habits help you create?
– Fill your creative tanks. Be present of empathy with others. Can’t care about the characters around you.
– Reading all kinds of things. Read material out of your comfort zones.
– Looking at art as a source of writing.
Q; what emotions influence your ability to create.
– Grief and deprecations are big ones
– Dave Farland got pissed at an editor and couldn’t finish the last book of rune Lords.
– What influences the path of a story?
– Stories are about characters not ideas.
– Talk to your characters can direct a path
– Some ideas come back to haunt you.
– What ending note do you want the story the end with?
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