Topic Tuesday #3: How My Story Originated.

I was watching an interview with Neil Gaiman. Someone asked him where he gets his ideas. After a bit of light humor, he said something about wondering what happens if a werewolf bites a goldfish.

Later I got to thinking about how wool sweaters can scratch. I thought, what if a person wore a sweater made from a certain type of wool and it scratched so badly that it actually turned the wearer into a weresheep?

Yet the psychiatric community keeps passing up the opportunity to have me locked up.

NateSean said:

I was watching an interview with Neil Gaiman. Someone asked him where he gets his ideas. After a bit of light humor, he said something about wondering what happens if a werewolf bites a goldfish.

Later I got to thinking about how wool sweaters can scratch. I thought, what if a person wore a sweater made from a certain type of wool and it scratched so badly that it actually turned the wearer into a weresheep?

Yet the psychiatric community keeps passing up the opportunity to have me locked up.

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I'm not sure I can quantify the process by which I arrive at the germ of an idea. I have an over-active imagination!

Once I have an idea that I want to develop I 'outline it' in that I have the core of the plot, and that means I have the beginning and the end.

Then I write that core story for the MC. It's usually fairly short, and focuses entirely on one character, and from there I build in layers.

The protagonist needs an antagonist - so who is that, what is he/she going to do to the MC, why are they doing that? And I write that layer in, weaving it into the basic story.

Then I problem solve - if that happens, then I need a reason why, or a person, and a reason why.

How can I make the obstacles harder for the MC?

Layer by layer I add more scenes, more sub-plot, more characters ... weaving them into the core plot which remains the backbone of the story. Everything and everyone added is in service to the plot in some way.