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    The Writer's Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions
    The Writer's Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions
    The Writer's Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions
    Ebook201 pages1 hour

    The Writer's Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions

    By Pam McCutcheon and Michael Waite

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    About this ebook

    Ever have problems brainstorming a book with just yourself? 

    Can't break out of those old, familiar tropes and stereotypes? The Writer's Brainstorming Kit, Thinking in New Directions is your solution to rejuvenate your writing and kick those old, worn-out ideas to the curb. 

    No idea how to start putting together a story? No problem—the book can help you create one. Stuck in the middle of a story and don't know what motivates your characters or what happens next? Draw a card, and let the suggestions spur original ideas.

     Whether you're writing short stories, novellas, or novels, this book, combined with your own deck of playing cards, can help you think in new, exciting directions. 

     In this digital version of the kit, you won't receive a deck of cards as you do with the print version. Instead, the authors show you how to use a regular deck of playing cards to accomplish the same thing. With a random draw of the cards, you can break out of your old linear way of thinking and be challenged to create new characters and character traits, determine their internal and external conflicts, and create an original plot, complete with the character's ordinary world, the trigger event, turning points, and the black moment and resolution.

     Get your copy and try it today!

     Pam McCutcheon is a writer, editor, speaker, and self-confessed word geek as well as the author of the popular Writing the Fiction Synopsis: A Step-by-Step Approach. 

     Michael Waite is the principal of Bonefrog Creative, and has developed a multifaceted expertise in marketing, design and business communications.  He writes extensively for clients in a diverse collection of business arenas.

     Praise from users of the system:

     "The Writer's Brainstorming Kit seemed like a truly dumb idea, until I started using it.  Now I wouldn't be without it.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  Every writer I've shared it with wants to steal mine, but I tell them they have to buy their own.  So should you.  It is marvelous."  — Carolyn McSparren, award-winning romance author

     "The Writer's Brainstorming Kit will join your dictionary and your thesaurus as a must-have tool for the writing trade.  After the first time, you'll wonder how you ever wrote without it!"  — Laura Hayden, author

     "My critique group uses this all the time when we brainstorm. It's a great jumpstarter for ideas." — Cheryl St. John, author of  Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParker Hayden Media
    Release dateAug 7, 2017
    ISBN9781941528327
    The Writer's Brainstorming Kit: Thinking in New Directions

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      Book preview

      The Writer's Brainstorming Kit - Pam McCutcheon

      1

      Understanding the Cards

      In order to use this system, you first need to understand how it’s laid out. There are fifty-two words (in alphabetical order) associated with the fifty-two cards in a regular deck of playing cards. These words are intended to trigger associations in your mind to add depth and interest to your story for a specific element of character or plot.

      For example, if you need help in developing a character from scratch, you’ll draw seven cards, one for each character category listed below. If you want to create a new plot, you’ll draw five cards to correspond with each of the plot categories. Here’s how the categories are set up:

      CHARACTER CATEGORIES

      Most of our character categories are derived from the method designed by Debra Dixon in her enlightening and useful book on characterization, GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

      As the late Paul Gillette used to say, a novel is a story about a likable or interesting character who overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles in search of a worthwhile goal. Ms. Dixon expands this to suggest that major characters should not only have meaningful goals, but should also have strong motivations for wanting those goals (which make the characters likable and the goals meaningful). And, of course, they must conflict—those seemingly insurmountable obstacles—that prevent your characters from reaching their goal. We’ll give you some quick and dirty explanations of her method here, but highly encourage you to read her book if you want more information on the subject.

      We’ll start with a discussion of the character categories.

      Role/Pursuit:

      This category provides a list of words to help define your character’s occupation, story role, or life pursuit. As you can see, we didn’t confine ourselves to just one aspect of the word on each card, but tried to provide both positive and negative roles to define heroes or villains as you choose.

      Trait:

      In this category, we’ve given you a list of potential character traits that match the word on the card. Again, the traits range from positive to negative since you’ll probably want to give your protagonists some flaws along with their positive character traits, and you’ll certainly want to do so for your antagonists or villains.

      Trait Combined with Role/Pursuit:

      Debra Dixon suggests you create a dominant impression for each of your characters. This dominant impression uses an adjective and a descriptive noun to define a character, such as a meek waitress, a cocky pilot, or a crusading mortician. It also helps keep your characters clearly in mind as you’re writing about them, so you’ll have a good idea how they’ll react in any given situation.

      To create a dominant impression for a new character using this system, draw two cards. Next, look up the first card and select a descriptive noun from the Role/Pursuit category, then choose an adjective from the Trait category of the other card.

      For example, let’s say you chose A♣ (Animals) for the trait and 4♦ (Giving) for the role/pursuit. Looking at the options under these cards, you might come up with a kindhearted nurse, a wild missionary, a bestial volunteer, or a xenophobic philanthropist.

      So, you needn’t be concerned that only fifty-two cards will limit you—these four characters all came from the same two cards, yet they are vastly different.

      Goal:

      The G part of GMC is goal. All major characters have at least one goal, an objective that is vitally important—at least, to them. These goals are those things they want badly enough to take positive action to achieve them. For example, your character might want a better house, a faster car, and a full head of hair, but if he does nothing to go after those goals, they aren’t significant to the story or to the reader. But when he spends all of his free time at the gym pumping iron, the reader will conclude that he is serious about getting in shape. It then becomes a recognizable goal.

      Goals may be internal or external, tangible or intangible, noble or ignoble. In addition, major characters often have more than one goal. Take the movie Romancing the Stone for example. Joan Wilder has a couple of different goals that are important to her in the course of the story: she wants to find a dream man like the hero in her novels, and she wants to get a treasure map to Cartagena.

      Motivation:

      In addition, each goal should have an accompanying motivation. If the goal is what the character wants, the motivation is why she wants it. For example, Joan’s motivation for finding her dream man might be to find love. And her motivation to get the map to Cartagena is very clear—to rescue her sister.

      Whatever your character’s motivation, it should be strong enough to compel her to take positive action to make her goal happen. And, because one person’s goal might be another’s motivation, and vice versa, we have combined these two in one category in the card listings.

      Conflict:

      If the character achieves his goal right away, you don’t have a story. So, to make it interesting, you must supply conflict—something keeping him from reaching his goal. Conflict can either be internal (something inside the character) or external (something outside the character).

      Using our Romancing the Stone example again, Joan’s timidity is the internal conflict that keeps her from achieving her goal of finding an adventurous man like her fictional hero. And the villains who try to steal her map are the external conflict keeping her from getting it to her intended destination.

      Because internal and external conflicts are entirely different, we’ve given you a different category for each.

      Growth/Realization:

      In addition to knowing what your character wants, why he wants it, and what’s keeping him from getting it, you also need to know whether or not he achieves it. The answer can be as simple as yes or no . . . or more complex. For example, your hero might achieve his goal but find it isn’t what he wanted after all. Or your heroine might fail at achieving hers, but learn something else is really more important to her.

      We’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not your character achieves his goal, but what is even more important is whether or not he grows or learns anything (comes to realize something important) as a result of your story.

      In Joan Wilder’s case, she achieves both her goals, and in the process, realizes she’s stronger than she ever thought possible.

      PLOT CATEGORIES

      To discuss plot, we’ll use Syd Field’s example of story structure. Consider a straight line with five plot points:

      This is a rather simple rendition of one possible plot structure, but it makes it easy to discuss. To make it even easier, we’ve named each point on the line:

      A. The Ordinary World

      B. The Trigger Event

      C. The Change of Plans

      D. The Black Moment

      E. The Resolution

      The Ordinary World:

      This term comes from Christopher Vogler’s marvelous book, The Writer’s Journey. Point A, the ordinary world, is often defined in the opening pages of a novel or shortly thereafter, and is the normal milieu for your character (which may not be at all ordinary for anyone else), her everyday world before the events of the

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