Monday, August 27, 2012

Inspiration Exercise

Margo asked: "What writing exercise do you find most valuable for inspiration/originality?"

Yet another great question! You guys are awesome.

Sometimes creativity comes in unusual ways. My inspirations usually come from What If questions. So for example, I might try to come up with a what if and then take that one and twist it somehow. A good exercise is to come up with something that doesn't have to be original, but then change one element of it. Keep going until you have a bunch of alternatives. For example, start with: 

  • Girl falls in love with werewolf. 
  • Boy falls in love with werewolf.
  • Vampire falls in love with werewolf.
  • Boy hates werewolf and is jealous of popularity.
Keep going until you have some crazy ones. Chances are there won't even be a werewolf when you're done. ;D 

Another exercise I like is writing a scene in first person from a different character's POV. 

What are some other exercises you like? Share with each other in the comments!

15 comments:

  1. For some reason, my ideas usually don't come through what if questions. It's usually an image, a movie, a fleeting thought, an overheard conversation...and then the rest is worked out through hard work. Though I do believe the what if questions would help fine tune the premise!

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  2. Great ideas Lisa. I don't usually do well with exercises for some reason. But I love reading about them because they get me thinking.

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  3. I love this idea. It's not how I usually do it when I come up with an idea. But I'm going to try it in the future. :D

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  4. Hey! I've never tried EITHER of these exercises, and I'm SO doing it now. These are great, LG! I usually just daydream a while until an idea keeps going (and going and going)... :o) <3

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  5. I love what ifs!! It's so much fun to keep asking yourself those questions - amazing what the brain can come up with in a short time!

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  6. I haven't worked with either of these before. I especially like changing the POV...lots of good insight to be gained from that!

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  7. Oh, those are great! I love writing a scene from another character's POV. It opens up so much sub-text and tension. I also like sitting down as someone other than my MC and just writing whatever comes to mind. I've never NOT had a book idea, so I don't really know where that first inspiration comes from, but I'm otherwise inspired by all sorts of things - street names, song lyrics, family situations... Then I usually see how I can add them into my current wip.

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  8. I like to just write out plot summaries in a notebook. I jot down all sorts of possibilities about character, backstory, graphic locations, descriptions, whatever comes to mind. Eventually those that "work" rise above the rest and make into the story.

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  9. What a great exercise! Right now my brain is so full of stuff, I need to spend a little time just relaxing my head and figuring stuff out :/

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  10. I am laughing over the boy loves werewolf because that's exactly what happened in the novel Nightshade.

    And really laughing over the vampire loves the werewolf, I'm totally seeing a Twilight werewolf and one of the Volturi vampires falling in love and, um, I'll stop here while I'm ahead.

    I do a version of the what if game that you'll really appreciate (I think) because you're the one who taught me to utilize your fears in your novels. So when I'm what-if-ing I always throw a fear question in there. Like what if vampires and werewolves were both afraid of unicorns?

    Yeah, I had to get a unicorn reference in there.

    Thanks for tackling my question! I'm going to try a few scenes from another POV, I like that!

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  11. I love What If exercises, those are so fun! One of my favorites is to pick a place in the world, research a bit about it's history, and find an interesting story within it.

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