In The Demons’ Head: Coming Up With Ideas
April 21, 2017
You wake up from a dead sleep, a fresh dream or maybe even a nightmare pegs in your mind. You know that whatever it was you were just thinking about is crazy as hell, maybe romantic, depending on what goes on through your head. Then you release that it might be a great idea for a writing project. But how do you turn that idea into something that resembles a semi-finished project? I’m going to attempt to let you in my process a little here today about how I try and create ideas for my books.
April 21, 2017
You wake up from a dead sleep, a fresh dream or maybe even a nightmare pegs in your mind. You know that whatever it was you were just thinking about is crazy as hell, maybe romantic, depending on what goes on through your head. Then you release that it might be a great idea for a writing project. But how do you turn that idea into something that resembles a semi-finished project? I’m going to attempt to let you in my process a little here today about how I try and create ideas for my books.
Hello, I’m Kyle Robinson and welcome to another edition of In The Demons’ Head. So you’re wanting to write something but you’re at the dreaded ideas stage. How in the hell do you create an entire story out of thin air? Is it even possible? The short answer is yes. But then how in the fuck do you do that? I want to try and explain it to you the best way I can.
It’s called stewing and it sounds absolutely batshit insane in a way. But it requires a couple of things, first you need an open mind, then you need an open notebook or note taking ability one of the two. You want to look around you and view the world in a way that allows you to cultivate these ideas. Let me use an example of how I created a short story entitled “The 7th Circle Railway” it was a short story that was featured in my debut poetry collection “More Than Memories” This is exactly how the idea came to light.
I was going to Jefferson City one day. (Yes, I do live in Missouri) and in the small town we lived, I realized there was an old abandoned set of railroad tracks that I’d never knew were there. Then my brain took it from there and turned into a ghost story. I created a character that I liked and wrote the small What If question down. That’s a key point there, it always starts with a What If question for me. If there’s a what If question then theres’ a chance that I can probably write a story about it. So, I put the what If question in my notebook and let it set. Then every so often, I’ll go through that book and sometimes some of those questions will bring back feelings in me, or make me remember what I wanted to write about. When that happens then I know that the idea is a good one. So I decide to chase it down and from there I map it out.
Now, I used to just write the story and hope for the best. I have since learned that’s not the most efficient way for me to write. At least for me, but for you it might be. I say that if it works for you then please go with it. Write it out until you paint yourself in a corner, get up go for a walk, come back and keep writing. Always write in a way that is comfortable for you. But now, I take these ideas and I write out an outline because I decided that worked. Then I create characters. Those characters have detailed profiles and I try to get to know them before I write the stories. This gives me the ability to write a deeper and more realistic character if I do it correctly. So far it seems as if I’ve done that which makes me feel good about the decisions that I’ve made, and the characters I’ve created.
Once I have that then the framework is done and it’s time to write a story/ or a book/ or something. There it’s that simple right? Shit I know better, and it’s a pretty good bet that you do too. It’s not that simple but we trick ourself into believing that it will eventually get that simple, but the fact is, it fucking won’t. We know it but we continue to do it because we love it.
That’s going to do it for this weeks post, and I know it was a bit vague and I’m sorry but hopefully you’ll be able to take that bit of information and put it into your own writing. I hope that there was a bit of information in this post that helped you a little bit so that I don’t feel like such a waste of your reading time. Next week, I’m going to continue this weird indie series as I discuss how to determine what you release and when.
Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demons’ head, I’m Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.
It’s called stewing and it sounds absolutely batshit insane in a way. But it requires a couple of things, first you need an open mind, then you need an open notebook or note taking ability one of the two. You want to look around you and view the world in a way that allows you to cultivate these ideas. Let me use an example of how I created a short story entitled “The 7th Circle Railway” it was a short story that was featured in my debut poetry collection “More Than Memories” This is exactly how the idea came to light.
I was going to Jefferson City one day. (Yes, I do live in Missouri) and in the small town we lived, I realized there was an old abandoned set of railroad tracks that I’d never knew were there. Then my brain took it from there and turned into a ghost story. I created a character that I liked and wrote the small What If question down. That’s a key point there, it always starts with a What If question for me. If there’s a what If question then theres’ a chance that I can probably write a story about it. So, I put the what If question in my notebook and let it set. Then every so often, I’ll go through that book and sometimes some of those questions will bring back feelings in me, or make me remember what I wanted to write about. When that happens then I know that the idea is a good one. So I decide to chase it down and from there I map it out.
Now, I used to just write the story and hope for the best. I have since learned that’s not the most efficient way for me to write. At least for me, but for you it might be. I say that if it works for you then please go with it. Write it out until you paint yourself in a corner, get up go for a walk, come back and keep writing. Always write in a way that is comfortable for you. But now, I take these ideas and I write out an outline because I decided that worked. Then I create characters. Those characters have detailed profiles and I try to get to know them before I write the stories. This gives me the ability to write a deeper and more realistic character if I do it correctly. So far it seems as if I’ve done that which makes me feel good about the decisions that I’ve made, and the characters I’ve created.
Once I have that then the framework is done and it’s time to write a story/ or a book/ or something. There it’s that simple right? Shit I know better, and it’s a pretty good bet that you do too. It’s not that simple but we trick ourself into believing that it will eventually get that simple, but the fact is, it fucking won’t. We know it but we continue to do it because we love it.
That’s going to do it for this weeks post, and I know it was a bit vague and I’m sorry but hopefully you’ll be able to take that bit of information and put it into your own writing. I hope that there was a bit of information in this post that helped you a little bit so that I don’t feel like such a waste of your reading time. Next week, I’m going to continue this weird indie series as I discuss how to determine what you release and when.
Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demons’ head, I’m Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.