How do you take an idea from its nebulous beginnings and turn it into a story?
You may have a feeling about what you want to write, but you don’t know where to start. Or, you’ve already started writing something, but you can’t keep it going.
In this episode, learn a 2-step process for starting, writing, and developing a story that’s meaningful to you. We’ll talk about how to take your raw material, and start to find the focus and structure within it. So you can eventually see the shape of your story, and produce a finished, powerful piece of writing.
This method is ideal for writers who want to write, but don’t know how or where to begin. It’s for writers with ideas aplenty, but who struggle with harnessing their ideas into a focused story. It’s also for writers who want to breathe fresh life into their outline or work-in-progress.
In this episode, you’ll learn a 2-step development process that helps you generate and harness your most potent ideas, then find a shape and structure within them.
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Episode at a glance:
[02:16] We can think about writing in 2 ways: Ideas, and the development of those ideas. Common struggles writers face when taking their ideas from their nebulous beginnings to a fully realized story include getting started, staying focused, or just keeping the story going.
[04:46] The heart of this process is letting the writing guide you on what it wants to be. You’re pulling from your own inner knowing about what story you’re longing to tell, and why it matters to you. Learn how this 2-step process may help you birth a piece of writing you haven’t even thought of yet. Or help you gain deeper insight into the story you’ve been trying to write.
[09:46] The power of uncertainty. This method invites you to lose a certain amount of control at first. You’ll start out not knowing where you’re going, or what you’re going to write. Don’t panic. Because you’ll ultimately have more control when you focus your material. Uncertainty opens up space in your mind for your most potent ideas.
[10:26] Learn the 2 stages your story development will go through: the expedition stage, and the coming to land stage. And why each of these stages is necessary, drawing on intuition and intellect.
[12:24] Step 1: Free-write. This is a 10- to 30-minute writing sprint that will help you locate what it is you’re needing to write.
[17:97] Step 2. Find the focal point. Here’s where you sum up the center of gravity of what you just wrote. It might be an image or object or feeling. It may be something that feels totally unrelated to what you just wrote. But it comes to you now, as a result of that burst of writing you just did.
[19:18] Go back to Step 1. Take that focal point you just located, and use that as a springboard for a new sprint of non-stop writing. Stop when you run out of energy, then look for the focal point in what you just wrote. Repeat the process until you start to get a trustworthy vision of your story’s shape.
[24:34] Some patterns you might experience as you move through this free-writing process include shifts in tone or mood, or even in which person your write in. Trust what comes up.
Link Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode 122: How To Stick To Your Writing Goals
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