Filling in the gaps?

[The fledgling Artist]

Does anyone have any general advice about brainstorming? I often get random ideas and will write them down. And the result is SUPER slow world building/plot/characters. Its happening, but super slow!
And I realized why. Because what I do isn’t brainstorming it’s inspiration.
So my question(s) How do you sit down and make yourself figure stuff out, and how do you fill in the gaps when you have a basic foundation of what the story is? It seems like brainstorming comes so easy to everyone els! (Maybe my perception is skewed though)

Oh yeah tags… (I never know who to tag!)
Um, @skredder @rochellaine @catwing @dekreel @Ingridrd @jenwriter17 @anyone els

and I was so confused

[Skredder]

@notawriter Wow! I just had this problem two days ago. What I did was take two major scene that I knew for sure and wrote one at the top and one at the bottom of a piece of paper. Then I went, with some help, and listed a few smaller events in between. Then I noticed where in the story there was stuff lacking and focused on figuring out what the characters were doing plot, thematic, and character wise.

Having a sounding board is also very helpful, whether that person is listening or not.

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

[The fledgling Artist]

@skredder Wow it seems so simple but I never thought of doing that! I might just try that! Thanks!
Also forgive my ignorance … But what might a sounding board be? 🙂

and I was so confused

[Snapper]

@notawriter Usually, I brainstorm just by building off that idea. Asking questions in my mind. Adding characters to a concept. Actually, most of it is imagining it as a movie, and what kind of plot twists build off of it. 😛

☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀

[The fledgling Artist]

@dragon-snapper Hmm.. So its almost like what Skredder said, only you kind of do it in your head? Interesting!
Do you ever get to a point where you’ve asked a question and you can’t figure out the answer though? Or what if you have two different answers that you have to choose between?

and I was so confused

[Snapper]

@notawriter Well, I begin by doing it in my head, then I start to write down those ideas all at once. Usually, it’s a big jumble of scenes, and I organize them later.
Oh goodness, all the time. I made the mistake a year ago by writing a trilogy without planning the whole thing out first. So a few months ago, I had two finished books, and absolutely no plot for the last book. The questions I asked myself… I could not answer it for the life of me. Or my characters, for that matter.
So, I took a few steps back, asking the main things. What are the scenes I already have in this book? What is the goal of my characters? What is the goal of this book? What’s the ending? If you know how it will end, you can usually build backwards, and somehow, it can help to answer your questions.
Also, I had to look at other books. How they went from one thing to the next.
And my old stories. How things proceeded.
When it comes to those two different answers, I think the best course of action is to go with the one that would make the most logical and realistic sense in the story, which would follow the flow already there, and also that is the most thematically relevant.
If you have other questions, I’d be happy to help you there too.

Oh, and a sounding board is someone who you talk to about your ideas, and yeah, sounding boards are extremely helpful. Just talk on and on about your story, what could happen, what might happen and other things. You’d be surprised how many plot things you can figure out just by talking out loud.

☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀

[Ariel Ashira]

@notawriter A lot of my best ideas come at unusual places.  Like at night in bed, while singing, or while researching.  Then at my writing times I will collect those ideas and build on them.  I hardly ever think of new ideas for my story when I sit down to write.  That time is just when I write out an expand on what I have been thinking about.  A writer never really stops writing.  I always have stories Im working on in my head.

Was that helful?  Or did I just muddy the waters? 🙂

"In a mask, was he?"

[MNValentine]

@notawriter I tend to run on inspiration too, but when it doesn’t happen, what I do is sit down and write about it. If it’s a plot issue, I like to split it up into different ‘plot layers’ that have to do with different characters, story lines, etc. and write out everything I know about each one. For world building, I recommend making an atlas of your world – it’s super fun and useful at the same time. For characters, write scenes about them in different situations.

Honestly the best way to brainstorm is to sit down with a piece of paper and start thinking about your world/story. Then just write everything that comes to mind until you start figuring things out.

That was a lot of advice I hope some of it was useful 😀

Silence! Silence everyone, for the king's speech!

[The fledgling Artist]

@dragon-snapper  Whoa thankyou! I never knew you were such a wise dragon. *ponders your words*
Ill know who to ask if I run into any more problems! At this point I think I know what I need to do.. So I wont really have any more questions until I try. (and probably fail if we’re all being honest.) 😉

@ariel-ashira Oh no, don’t worry. You haven’t added to the muddy fog in my head. 😀 It’s kind if cool to see i’m not the only one who’s ideas aren’t on a schedule though.
How do you go about expanding on your ideas? I thought i’d ask in case your methods are different then Snapper or Skredders.

and I was so confused

[The fledgling Artist]

@mnvalentine Ooh I didn’t even think about making a map.. That sounds hard though!
Hmm Maybe my plot elements would become clearer if my characters motivations were more defined.

and I was so confused

[Rochellaine]

@notawriter I agree with @skredder and @dragon-snapper about sounding boards. 🙂  Once I was brainstorming for a part of a book that I really didn’t want to write, but had to you know, because that was part of the story, but since I didn’t want to write it I couldn’t think of anything to write.  So I sat down with one of my sisters and told her the setting and that I basically didn’t have anything to go with the setting yet except a few random possibilities.  She loves dogs, so she said “Why don’t you give Margret a dog?” She was joking, but we talked about it for a minute and found out that it would actually work really well with the story, and that was the boost I needed to figure out a lot more of the plot.

Just telling someone your basic ideas and asking them for help can be really good, because even if you don’t use any of their ideas, you’ll often use an idea which sparked from one of their ideas. Wow.  I really need a thesaurus.  I just used the word “idea” four times in one sentence. 😀

Anyway, hope this helps!

"Sylvester - Sylvester!"

[Ariel Ashira]

@notawriter I think @dragon-snapper really nailed it.  My head was nodding up and down like a hammer as I read her post.

"In a mask, was he?"

[Snapper]

@notawriter 🙂 *sits regally on @daeus ‘ throne and looks very wise*

@rochellaine That’s awesome! 😀 I love my sounding-boards.

☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀

[The fledgling Artist]

@rochellaine Hmm. Sometimes me and my sisters talk about our stories but I usually have a difficult time articulating the stuff about mine. Though it could just be that I don’t have as much figured out as I thought I did.
That’s interesting how simply not wanting to do it makes it so much harder to figure out.. I wonder if that could have something to do with my difficulties.
Thanks for taking the time to reply! You’ve given me more to think about! 😉

and I was so confused

[The fledgling Artist]

@ariel-ashira Yeah, and now I feel inspired to try and figure stuff out! .. Hmm seems like i’m still running off inspiration.. *sigh*

@dragon-snapper You mean the wisest dragon doesn’t get her own throne?? (I suppose sitting on Daeus’ throne would be more fun.)

and I was so confused

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