25/4/18 - Writing Advice Wednesday

Today, 25/4/18, is the next instalment of a new series of posts; Writing Advice Wednesday, where my advice to new writers will be shared once every two weeks. 

It is important to remember that my opinions are not law in any way, shape, or form! Not everyone has the same experiences as I do in this field but it is valuable to share opinions on topics to try and help others!

The topic of today's advice is acquiring ideas WITHOUT A SET WRITING PROMPT! This instalment will focus more on how I do things and providing insight into how my brain works before I provide you with suggestions of how to potentially boost the volume of ideas you create! 

I am generally a sponge for ideas, so it always shocks me when my friends say that they struggle to get inspired. I once likened the process of coming up with stories to putting a puzzle together or knocking over a line of dominoes. I tend to come up with an idea through a profound thought or something that I have heard be said, and my brain starts to over-analyse it as an interesting idea on it's own. It is there that I tend to develop a concept. 

For example, when coming up with The Neon Series, my current WIP and the series that holds my heart and soul; I came up with it through my A-Level sociology class, when my teacher, Miss James asked what would be the best way to change crime rates, and I replied with "you simply change the definition of crime" - which was the correct answer. Admittedly, the reason I already knew this was due to studying a basic version of this module whilst studying sociology as a GCSE. 

From the thought that changing the definition of crime would decrease crime rates, my head began to whirl, concluding that the same idea could also be used to increase crime rates. But I began to ponder why anybody would possibly want to increase crime rates. From there, I put the idea that increasing crime rates would lead to a less criminal and deviant society but the flaw of that would be an immensely greater prison population and surely the best way to counter that would be to reconvert the way we dealt with prisons. I concluded that storing human minds in a database would free up large quantities of space as storing comatose bodies would take up less space than providing living quarters etc. for those who were being incarcerated.

And from there, the initial concept of The Punishment Game, the Hellish cyberscape that my characters would have to overcome was created. 

However, despite that fact, sometimes even I need a helping hand with getting inspired and acquiring ideas! 

Tip One: Exposing yourself to new spaces can work WONDERS

When I think of how I acquired inspiration, particularly for writing elements of description, I find myself recalling my experience attending a class trip to Keddleston Hall in Derby. The building was adorned with grandeur and aspects such as the broad staircases that overlooked the grounds led me to speculate how different people would perceive this view in a fantasy setting. For example, if a Princess, born and raised in these lands, looked out of her window, she would probably not care too much about the view due to being so accustomed to it. However, one of her friends from one of the surrounding kingdoms, would probably feel nostalgic as she walked down the stairs into the gardens, as she would rarely see this view. And a power hungry Lord from another kingdom is likely to brush off the initial impression of this view, for he believes he will later grow used to it in marrying someone who already lives there. I found that this was very helpful in the process of describing these characters independently from one another, looking at the exact same location. 

Tip Two: Exercise really helps to stimulate the mind 

After I go out to walk for a few miles, I always seem to find that my mind is buzzing with ideas, especially if I have bee exposed to new visual stimuli whilst doing the exercise. For example, once I returned from Keddleston Hall, I found myself desperate to take advantage of the new sights I had seen and incorporate them into pieces of fantasy that I was writing! 

Tip Three: Don't underestimate the impact of music on the mind!

Writing to music always seems to be a controversial topic, as it varies for every person. Some prefer the embrace of silence, some like to listen to rainymood for a sensation of background noise and others like to write to the sound of music - with or without lyrics, there are many things that can be gained through the process of listening to music. If you are yet to test out writing to music, I would very much recommend it! When I was working on a screenplay for my scriptwriting class, I found myself writing my best pieces of work to piano music, and when I was writing scenes of conflict and violence, alternative music, rock and metal, provided great background music for the work I was producing! 

Thank you for reading! I hope these tips helped you in any way, shape or form! 

And remember:
Per Ardua Ad Astra! 

- Imogen. L. Smiley