Episode 3: Sparking Your Creativity

Inside Creative Writing—Weekly Podcast on Craft & Technique for Writers of Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

Specific creative techniques we can use to discover and develop unique and compelling characters, plots, and settings in our writing.

The first technique, Reversals, helps us:

– “Escape from looking at a challenge in the traditional way.”
– “Free up information so that it can come together in new ways.”
– “Think provocatively. Take a novel position and then work out its implications.”
– “Look for a breakthrough” that resonates with your theme and character.”
(from Michael Michalko’s Thinkertoys)

…and are accomplished by using three steps:

1. List at least three assumptions about your character, setting, or plot point
2. Reverse each assumption
3. Brainstorm how each reversal can be true in your story

Brad then walks us through examples of reversals for a character, a setting, and a plot decision and offers insight for making your unique perspective relate to both your theme and character development.

The second technique, Random Metaphor, is based on the technique of defamiliarization and involves the following steps:

1. Choose a character (or other element) that is particularly “flat” or uninteresting
2. Choose a random object (possibly using a random noun generator like this one)
3. List the qualities of the random object.
4. Compare the character to the list of qualities of the random object. How might your character have these qualities?
5. DO NOT USE the random metaphor in your actual writing. It is only meant to be a way to see your character from a new angle and suggest new possibilities.

This week’s Wiseword was submitted by an anonymous listener and is from Samuel Johnson:

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”

If you have a favorite quote or piece of writing advice you’d like to share, click the Talk to Us link at the top of the page.

This week’s Weekly Challenge:

Identify an underdeveloped character in the story you are working on right now. Choose one of the two methods we talked about and use it to more deeply develop that character—make him a singularity suing either reversal or random metaphor. Be sure to find something that resonates with your theme or offers a counterpoint to other characters.

Next week: We’re going to be talking with Jenny Baranick, author of the very funny and insightful book on grammar: “Missed Periods and other Grammar Scares: How to Avoid Unplanned and Unwanted Grammar Errors”. It’s a grammar book that not only had me laughing but also helped me to see grammar as not so much a set of rules to live in intimidation of but as a set of tools to allow me to improve my clarity and confidence as a writer.

If you have comments about the show, suggestions for future topics, of just want to say hello, you can get in touch with us by leaving us a voice message at 541-952-2406 or by sending us an email at [e-mail].

As always, thanks for listening!