From Spark to Fire: How to get from idea to fully-fleshed out story
Every writer knows that the initial idea for a story is the easy part–we’re on a walk or doing dishes or driving down the freeway when BAM! we get hit with an idea. What if there was a girl who thought she was the chosen one but she actually wasn’t? What if there was a planet where animals had super-intelligence and humans were their servants? What if a young boy refuses to grieve his mother’s death and instead acts out in other ways that harm himself and those he loves most?
Whatever the idea, that initial spark is absolutely important. BUT a spark alone isn’t a story. It needs legs.
So many stories die and fizzle out because we don’t know what to do next. We can take each idea only so far before we come against a big blank space…and we don’t know what happens next or what should happen next.
So how do you bridge the gaps in your story? How do you confidently craft a story and know that you aren’t taking your brilliant spark in the wrong direction?
Once you get past your initial idea there are so many paths running off in different directions that it can be hard to know which one is the “right” one.
Or maybe you’re standing in the middle of a big blank space and there are NO paths at all. You’re overwhelmed by the emptiness, the lack of ideas of what might happen in your story.
While there are no sure-fire ways to get your spark to burst into a fully-fledged flame, here are some methods that I’ve used in my own writing that have helped me take my original story idea and flesh it out into a well-developed plot.
Figure out your story point. The most important thing to do in the stage of early story creation is to figure out your story point. Your story point is just the point you want to make with your story. You can think of it as the story theme if that’s helpful. I could write a whole blog post about the story point, but for now, here is what you need to know: To figure out your story point, think back to the moment you had the inspiration for your story. Usually that is connected to something deeper than the idea. What were you think about at the time? What were you feeling? Why did this idea arrest your imagination? Look for the truth or big idea that caught your attention and then try to state it in a succinct sentence. Lisa Cron gives detailed directions on how to take your story spark (she calls it a “what if”) and find your story point in her book Story Genius (pages 42-52) which I found helpful.
Use your story point as your North Star. When you are standing at a path with 50 possible options, hold up your story point to each path. For example, maybe your story point is that all humans have a significant weakness that leads to their downfall. Now pretend you’re choosing if you want to use dual or multiple POV (point of view) or just a single POV. With that story point, which makes the most sense? To me, I think multiple POVs supports the story point. If the idea is that this is common to all humans, the more examples you have that support it, the better. NOTE: You might be thinking, well that’s great Ashly, but isn’t that pretty subjective? You are correct, this is still a subjective exercise. This is art, after all, not science. You’re picking mediums and paintbrushes and colors. You can’t really get it wrong. But you can end up with a very different piece of artwork than what you intended. However, using the story point as your guide can help you make a purposeful decision instead of just a random one.
Have long brainstorming sessions. Here are my Brainstorming Rules:
There are no bad ideas in brainstorming; though you can dismiss ideas that don’t seem to fit, it’s a good idea to give them some page- and brain- space before you dismiss them.
Don’t take your first idea. Keep pushing and thinking. Even if you return to your first idea as best, it’s important that you dig deep and don’t just take the first path you come across.
Set a timer and work for 40+ minutes. I’ve found an hour is a good amount, longer if I hit some good ideas. The first 20 minutes are often frustrating and you will hit deadend after deadend. Sometimes this persists past the 30 minute mark. But usually after that, ideas start clicking.
Make the brainstorming formal. Don’t do it while you are also driving or doing dishes. Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and put all your thoughts down. (Note: Sometimes my best breakthroughs happen when I’m doing something else, like dishes or laundry, but when you’re trying to create a purposeful, meaningful story you need MORE time than just those half-distracted moments when you can’t really write things down. You need dedicated time.)
Choose one thing at a time to focus on. Flesh out the villain or the world or the conflict or the middle or the ending etc…
Get outside inspiration. Talk to a friend or family member about your story. Get books about mythology or pull out your favorite stories and revisit your favorite characters/scenes/worlds. Ask what you really love to read as a reader. Look at pictures. You can’t create in a vacuum so make sure you’re feeding your spark.
Be aware of directions you DON’T want your story to go. Recently, I’ve been working on a new idea and I got to a crossroad where I could have taken my story down the path of “Chosen One tackles the Evil Government (a la Hunger Games) and leads a rebellion.” There is nothing wrong with that story. In fact, it kind of made sense given my current plot points. But I just knew that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. Ultimately, after looking at my story point I realized that it was actually going to be in conflict with what I was trying to say, taking the focus off themes that I really wanted my story centered around and focusing it on other themes that weren’t relevant.
While this might not be comforting to hear, the reality is that there aren’t right or wrong paths for your story. You get to decide what you want it to be about and what matters to the story. But the important thing to remember is that you don’t make these decisions randomly or based on what sounds interesting to you any given day. You can make these decisions on purpose, based on your story point.
And when it looks like your ideas have dried up, don’t fear. Do a long brainstorming session, get some ideas from books and other stories you love. Find the ideas that thrill you and make you eager to sit down and write. Fill your stories with those. I promise you, the ideas are there, you just need to make space for them.
