Tutorial Post #1 | Development, Part A: Brainstorming (Patreon)

So, you've got a cool idea for a narrative-driven project.

Could be a novel, graphic novel, comic, film, web series, video game -- whatever it is, it'll likely overwhelm and paralyze you unless you break the process of realizing it down into manageable phases and steps, and focus on one step at a time.

The first is brainstorming.

First off, you should be in the right mood.

Could be a good or bad one -- whatever gets you feeling creative, everyone's different.

Sit down with a pen and paper or computer, whichever you find more efficient.

Working on a computer is usually a lot faster, but there's something about putting pen to paper that can get you thinking more and increase your output, so figure out what works for you.

Close your eyes.

This is important and often neglected.

When you're thinking about your project and you can't physically see what's around you, you'll find your mind will more easily produce images that you can jot down and utilize.

Silence is good, but listening to music that relates to your project somehow can be just as beneficial or moreso.

I recommend jotting ideas down in three-word beats.

It's what I do.

The structure of each beat is basically noun-verb-noun, but not strictly.

Examples include: Someone-does-something. This-encounters-that. This-thing-happens. Someone-meets-someone. Someone-gets-thing. Someone-learns-thing. Someone-goes-somewhere.

The idea behind this is to stop yourself from being distracted by how to articulate any one idea into a fully-formed sentence, which can drastically reduce the total amount of ideas you jot down during your brainstorming session.

Better to get as many ideas written down as possible in an extremely simplistic form and then flesh all your ideas out later on.

Even though they're only three words each, you'll know what you meant when you wrote those words as you look over them.

These ideas can be anything from broad themes and archetypes to an article of clothing a particular character wears -- anything.

During this step, pay little-to-no attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, categorization or the order in which you write ideas down.

If a particular idea makes your mind want to go off on a tangent, just go with it.

If you feel that an idea that occurs to you is too complicated to encapsulate in three words, split the idea across multiple three-word beats and group them together in your list.

The benefit of having every item in your list comprised of three words is that you're left with a thin, compact and visually-pleasing list free of fluff that's easy to scan forwards and backwards.

When you've jotted down everything you can possibly think of during this brainstorming session, it's time to look at your list and arrange each item into categories.

Everything you've written down should fall under one of six categories: Characters, Locations, Objects, Situations, Acts and Themes.

This is known as the CLOSAT system of organizing ideas.

Most of the categores are self-explanatory.

Situations refer to circumstances that your characters find themselves in.

Acts refer to actions that your characters choose to execute.

Personally I like to combine the categories of Situations and Acts into one broader category of Plot, but there's no reason you can't keep Situations and Acts under Plot as sub-categories.

I encourage you to modify any of these steps to maximize your own efficiency.

What works for me may not work for you.

In my many years of writing and studying the processes of other writers, I've learned that everybody's process is different.

There's no winning formula except whatever works for your mind, as everyone's mind is obviously different.

Next, analyze all the items you have listed under Plot/Situations/Acts and arrange them in the order that they occur in your narrative.

Once you do that, scan the list again, back and forth.

Sorting the beats makes it much easier to figure out what's currently missing from your narrative, what's unnecessary and can be removed, what beats can be replaced by a better one in consideration of the beats around it, and what beats can be combined.

Congratulations, you now have a basic bible for the narrative of your project with elements and ideas organized into categories that you can add to during future brainstorming sessions.