>>> Item number 25803 from WRITERS LOG9402B --- (108 records) ---- <<< Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Weather Report: Brainstorms All Day! (3) [for anyone joining now - this is a set of exercises intended to help you develop ideas. the first lesson was to set quotas - push yourself to come up with a set number of alternatives, then choose! the second lesson was to query assumptions and boundaries - those hidden notions behind the obvious. And today...] Dominant ideas, crucial factors, and levels of abstraction Just as there are assumptions and boundaries "hidden" in our everyday thinking, there are dominant ideas which often hide alternatives. For example, in medicine, the idea that germs cause disease can hide the fact that we need certain germs to live (matter of fact, there is at least one antibiotic that gives you the most incredible diarrhea, gas, and stomach trouble simply because it kills off the helpful germs that live down there...). It can also hide viruses, deficiencies, and even overdoses. Again, as with assumptions, first we need to isolate that dominant idea, then set it aside temporarily, reverse it, or otherwise hold it out of the way while we hunt for those ideas that were hiding under its skirts. Crucial factors are similar - in most cases we think we "know" what the crucial factors are. For example, the crime story "means, opportunity, and motive" are an obvious attempt to classify the three crucial factors in crime. But - there could be other factors. What if the phase of the moon really did make a difference? What if... identify those well-known crucial factors, then push them aside. Consider them as inconsequential. Add other factors. Split them into shivering remnants of themselves that most people wouldn't recognize. Last, I mentioned levels of abstraction. What this mostly means is that we think of things at certain levels, often without trying to look at either specifics or without going up the ladder to higher levels of abstraction. By now, you should know what I think about that kind of blindness - figure out what level of abstraction you are using, then push it around. What happens when you turn "people" into specific people you know? What happens if you turn "people" into "living beings"? Push and prod at different levels - and see what happens to that simple thought! Exercise 3. Get out of the dungeon and out of the shackles 1. Take one of your stories (poems, etc.) Identify the "dominant idea". Then identify the crucial factors in the story. Then consider other dominant ideas you could have used. Make a list (QUOTA!) What kind of crucial factors would be involved with those other dominant ideas? 2. Take a popular statement such as "All men are created equal." Now, play with the levels of abstraction in that statement. "All men" obviously can go up or down - George and Ted or All living beings. "created" also can become more or less specific - try "born" or "manufactured". "equal" has so many levels - you pick some. But try finishing the statements George and Ted were born ..... George and Ted were manufactured ..... All living beings are manufactured ..... All living beings are born ..... 3. Description - you might not realize it, but descriptions often are victims of very strong dominant ideas and crucial factors. Consider what you use to describe a flower (building, etc.) The odds are that there is a dominant idea - flowers are attractive, soft, smelly; buildings are ... There are probably also key factors in the description. But suppose someone says "The rose was a dung-heap, stinking of the animal waste that fed its parasitic growth." Kind of a different impression of the rose, eh? Find those dominant ideas, and the crucial factors, then change them! 4. Characters Pick a character in your own or someone else's story. Now, identify the dominant idea of that personality. Pick out the crucial factors in that character's life. Now, move things around - try a different dominant idea, and changes in the crucial factors. How does the character change? How does their part in the story change? A variation on this is to consider the dominant idea and crucial factors used in building the character in the story. This is one way of looking at the "style" a writer uses. 5. Conflict/Problems Go back to a conflict or problem from one of your stories (or one you'd like to write a story about). Identify the dominant idea(s) that make this a problem. Then identify the crucial factors. Then try changing things - what other crucial factors could you use? Are there other dominant ideas? When you change these, what happens to the problem(s)? Suppose the crucial factors really weren't so important - what happens to the problem? 6. Solutions Same kind of thing - take the solution(s) you are working with, and look for the dominant ideas and crucial factors. Then try identifying alternatives, and see how that changes the solution(s). If you change a factor and nothing happens, maybe it isn't really crucial after all? Are there other things that you could change which would affect the solution? How important are they? ---------------------------------------