>>> Item number 26184 from WRITERS LOG9402C --- (100 records) ---- <<< Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Weather Report: Brainstorms All Day! (4) So far, we've been playing with the patterns of thought we may have, looking at quotas of alternatives, pushing the boundaries around, moving the tent poles holding them up, but we haven't really tried to change the patterns too much. This exercise starts to rebuild the patterns, which can be somewhat surprising in its results. The main point here is that most patterns consist of smaller pieces. You've probably learned how to divide patterns into various "approved" characteristics, pieces, etc. For example, you may have learned something like thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. But there is an important difference in the approach we'll be taking, because we aren't looking for the "true" parts, the "real" way of breaking the pattern into smaller pieces, just some ways of subdividing the mess. You don't have to include all the parts, some of the pieces may overlap, and if it doesn't quite fit, go ahead and use a hammer. Then feel free to combine the parts, or build up again. In a sense, this is an experiment in breaking down and putting back together the patterns you are working with, with the deliberate intent of exploring the various ways you might do this. Even splitting into two parts, then splitting those into two parts, etc. - very simple binary fission - is sometimes better (in terms of provoking new thoughts) than using the same old patterns. Exercise 4. Divide and Combine 0. NO IDEAS? Okay - take your favorite book, childtime story, even that silly country and western tune playing on the radio. There's a pattern - what are the parts? how many different sets of building blocks can you divide it into? suppose you pull the evil stepmother out of cinderella and put in..? or what if you rearrange, and build it again? don't forget to push the boundaries out, challenge assumptions, and make those quotas - plenty of ideas will come flowing out of the horn of plenty, you just have to jiggle it a bit... 1. Description - As we've done before, let's start with a description. Now, there are many ways to describe a chunk of buzzing, humming reality. Most writers talk about covering the five senses, design engineers might look at the forces, stresses, and components, and other specialties all have their own particular approaches. Try picking a different field - an artist's shadows, tones, masses, and lines, for example makes a convenient grouping - but do that with your writing! Or invent a new set of parts, then arrange your description according to that way of dividing up the world. As always, set yourself a quota of new ways of breaking up the description - then develop at least that many different ways, select the most interesting one(s), and write! 2. Characters - characters, as we all know, are critical elements in most modern fiction. An interesting problem here is breaking out of the "standard" ways of understanding (or dividing up) the character. Psych and so forth are so well-known that we tend to forget some of the ways that people have "diagnosed" their neighbors over the years - but consider your character through the lens of the medieval "humors" of man, and you may see a different persona come forth. If you don't know any other systems, then it is time to dream a bit - what kind of parts could you divide a person into? how does it change your perception of the character? Set yourself a quota of "building block sets," develop them, then look at your characters again. 3. Conflict/Problems - conflicts or problems tend to seem simple, yet they are almost always made up of several parts. the simplicity lies in our accepting that the "ordinary" parts are the only parts, and that is the point we are moving away from in this exercise. So, take your problem or conflict, develop several different ways of subdividing it, and then look again at how those pieces build up into a problem. Is it still the same problem? 4. Steps toward a solution - the protagonist has a plan, the guy in the black hat has plans, the secretary with his secret night life has plans - and normally we think of those plans as fairly straightforward, simple steps. But perhaps you've had the experience of talking to someone who really believes in magic. The steps, the whole approach to planning they use is very different from what you and I might use. Anyway, pick one of the "plans" of one character, then try breaking it into somewhat different sets of pieces than it seems to have when you first look at it. You may want to change some of the pieces. Put them back together, and see if you've built the same old thing or something new and different. 5. Solutions - like problems and plans, solutions tend to seem simple, especially when you're looking back at it afterwards. But they also consist of parts, and you know what that means! Set yourself a quota, chop it up, next grind it, then cross-cut it, chew on it, slice it, hack it, beat it - break it into pieces lots of different ways, then try putting the pieces back together... 6. [BONUS] - so far, I've been using pretty standard ways of subdividing the pieces of "fiction" or "writing." Guess what - here's another pattern of thought, with assumptions, boundaries, tent poles, and so on. Roll your wrecking crew around a few times if you want! ---------------------------------------