Suggestion: Brainstorm

Brainstorming is a useful tool to remember in order to think outside the box. You can do it alone or with critique partners.

Pick any scene of your story that is slow paced, possibly cliché, and most likely the one readers will skim. Using your mind (or a piece of paper, or a whiteboard) remember how the scene goes without re-reading it. Try to question EVERYTHING that happens in the scene.

Things like:

• Motivation
• Setting (rooms and props)
• Dialogue
• Characters
• Plot
• Tension

Every time you pose an answer to the question think of at least three alternatives and don’t worry about it sounding silly or unlikely. At the end of your brainstorming session the right answer should be clear because you connect this dot of your story to the others without losing your reader.

For an example let’s open J.K. Rowling’s The Sorcerer’s Stone to Chapter 9 “The Midnight Duel” (p. 143 in my edition). Since this is the final draft of this chapter we have to deconstruct it to see what questions Rowling wanted to answer. In parenthesis are possible alternatives that could have come from brainstorming.

• How can we make Harry dread flying lessons? (a storm is coming, the girl he likes is in the same class, he has class with Malfoy, he hears the broom chooses the rider)
• How much does Harry hate Malfoy? (more than homework on weekends, more than Snape, more than being raised as a muggle, more than Dudley)
• How do the Gryffindor first years find out they will have flying lessons with the Slytherins? (Malfoy brags that he’ll show Harry a thing or two, McGonagall announces it at breakfast, Nearly Headless Nick wakes the boys in their bedroom and tells them to hurry or they’ll be late for their first lesson, they find a note pinned up in the Gryffindor common room)
• How will Harry convey his feelings about the news? (announces he won’t learn, throws his books on the ground, sarcastically states he wants to make a fool of himself in front of Malfoy, rips the paper off the wall)

It’s easy to see that Rowling connected the dots to the rest of the story by choosing to make Malfoy the villain in this chapter. Harry has already dealt with Malfoy before, but he is contemplating how he never thought he’d hate someone more than Dudley when he finds a note on the Gryffindor common room wall announcing flying lessons with the Slytherins. Sarcastically he states he wants to make a fool of himself on a broom in front of Malfoy. Tension, motivation, and good pacing because all of this is conveyed in the first two paragraphs of the chapter.

In brainstorming you don’t have to think in a straight line. Each question will make you question something else in the scene. Keep going with whatever question pops up and think it through until you’ve answered all possible questions.

This can be done with any aspect of your story, not just a scene.

• Try it with setting by imagining different characters walking through the set.
• If a character is the problem, imagine that character with each of the other characters in the book and feel out how they would react to different scenarios (helpful, rude, tired, rather split up the chore and do it alone).
• If a scene lacks motivation, break it down until each person has a clear desire to accomplish right now.

This differs from constructive day dreaming in one way: brainstorming is about figuring out if the choices you’ve made are the right ones - constructive day dreaming is about filling in the blank rooms and undefined details.

In short: By brainstorming you can find alternative thoughts that will help the pacing and tension throughout your story. When you consider these alternatives you’ll find inspiration.