Thread: Developing a concept into something more?

I'm a pretty inexperienced writer working on a concept that has me excited: a sci-fi collection of short stories all from the same premise -- that Earth's capacity to comfortably support human life is dwindling fast, humanity's reaching for the stars, and colony ships are beginning to arrive on habitable planets. Each story would follow a different group of colonists, and explore the unique challenges each bunch faced -- due not to their environment, but themselves and each other.

As I mentioned, the concept has me excited - I'd go so far, in fact, as to say I think it's great. It was my own idea, after all, so that's somewhat expected. The problem is, though, all I have is a working title (for the collection, not any of the individual stories) and a handful of concepts for the stories themselves, along with a pretty good idea of the themes I want to explore. Thanks to my own utter lack of experience, I don't really know too much about the writing process, and I want to avoid the disorganized and swiftly abandoned jumble that's characterized my previous efforts. My question to you, then, is this: how do I go about developing my premise into actual works?

I love answering my own questions, so I have a few ideas already for your critique. One is to take a top-down approach - identify the basic concept of each individual story I want to tell, develop the characters and plot, and then just put it all together with the actual writing. This is what I've somewhat started doing already, and what I'm currently most inclined to do. Another possibility is to take a bottom-up approach and simply start writing and see what comes out, and leave any kind of coherent organization for editing. Since I tend to be a very self-analytical, somewhat unsure writer, I'm worried about the potential negatives there. The third approach, obviously, would be some combination of the two, or an unrelated possibility I haven't thought of yet.

Thanks in advance for any help -- it's much appreciated.

Originally Posted by EarnestProcrastinator

Another possibility is to take a bottom-up approach and simply start writing and see what comes out, and leave any kind of coherent organization for editing. Since I tend to be a very self-analytical, somewhat unsure writer, I'm worried about the potential negatives there.

I prefer this option because its the most flexible and the most spontaneous. Of course, writers should be good with their languages, think of a proper plot, etc. But writing for me should be spontaneous, as events in real life are not exactly according to plan 100%.

I also write this way.

Just my two cents. ^_^

Thanks for the response, Fuhrer.

I see what you're saying here -- working that way does seem to me like it would result in the most fluid, realistic work - especially with, for example, dialog. The problem I often run into when attempting to write this way, though, is that characters and plots tend to have a life of their own - which is awesome when I just start writing and have no objection to seeing where a story takes me, but somewhat less so when I'm setting out to write something on a particular subject.

Do you have any advice on doing this without letting things get, well, out of hand? How clear an idea of the plot I should have before I begin, for example?

When pressed for a good story concept, I like to start with the simple ideas and build them up a bit at a time. For a short story, I might take a character and drop him into a setting to see what happens.

Some years ago I was called upon to do a bit of creative writing on a final exam. Since I didn't have a lot of time to brainstorm, I just came up with a concept and went with it.

I thought up a character, a young boy who happened to be stowing away on a pirate ship, who happened to be hiding up in the crow's nest. It was an interesting enough beginning, but to make it a story I had to start answering questions: Why is he hiding in the crow's nest? How's he going to get down from there, and what's going to happen when he finally makes his move? The answers to those questions became the story, and I answered them by telling it. Basically, I was dropping my characters into a situation, visualizing the results, and letting the characters' actions and reactions tell the story.

In my case, that works well enough for short stories and individual scenes. If you're going for novel length work, I'd recommend a little more structure to keep yourself on track with.

I like this: The Snowflake Method, which starts with a concept from a single sentence and just expands it outward as you write.

Earnest,

I think given the premise you've just outlined it would be beneficial to do some pre-writing planning/ mapping. I'm biased, because it's the way that I do it, but if you're working on a series of short stories all based around the same tconcept then I would imagine you will have overlapping themes, motifs etc. that exist in the different stories but are relevant when they're understood across the stories. For these to be most effective you'll need to decide how they (the coincidences, references, motifs) will work together and what purpose they serve.

These literary devices may only appear to you as you actually write, but I think being able to go back and re-map your stories (and seeing the "whole picture" so to speak) will be useful.

I've only skimmed the other responses so apologies if I'm repeating anything.

What I like about your concept is the scale of it. You can go so many different directions with your stories. When I think about the big theme, I'm already bursting with ideas for stories - a group of people desperately seeking oil for whatever reason, or a corporation funding an epic experiment to extend the shelf life of GM foods, or a bunch of bickering astronauts overflying their destination and getting lost in deep space with no home to return to, or a kid watching his parents getting caught and executed for stealing a cow from a farm, or...

Sorry, got carried away there. But you get the picture? The sky's the limit; let your imagination run wild.

P.S. I'd also say leave worrying about the technical aspect of how each story will read/appear to later but if you're naturally self critical and pedantic, that advice might not be the best, heh.

Good luck with the project.

Have you ever watched Dr Who? There is a theory within the Dr Who universe that there are certain events that are unchangeable; they are destined to happen no matter what. What goes before and what happens after is open to interpretation, but the unchangables remain. If you approach your story planning in this way, with major plot developments being the unchangable event, then you should be free to allow your characters to develop wherever they take you and still allow them to react to the developing plot.

I write spontaneously. By that, I mean I never plan. I let the story go where it needs to go, and 95% of the time it follows a linear path and doesn't end up all over the place. I think some people have a fear that if they let their work deviate from what they had envisioned, it will become a shambles without any discernible direction. It may -- anything is possible in writing -- but I've learned to listen to the story when it tells me where to go next. That might seem bonkers, so let me explain: Have you ever started writing chapter one with a clear picture in your mind of what it was going to be about, but halfway through writing it a different -- and possibly better -- idea came to you? I call that the novel speaking to me. I've discovered that if I listen to it, it's usually for the best.

For example: In my last novel, I wrote a scene where a group of terrorists returned to an active crime scene to retrieve their van, which they had to abandon when the initial fire-fight broke out. I had no idea why this happened. At the time of writing it seemed like a pointless exercise. Why wouldn't they steal another one instead? Something like seventy chapters and 100,000 words later, I was in the middle of writing another scene with the terrorists when I was struck with an idea which perfectly explained why they risked their mission to retrieve the van.

Things rarely get out of hand. Let the novel take you where it will. Even if it does get out of hand, that's what editing is for.

Originally Posted by EarnestProcrastinator

Do you have any advice on doing this without letting things get, well, out of hand? How clear an idea of the plot I should have before I begin, for example?

Things don't necessarily get out of hand. After all, I'm the one writing the story, so when a story I write takes a life of its own, I keep it to where it should go, but remain to be open for other possibilities. Let me answer it this way: When I am writing a full-length novel, I already have an ending in mind, plus some major points that would help me reach that ending. However, I write it spontaneously, and if I don't get to touch the major points, or if I think I will deviate from my original ending, I let it be, and let the story come up with its own ending. Majority of the time, I get to like the new ending.

As Sam said:

Originally Posted by Sam W

Things rarely get out of hand. Let the novel take you where it will. Even if it does get out of hand, that's what editing is for.

Plus, as Candra said, your concept has numerous levels to work on, so letting things go slightly out of hand can actually be good for you.

I find it interesting that as writers we want to tell a story without knowing the story we're actually trying to tell.

It's amazing how often moments of inspiration come during the act of writing.

Originally Posted by Bad Craziness

It's amazing how often moments of inspiration come during the act of writing.

Funny, but true, or at least in my case. Seriously, this made me chuckle and think about my approach to writing.

Originally Posted by Bad Craziness

I find it interesting that as writers we want to tell a story without knowing the story we're actually trying to tell.

I think as a writer spends time exploring the ideas of his story, it becomes rooted in his subconscious mind. So it's not about writing blind, so to speak, because the seed is always there, the ideas are nearby, so it is okay to venture out without a map -- a plot outline -- because, as the writer, you already have an idea of where to go.

Originally Posted by EarnestProcrastinator

As I mentioned, the concept has me excited - I'd go so far, in fact, as to say I think it's great. It was my own idea, after all, so that's somewhat expected. The problem is, though, all I have is a working title (for the collection, not any of the individual stories) and a handful of concepts for the stories themselves, along with a pretty good idea of the themes I want to explore. Thanks to my own utter lack of experience, I don't really know too much about the writing process, and I want to avoid the disorganized and swiftly abandoned jumble that's characterized my previous efforts. My question to you, then, is this: how do I go about developing my premise into actual works?

The writing process is simply getting yourself to do it. You're either someone who feels comfortable knowing beginning, middle, and end before you actually start, or someone who prefers to jump into it with only a vague notion of how it all plays out.

What might be useful is to create some sort of unchangeable event, as someone else mentioned, that affects all the stories at some point. As a way of linking them together. That way, no matter how far you stray, you'll always have to deal with that unchangeable event in a way that brings the story back into the fold, so to speak.

Thanks for all the responses, guys. Based on all the feedback, my plan at this point is to develop the main characters and very basic plot outline first, and just write from there and see what happens - The Thing's reference would annoy me to no end philosophically, but as a style of writing it appeals to me greatly. There's definitely plenty of room for inspiration, and I want to let it come to me, but I also want to make sure that the overlapping themes I'm planning for get in there properly.

Candra, I'm incredibly impressed, because literally not one of those ideas has even the slightest resemblance to anything I was planning, and I love them all anyway. My plan was to focus almost entirely on the large-scale politics of the colonies, because it was a discussion on that subject that gave me the idea, and explore various types of interpersonal dynamics between the characters while exploring the ramifications of their ideas. Now, though, I think I'm still going to do that, but possibly work in some more small-scale stuff as well. After all, you don't need to be writing about a character who changes the world to explore themes that have that power.

I'm thinking of turning this project into a kind of experiment on doing my entire development process out in the open - I have a tendency to abandon projects a third of the way into the rough draft because I'm so embarrassed of what I have so far that I never want anyone to know about it. If I have people following along (or at least the potential for it), that might not be the case. However, I don't know if there's a place on this forum that I could make that kind of thread -- everything seems more suited to either general-type advice or critiques of more or less completed (drafted, at the very least) works.

Is that something that would be possible and helpful (and if so, where should I put it?) or do you think I'd better just go it more or less alone?

Originally Posted by Lone_Wolfe

I just came up with a concept and went with it.

I thought up a character, a young boy who happened to be stowing away on a pirate ship, who happened to be hiding up in the crow's nest. It was an interesting enough beginning, but to make it a story I had to start answering questions: Why is he hiding in the crow's nest? How's he going to get down from there, and what's going to happen when he finally makes his move?

I’ve heard of this before. Asking how, when, where, why, what. What I don’t understand is, who asks the questions? Let’s take your scenario as an example; you’ve got only one character on the page, a stowaway kid up in the crow’s nest. So who’s going to ask him why he’s up there? Who’s going to ask him how he plans to get down? And so on.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

I’ve heard of this before. Asking how, when, where, why, what. What I don’t understand is, who asks the questions? Let’s take your scenario as an example; you’ve got only one character on the page, a stowaway kid up in the crow’s nest. So who’s going to ask him why he’s up there? Who’s going to ask him how he plans to get down? And so on.

Nobody asks him the questions. He answers with his actions. What I do after I've set up the opening scene is simply imagine viewing it like a movie and let it play out. Watch what happens, see where the characters themselves take it. Listen to the dialogue as it develops. Basically making it up as I go along, but from a perspective where I can pretend I'm the viewer and stay out of the way.

You do have to make decisions as the story plays out, of course, but I guess it lets your subconscious mind reveal some things directly that you might not think about when you're under the pressure of having to write on demand.

Does that make sense?