HOW TO BRAINSTORM A NOVEL 101

we're sisters best friends and authors on a mission to help you stoke your creative fire and live the life of your dreams we believe that purpose fuels passion and that creativity is your secret weapon for mass construction there's never been a better time to bless the world with your dream realized you're listening to the kate and abby show what's up guys welcome back to another episode of the kate and abby show today we are diving into a super exciting topic something that you guys have requested something that i have seen so many writers asking questions about which is how to brainstorm a book idea from scratch or a story idea no matter what medium of storytelling you are using a lot of writers get stuck at this point the coming up with an idea that is brilliant and engaging and exciting to write an idea that you can get excited about so in today's episode kate and i are going to discuss how we come up with book ideas from scratch our process and how we fall in love with these ideas and create something extraordinary from them so we're going to dig into our respective processes in today's video or in today's podcast and i'm excited to get into this topic but first we have to thank our sponsors who are you guys you're the ones who support us support this show and we couldn't do without your help so thank you so much and if you get value out of this podcast go to patreon.com the kate and abby show and help us keep this show alive and free of interruptions okay let's get into it so i think this is really relevant for us right now because we've been doing a ton of this yeah with our co-written series which everything we're going to talk about applies to co-writing as well because we did that cool episode about co-writing a couple episodes back and a lot of you guys commented that you know on the youtube version of the podcast that you're doing a co-write or you've got a co-write coming up so keep in mind these are things that can be applied to co-writing because that's what me and abs have been doing a lot of lately so this is just our respective process and it's good to figure out what your process is for brainstorming because brainstorming looks different for everybody yeah it does and if you feel like an imposter because you can't come up with a great story idea immediately don't feel that way because every writer struggles with coming up with story ideas okay and it is a very common common issue that a lot of writers deal with and we just want to take the scare factor out of it today yes make it fun let's make it fun yeah so when you're sitting down to brainstorm a novel or you know you have a potential story idea brewing in the back your mind like what's the first thing you do because i know you you like taking notes and journaling and stuff so what's some of those first questions you're asking yourself what's some of the first elements you're looking at well the first thing usually for me is i have to have an initial idea that i'm excited about so whether that is just a spark of inspiration an idea for maybe a particular character or a particular relationship between two characters it's usually something very small that like gets me going at the beginning same i'm like oh that could be a cool story and i just write down the ideas as they come to me i i try not to brain dump yeah just like brain dump everything that i've been thinking about and i try not to overwhelm myself with like figuring everything out right away because it doesn't really matter you know when you figure these things out especially if you have a lot of story ideas which i do a lot of plot bunnies but it's it's fun that way because you can kind of brainstorm at your own pace you know right so that's that's the first thing i do what about you for me usually i get an idea like you were saying from some small inspiration a lot of times it will be um one for me that has been reoccurring is a title and then a meaning behind the title like it would be called this and it would be a story about this and it will kind of just come to me in a flash and then i'll flush everything out from there so a lot of times it will be just a small spark of inspiration and like maybe it's you know a relationship or a theme right um it will just be a small glimmer of inspiration and then i just start building it from there well who would the main characters be that's usually the first thought i have who are the main characters and what is their internal conline yes you know that's that's important that's as important that's more important than the world building and where it takes place and what genre it is because all those other things are great but if you don't have the internal conflict if you don't know who are the main characters and what are they struggling with what are they sifting through what are they dealing with here then you don't really have a story exactly until you have that yeah that's so true and the characters are so so important which is why that's one of the main things that i would say to focus on in the in the very beginning is who are you writing this story about not so much what is it about but who is it about i think that's where a lot of writers especially new writers make the mistake of focusing too much on the plot and not enough on the characters and they think okay i have to make something exciting happen right but it doesn't really matter because nobody will care about if they don't care about the characters right because i think a lot of people too with certain genres don't they say like i've heard you talk about this before like um like this is um genre fiction is that what like you've said before it's like kind of like well these people who like this genre are gonna watch this because they like plots like this right so the internal conflict doesn't matter as much because this is like genre fiction isn't is that the term they use i believe so yeah something like that like in okay superhero marvel dc comics those are more you know plot driven and people who like superhero plots are gonna show up for this kind of plot but yet that's not even true because because every single one of like marvel's films dc comics films that are like super successful if you actually look at the data on their most successful films which i find fascinating it's them it's the characters with the most internal conflict that they were able to start those first films out with lots of internal conflict get you really hooked to that character and who they are it's not just about the action and the explosions and you know the the saving saving lives and saving the world it's we love the character and those are always the top ones that rise to the top in the data so there really is no such thing as you know oh i'm just going to write a plot without the characters i mean you can do that but it's not going to have the same effect yeah regardless of what genre exactly and this is why writing prompts don't work and i've talked about this on my channel before that most writing prompts if you just go on pinterest or something and search writing prompts you will be met with a bunch of results that are a bunch of writing pro writing prompts based on basically plot ideas that don't have to do with internal conflict or the characters it's always like an external thing happening to a character but why do we care what is the what is the deeper meaning behind this why why does it matter to the character that is the secret ingredient that is missing from every writing prompt i've ever seen and it never has to do with the internal conflict it never has to do with what is the character's fatal flaw what is their misbelief what are they personally dealing with because it's kind of like asking how would someone react to x y z rather than why would someone react that way to x y z yeah because it can be like you know okay a bank is being robbed and you're standing right in the middle of it what do you do yeah well we can answer that question because our brain starts automatically answering that question what would we do in a life-threatening situation but to understand why would your character do certain things what is the motive behind it yeah it's not just why would they instinctually react that way to a certain thing or like you know a breakup and then what it's like well we can all go through in our mind like what neurons would that fire off for us right and what would we do next but to actually flesh out a character who has internal conflict and be like well why would they react that way that's what you see in the great stories that we love and we talk about on this podcast is they have fleshed out the characters so much that it's like you can predict why they're going to react a certain way we can anticipate it we can look forward to it exactly and so instead of you going through the story from your own perspective you're looking at it now from the character's perspective you're stepping into the shoes of the character becoming the character rather than the character sort of becoming you you know yes that's a good way to put it and that's really the difference between the plot driven stories and character driven stories which of course is another podcast for another time but it's important to think about when you're coming up with a story idea because i know a lot of writers will go to writing prompts for story ideas and they don't work because you can't get excited about them because they don't matter to you and they don't matter to the characters so i think the main most important element to figure out is your characters and what they're internally dealing with and their fatal flaw or misbelief because that's going to tie into your theme and your theme is the reason you care about the story on a deeper level you know right the reason it matters to you as the author because you want to share a big idea with your audience and that's where your theme comes in but of course it is important to think about genre when you are first coming up with a story idea because that will determine certain parameters of what's possible in your story so i think when you're not sure what genre to write or what direction to go in with that it's important to notice what you personally are attracted to like what do you find fun to write or what do you find fun to read because the thing that you are usually attracted to read is the thing that you're going to like writing or the thing that you find yourself watching a lot of tv series or movies in that genre you're probably going to enjoy writing that genre right although it's funny because like not always because like literally almost 100 of what i watch is like historical fiction period drama medieval drama and i would never write any of that but your fantasy is quite a bit maybe that's true that is true yeah so but like i don't watch a lot of fantasy except for like my favorites right but like i'm not like constantly watching new fantasy i mostly watch like realistic period stuff yeah but yeah i mean but even then you're right because look at what elements do you love is it the strong relationships in the story is it the vibe of the story is it that it's a mystery or suspenseful what do you absolutely love what's addictive to you because you want to get addicted to your own story you know i mean so i think you're right on yeah and i think not overthinking genre is also important too because you can also like cross genres i mean we're doing that a lot in our series too like our series is pretty mixed genre so i think that um but establishing it at the outset is important yes first because you don't want to be figuring it out halfway through yeah and then having to go back i actually changed my mind this isn't gonna be sci-fi it's gonna be you know contemporary so even if it's a blended mix like that story blender thing you talked about your videos that was a really good way that we'll link that in the video version of this podcast um because that was a really good way to figure out like okay what are my favorite things from my favorite stories and then like pulse it in the imaginary blender and then what do you got and figure that out at the outset yeah and drawing inspiration from your favorite stories is just so good to do because it's not plagiarism it is drawing inspiration and creating something unique that the world has not seen before and that is what every great writer and creative has ever done is draw inspiration from many many different sources to create something unique something that's all your own exactly but still has that heart and soul in it that you love so much you know the thing that that has brought you so much joy and inspiration that's right that's what you that's the magic that you want to include in your book for sure and so i think that the most important things to nail at the beginning are really the characters the theme or the overarching big idea that you want to share through this story and just a basic understanding of what journey your character is going to go on right protagonist even if you don't know the whole story yet or the whole picture yet it's totally okay just starting with an understanding of what kind of journey your character is going to go on what they're going to learn as a result of their journey and as you start asking yourself those questions i think the plot comes naturally so a lot of people ask me how to come up with like a plot that goes with the character journey but i think that a lot of that comes as you go and as you draw inspiration and just let yourself be creatively free right and that all comes together i know it's like sometimes frustrating because you're like i want to know everything now but oftentimes i've changed my mind like so many times during the outlining process during the writing process right because i'm trying to listen to my creativity and see where where do these characters need to go not where does my reader want the plot to go you know yes and oftentimes listening to your characters and their needs is the best thing yeah you know right and the character journey is the plot right exactly that's the thing is it's not two separate things like hair is the plot and it's like this vehicle in which the characters are sitting think of the characters are not in a vehicle the characters are just walking and they themselves are the plot right so there's no vehicle carrying them they are the vehicle right so that's a better way to look at it i think instead of there's a plot and within that plot there are characters right and events taking place all there is is the characters and the events taking place and the events taking place happen because of their positions yes you know because of their active choices to make things happen and even if the plot is even if other external things are happening to them it should always be an active decision that follows there's an action there's a reaction there is a choice being made a decision being made that's what makes your characters active and not passive or makes them not punching bags for the plot as i like to say because in order to care about these characters you have to see their decision-making process you have to see them struggle and grapple with the choices they have to make right you know that's what brings us that's what engages us as the audience yeah because we're in we're now in the shoes of this character we feel their internal conflict we feel like we're struggling with these decisions along with them so if your characters never have to make any decisions first of all you won't have much of a plot and second of all you won't have much of character depth you know yeah exactly these characters could be anybody else like we were saying in the last episode right exactly that's the thing as if it could be any other character in the book then why do we care about the main character right why don't we just care about all the all the characters it's more like a choose your own adventure story or it's just like we're reacting in our own minds to how we would react in that situation right you know and we don't want it to be that we want to be very unique to the characters specific journey yeah and another element that can come into play here which can help you craft a plot is the world that your story takes place in whether it's an imaginary world fantasy world or it's the real world it's supposed to be in the real world um in any case the setting and the world of your story can help to support your plot it's not your whole plot and you certainly shouldn't start with that this is this is another one of those things that i see a lot of writers start with the world like okay i have to come up with a great you know unique fantasy world that has not been done before well chances are everything's been done before pretty much pretty much with little variation so that's not what's going to grab your reader by the heartstrings absolutely not it's your characters but this the world can support your characters and their story and be really cool and colorful and dynamic and memorable yes that's what we want for our world but that to me always comes after the fact after the establishment of the characters and their internal conflict and the journey they're going to go on um but of course world building is something that you should take into account especially if you're writing something that's uh not taking place in the real world right but finding ways for it to incorporate smoothly with your character's journey and support their journey rather than be a distraction from the journey right you know like the narnia series is such a great example of yeah the world not starting with the world but bringing the world in when it met starts to matter to the characters we did a whole episode it was actually one of the first episodes we did of this podcast that was about narnia and how it's a master class in storytelling so we'll link that below as well in the youtube version of this podcast episode because it is it nails those points using the world building to support the character's journey not just hey look at how amazing this world building is look how funky this is there's a lion and talking animals and a witch and there's a snowy forest and we're going to just talk about that right from the outset let's just lay on the world building and then later on yeah by the way there's these kids called the peven seas but look at this world building though you know what i mean exactly we start with the characters we start with their internal conflict yeah and then when it matters to them then there's that world to support the character's journey and it's just nailed perfectly yeah throughout that whole series really yes very true and you don't learn about the whole thing you know it's like whatever is specifically this one part that specifically matters to this one character at this one time and then it starts to unravel yes some the deeper you go so that to me is the i mean we could do a whole we have done topics on uh podcasts on world building but that to me is like the most important thing to remember is not answering questions before they are asked and that's what so many writers do with world building is like well let me let me give you the backstory of this entire world and everything that's going on and let me craft this whole scene for you first and then we can we can meet the characters in the plot and everything that is not paramount in a story because your characters are the most important element as we have said but it's like it's like answering your questions before you ask the questions you know if i get to know these characters and i'm pulled into this world and they start to go on this journey that i care about now because i care about them as characters and the world is slowly being revealed to me i'm asking questions you know i'm wondering what's going on here why does this matter why what's what's this world around these characters right and as i ask these questions now i start to get answers now the answers matter to me whereas without any context in the beginning getting the answers before i ask the questions the answers didn't matter to me right it's kind of starting either from starting small and zooming out or starting from a bird's eye view and slowly zooming in and what that can do is when you start with the world building and the government and the science and the all this more of these more obtuse elements what it actually causes the reader to do is start hunting and that's like a term in photography when the your focus doesn't understand what it's supposed to focus on it's like kind of zooming in zooming out like wait where's the subject is that the subject is that the subject i'm not sure so i'm like hunting for the thing to focus on your reader starts hunting for who is the subject of this story yeah because we're talking about the government we're talking about the science we're talking about the data we're talking about the landscape and the different you know factions or groups of people and whatever and your the reader's brain is wondering where do i land where's my anchor point who's the subject of this story here and you don't want your reader to have to to figure that out you want them to know from the beginning from the outset okay here's your anchor point and then now you're going to see everything through their eyes and we're going to zoom out we're going to answer all those questions but it's going to matter to that main protagonist and you're already going to be anchored in them so your reader is actually more at ease because they already are like okay i found my landing point now i'm they're actually in a more relaxed state mentally do you know what i mean yeah totally that's a that's a great analogy that's exactly what my brain does when i go into a story when i start reading a book and there's a bunch of exposition and i don't really know what i'm supposed to care about right especially in those first few pages which is what we talked about in what last last week's episode about starting your story with a bang and starting it in a tight cohesive way so that your reader knows right away you know who the protagonist is they can get hooked into the story when you have too much pages and pages of hairs the world building hairs all this other stuff those are vital moments when you want to capture someone with emotion and not these more obtuse conceptual ideas of how your world is being constructed right because what can we relate to we can relate to internal conflict because we all have internal conflict so if you can show me the one thing that is familiar that i can relate to especially in a fantasy world or something that's very unfamiliar to real life that is something that my heart connects with you know i connect with that on a deeper level and now the other elements are cool and colorful and they support the characters but they aren't the thing that grabs my heart right which is a great segue into the last thing i was going to touch on which is subplots and i think a lot of writers get confused with writing subplots i want to make more videos on subplots but at the beginning when you're starting to develop your story you might think okay i have to come up with a bunch of great subplots that can happen on the side with my side characters and be running parallel with my main character's story but that is another thing that i would suggest putting more towards the back burner and allowing to flow naturally from the characters who we end up caring about because the protagonist cares about them because they matter directly to the protagonist this is something i've seen done many times with dividing your reader's attention or the audience's attention too much between so many characters that we don't know who is the anchor point like you were like you were trying to like you were saying very earlier about hunting you know for the what am i supposed to focus on and it depends on how large your cast is obviously but there should be an anchor character there should be a character that we see everything through the lens of that character even when we don't like whenever we go away from that character we're constantly wondering what's gonna happen when we go back to that character how are they going to look at the events that are currently happening and how do the sub characters directly matter to them then we can start exploring some subplots with those characters but dividing our attention too much is a recipe for disaster right so so true so that's another thing just to uh keep in mind i have a couple videos on subplots and side characters that you should check out on my channel i'm gonna make some more videos on subplots because i've had a lot of writers asking me about subplots lately and i think it's a untapped topic you know i hear a lot of writers talk about it but it's so it's so crucial right it is crucial because it can either like we were talking about this uh just this morning when we were talking about a a drama series we recently watched that didn't handle subplots very well and how it can either it can make or break your story in a lot of ways because it can either be this boring thing that you're like oh when are we getting back to the main character or can be something that really adds so much spice and flavor and intrigue to the story so it is important very much so but yeah hopefully you guys got some value out of our discussion today hopefully you have taken some notes and walked away with some valuable tips that you can have at your ready for when you brainstorm your next book idea or maybe you had some great book ideas story ideas while listening i hope you did comment below and join the discussion tell us what you thought about this episode and also check out something special that kate has been working on yeah so you guys some of you know on top of writing i love making charms hand weaving charms bookmarks with little charms on them to go along with your reading journey it's like i make them super funky i do different things they're limited editions and they come out on mondays so i only make like 12 of them and they have different themes on different mondays and today i'm releasing one special for you guys speaking of narnia they're narnia themed there's only 12 so i don't know if they'll still be there by the time you guys click the link but i'm gonna include the link in the video version i'm holding one up one is a tree i only have a couple little golden lions griffins and they're just super super cool i love to make like funky things to go with your reading journey mystical feeling things because you all know that i love fantasy they are so cool yeah they're really fun i love the tree the tree especially cool yeah i really the lions are cool too and the gryphons are really cool too i love them all they're all super narnia they are they're very narnian and yeah everyone who's been watching this podcast for a while knows my favorite book is prince caspian my favorite film is prince caspian and so i'm like man you know i'm gonna just do something narnia themed so special for you guys today you can find that with the link below the video version of this podcast also be sure to check out abby's channel yes youtube.com abby evans i have tons of writing videos over there every wednesday also thank you again to our sponsors our amazing patrons for supporting this show we love you guys so much if you get value out of this podcast go to patreon.com slash the kate and abby show and help us keep it alive and free of interruptions until next week stay stoked and rock on

Channel: K.A. Emmons

Views: 19,369

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Id: bGNF6ebnlnw

Length: 29min 5sec (1745 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 07 2022