The Skellingcorner

[writerswritecompany]

5 New ideas for outlining stories

[1000storyideas]

Maybe you are tired of all outlining techniques out there… the snowflake, the skeletal, the summary, the visual map, you’ve tried them all. And, although they are great, nothing works anymore. Or never worked in the first place. Maybe, when you outline, you feel like the magic is gone, the story has already been told, you don’t need to write it anymore. Outlining makes your bored.

Then, you try going pantser, but you get lost to where your story should be going soon after the first plot point. Not outlining makes you lost.

Originally posted by murallamuerta

We need to jump outside the box of plotter and pantser. No one is 100% plotter, or 100% pantser. We are neither. In truth, we are explores, travelers, discoverers of beautiful stories, sometimes we have maps, sometimes we are following the unknown.

If we outline with fear and/or severity, we are doomed. Outlining is supposed to be on the creative side of the brain. It’s the whole picture of a drawing. Or the sketch of a sculpture. So, let’s try an artistic approach to outlining. 

1. TV Series:

For a moment, pretend that you are not writing a book, but a 15-episodes TV series. Write down a small paragraph to what should happen in each episode. Don’t worry about details, make it general. With 15 episodes planned out, you’ll have a clear view of the story. As you write, use the episodes as guidance.

This exercise helps you explore plot details.

2. Hours:

Think of your story as the hand of a clock, it has to run through twelves parts to close the circle. Draw a clock, but, instead of hours, write down plot points. Every hour should change the story somehow and guide the characters to a conclusion.

This exercise helps you keep track with the main plot.  

3. Branches

Picture your story as the branches of a tree. Better yet, grab a paper and draw your tree trunk. The trunk is the beginning of the story. Part the trunk into two big branches. These two branches are two different turns your story could take. From two big branches, create four smaller ones. At each split, create a new course for your story. At the end of the exercise, you’ll have many outlines to choose from.

This exercise helps you discover new possibilities.

4. Mixing

Mix the outline of two existing stories from books, movies or games to create your own. Very simple and easy. Write down one or more paragraphs on how these two stories would merge into one completely new.

This exercise helps you unravel new angles to old ideas. 

5. Tags

Make a list of 10 to 50 words of objects, colors, places, animals or even feelings. Pick three words randomly and try to incorporate them into your story.

This exercise helps you think outside the box.

You can try your favorite exercise, or all of them.

[marvellousbee]

[rupelover]

RUPERT GRINT - FILMOGRAPHY

[writerswritecompany]

Editor’s Marks

[gold-lady]

[sweetlittlevampire]

Random fact of the day: our coffee machine broke today. It was several years old and we purchased it second hand, so it was okay. But since my mother lives off coffee, cigarettes and oxygen only, she send me out to get a new one. She´s red, she´s fierce, and her name is Evelyn (hey, if my girlfriend can name her car, I can just as well name my coffee machine!)  

[writingwithcolor]

biestcallisto asked:

My question is a bit related to the ethnicity based magic question. The setting is zombie post apocalypse northern USA, the protags are mostly poc with mixed heritage (afroamerican/Ethiopian, korean\white, afroamerican/Irish + one white character). They all experience a disconnect to their root's, but when low level magic returns to the world, I want gods close to their personality, NOT their roots, to teach them. I. E. a Norse god teaches a black char & vice versa. Would that be OK?

writingwithcolor answered:

Cultural Disconnect, Taught by Gods from Other Cultures

>>  They all experience a disconnect to their root’s, but when low level magic returns to the world, I want gods close to their personality, NOT their roots, to teach them. 

That’s not a “but.” That continues the pattern of them all being disconnected from their roots.

A non-Scandinavian-diaspora girl in the zombie apocalypse being helped by a supernatural figure significant to her own traditions and the same girl being helped by Freya or some other Norse god are two entirely different stories. (Or a Swedish-American being helped by Freya vs. by Venus.) The not-their-culture god just continues the disconnect from their heritage plus serves as a kind of invalidator of some cultures, whose religions hold that the other ones don’t count.

Plus, why is the spirit from their own culture not good enough to help them? I understand what you mean about personalities, but most cultures with polytheism have a variety of different personalities to pick from. For example, if I am kind of a clever trickster outsider I get paired with Loki and if I’m bold and brave I get paired with Thor, but other cultures with lots of gods to pick from would ALSO have a trickster and a brave character.

In other words, there are probably supernatural figures close to their personality AND their roots lurking within world mythology, and readers within the culture may think “Why didn’t they just use Freya?” if your character is of Nordic heritage and you used Venus instead. (Sorry that my examples are so Eurocentric.)

–Shira

Continuing on the topic of cultural sensitivity, I’m noticing a glaring omission: Natives.

You have to remember that all of the people you’re putting on this backdrop do not actually come from the area they’re living in. So if you start omitting Natives, then you’re basically saying “magic can now colonize, too”. 

I get that you’re not going to change around the whole population of an area, considering the Northern USA is a mix of a whole bunch of ethnicities. But it rings really false to me that magic is returning to the land and there not even being a hint of Native people getting their ownership back.

Like, I get that I’ve talked about how exhausting it is to have Natives= land magic, and I still stand by that. But when you consider how intimately Natives and land magic are tied in the real world, it gets a little eyebrow-raising to see “magic returns to the land” and there being absolutely nothing about Natives.
I’m not saying there needs to be an all-Native cast here. I’m saying that it would be continuing colonial legacy to ignore original ownership of who first settled on the land under their feet. It doesn’t have to be much, but I would much prefer something.

And please do not “fix” this by having Native religions/deities pick members of your pre-existing cast. Native religions are closed to only those who are within the tribe. If you do want a Native person in your cast, pick somebody who is actively aware of their identity and the responsibility that comes with their identity. Non-Natives should never, ever, ever be the authority over Natives, especially when it comes to their own religion. As Shira said, having gods from other cultures come in to teach people their ways continues disenfranchisement.

Just something to consider.

~Mod Lesya

Please consider the historical and current relationships between the source culture of the character being taught and the source culture of the being doing the teaching.  It’s unfortunate but nonetheless true that there have existed and still exist power and cultural dynamics between nations and societies that could make such mentor/mentee relationships awkward, to say the least, due to colonialism, religious conversion, or economic exploitation.  For instance, if it were me in this position and the “god” or being teaching me were, say, the English image of St. George or something, I can tell you may reaction would almost definitely be “oh boy, an Indian being lectured to by a Brit… again.“ 

There are a billion Indians in this world; we survived and thrived; so imagine how much more pronounced that feeling would be when the mentee character is from a culture who was almost wiped out by people from another nation who worshipped or invoked the mentor character.  There are so many ways that it can go wrong.

So there are certain mentor/mentee pairs for which this would be all kinds of nope and others for which it’s less off-putting.  In those latter cases, think about the ways that exploring the teachings delivered by that god or being might prompt the mentee character to rediscover and connect with their own heritage.  I realize it’s postapocalyptic and good research material might be hard to come by in-universe, but if a character knows that they are of a certain heritage, they may become curious about the philosophy and worldviews that come from those people.  Maybe this sounds a little bit tribalistic but different peoples throughout history have often explored similar ideas, either by way of shared history or cultural contact, or even independent innovation, and learning about ideas in a different culture can be an avenue to exploring similar ideas in one’s own, in way that comes off as seeming less contrived and allows the character to reconnect with that culture.  

For example, if a Celtic god starts talking about transmigration of souls, it might prompt a Korean character to explore Korean Buddhist notions of reincarnation—it’s a similar germ of an idea from a divergent source, but it can be explored from a perspective that is more intrinsic to the character rather that being foisted on them by an outside force.  This makes it more of a honest exchange than a “schooling,” and gives agency to your characters of color when the “god’ in question may be of European origin.

–Mod Nikhil

[comtessemavie]

As a mixed race individual living in England, I often feel pretty disconnected from my heratage and culture on both sides. I think it’s more common for those of us who are mixed to feel that disconnect because we don’t have just one culture. It isn’t that I don’t take aspects from either culture, but it’s very much a pick-and-choose thing. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing – it just is. Culture isn’t an intrinsic part of who a person is based on a certain gene blend, and while I get that people “within the culture” might question choosing one god over a god from that culture, it is worth remembering that in a lot of cases, myself included, being mixed race means you’re NOT “within the culture”.

I wouldn’t mind being buddied up with a god of another culture, and I get why a god of an unrelated culture might be more suitable at times than a god from the character’s cultural heratage: two gods of the same thing from different pantheons can have different nuances. I don’t see the issue with the idea from a cultural disconnect standpoint, but perhaps that’s because I’m so disconnected myself.

[comtessemavie]

Reading this back this morning, I’d just like to clarify: there are mixed race people who are connected to their cultural heratage – of course there are. My point was that it’s not unusual to feel that disconnect if you’re mixed, and that we’re just as valid and deserving of representation as anyone else.

[thatsthat24]

[afragilewhisper]

This is beautiful

[fandonetrash]

[nonomella]

Coraline is a masterfully made film, an amazing piece of art that i would never ever ever show to a child oh my god are you kidding me

[cthullhu]

Nothing wrong with a good dose of sheer terror at a young age

[whatthecurtains]

“It was a story, I learned when people began to read it, that children experienced as an adventure, but which gave adults nightmares. It’s the strangest book I’ve written”

-Neil Gaiman on Coraline

[greenbryn]

@nightlovechild

[lierdumoa]

This is a legit psychology phenomenon tho like there’s a stop motion version of Alice and Wonderland that adults find viscerally horrifying, but children think is nbd. It’s like in that ‘toy story’ period of development kids are all kind of high key convinced that their stuffed animals lead secret lives when they’re not looking and that they’re sleeping on top of a child-eating monster every night so they see a movie like Coraline and are just like “Ah, yes. A validation of my normal everyday worldview. Same thing happened to me last Tuesday night. I told mommy and she just smiled and nodded.”

[redgrieve]

Stephen King had this whole spiel i found really interesting about this phenomenon about how kids have like their own culture and their own literally a different way of viewing and interpreting the world with its own rules that’s like secret and removed from adult culture and that you just kinda forget ever existed as you grow up it’s apparently why he writes about kids so much

[alexreadsboooks]

Day 2 of #marchmonthofmythology is Chaos - Origin Story
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Well I guess this is kind of the origin story to beat all origin stories in fantasy. Featuring the beautiful one ring necklace that came in the January @theyachronicles box 😍
I got to pick up my copies of A Conjuring of Light and The Hate U Give today! I’m so glad, and I can’t wait to read them!!
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#bookstagram #bookish #booklover #bookworm #booklr #books #bibliophile #marchbookchallenge #bookstagrammer #booklove #booksofinstagram #instabook #read #reading #reader #buch #bücher #lesen #bookstagramfeature  #bookphotography #leser #igbooks #bookishallure

[thatsthat24]

[vampireapologist]

Being a good person is a choice. Don’t let people fool you into believing that truly good people never have bad thoughts, are never tempted by the easier path, by the low road, never mess up or act out selfishly. Never believe a person can be good without making a conscious effort.

Every single time you do something good, you’ve made a decision to make the world a little brighter.

Goodness is not an inherent trait, it is a choice. Keep making it! I see you, I’m proud of you, and I’m rooting for you!