So, there was some interest from people in learning how I come up with things/what is my creative process.
Even as I type this I realized there’s more to it than just the two methods, there’s a lot of stuff that goes along with the methods. I’ll include a bit about that here, too.
So, method 1: Musing (har har)
this method involves 1: finding people who are good foils for it and 2: then talking your jaws off, exchanging ideas, seeing where things go and evolve and flow in the conversation. Even as a pretty darn intelligent guy with a lot of worldly experience, I am always eager to talk to new people because everyone has a new perspective to explore. They become my muse, and I just… explore as many and varied ideas as I can.
Note, however, that in my experience most people are not very good at this. Subjectively this has always been weird to me, as being able to talk at length about… anything, always, always has just been part of who I am. However, I’ve found that some people just… don’t know how to converse, really, and thus while they may have good ideas it’s pulling teeth to get a damn back-and-forth going. So, you know, pick your friends carefully here.
but even so, I’ve also found you can just… talk. (Assuming you’re one of the people who knows how to comfortably talk to anyone) and just… well, talk. to anyone. Talk to the girl behind the checkout counter for a few minutes (assuming you’re not being rude), talk to a cop taking his lunch break, talk to a friend of a friend of a friend, talk to a stranger (not a dangerous looking one, obviously) on the bus. Whatever. Just talk to people, see how they see the world, and see what you can make of it.
Method 2: Dreaming (har har?)
Literally, dreaming. But sometimes it’s… super deep day dreaming, sometimes it’s lucid dreaming. I learned to lucid dream apparently not the typical way but it works for me, so, if you’re curious, here’s how I do it:
You start daydreaming, letting your mind wander deeper and deeper, and over time layer on meditation over it, and eventually it becomes a nap-meditation-dream-imagination-clusterfuck where you’re sort of the Architect of your own little Matrix inside your head. …I won’t lie, it took years and years to do it right, and it takes a lot of effort, but when done right, well, it’s pretty awesome.
Alternately, I just… imagine. A lot. constantly. I have characters I talk to in my head, I studied acting most of my life (and directing and similar theatre things) and will method act characters. I become the character, and just… see what he/she/it says. then I’ll reply as another character. and so on.
It’s… essentially my western interpretation and self-discovery of the old concept of no-mind from the zen tradition. Sorta. But in my western way, where I actually have an extremely active mind, insanely so, but it’s not really me doing it, I just… set up all the dominos and see what happens as they bounce around creating new ideas and interracting with one another.
So, I hope this helps some of you out there! And if not, well, at least you found it interesting.
The important after point I mentioned in the begining though is this:
There’s a LOT more to writing than just… typing, or even coming up with the ideas.
In my opinion and as I’ve been taught, to write well instead of simply writing, you must be aware of and properly address the following:
What are the implications of… basically everything.
EG: why is this character black? white? gay? female? old? a child? what does that say about them, how does that affect the other characters, the world, how they perceive the world, the plot?
…do this for basically every conceiveable data point.
everything.
hair color. shape of the buildings. kind of car. socio-political structure. biological realism.
everything.
I do. And my favorite works do/did.
…again, I won’t lie, it’s a shitload of work. But that’s sort of the point. If you want to do something right, it’s never easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it. So if you’re ready for it, well, strap in and have fun.
That’s also key.
You’ve got to enjoy the process. If you don’t enjoy the process, just want the product? …it’ll be a shitty product, frankly. You have to enjoy the creation stage, ENJOY ripping appart your own ideas and correcting yourself and making sure everything is correct and fits together and makes sense.
That leads me to the other point of what else you should be aware of…
Make it make sense.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve angrily given up on a story (be it a novel, short story, movie, tv series, video game, dnd campaign, radio drama, whatever) because it broke it’s own rules. I informally call this ‘The DBZ problem’… Where the creator says X thing is the most powerful thing in the universe, period, no exceptions, and then 3 episodes later someone else has something more powerful. It’s bullshit. It’s a super lazy shitty way to progress a story.
Have rules for your universe, and stick to them. If you say vampires can’t go out in daylight, then they can’t. and if you really have to have them do so, at least do something creative like the original Blade movie where Frost wears a crapload of sunblock lotion. Something that makes sense in your universe.
…This ties into point 1, they’re really extensions of the same basic idea:
THINK. IT. THROUGH.
All of it. Every possible detail you can think of. Everything.
I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes on the biology and evolution of my scifi races, I did organic chemistry research into making sure they are totally believable.
…fans will note one of them is not, given known science, believeable, but that is explained in exactly that way: they discovered some aspects of science that we haven’t yet. It’s not magic or a cop-out, it’s just unknown at present. Much like, say, dark matter was a century ago, or even magnets were a milenium ago. But that’s my point: Even when I wanted to include something extreme, I went to the effort of a reasonable explanation for it. And it too has laws, it’s not a deus ex machina. And I stick to those laws fiercely.
So, yes, realize that writing and creating worlds is a HUGE task. and it may seem intimidating.
…it is.
but that’s also the fun of it, if you have the right mindset.
It’s fun to go for long walks in the park with friends for 10 hours straight debating the political structure of an alien civilization or the scientific merrit of a scifi idea. It’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had, and, believe me, I’ve had a lot of fun *wink*. But seriously, Enjoy it. Enjoy the process. It makes the end result so much sweeter for your efforts.
Plus! protip: if you make a consistent universe that is well crafted and thought-out, you can set loads of other stories in there too, just new characters, settings, times, etc. (think of, say, star trek or starwars for example. old republic, rebellion, new republic, jedi perspective, sith perspective, etc etc. Or with star trek, well, voyager, TNG, DS9, etc etc)
So, I hope this has been helpful, Please feel free to email me (or leave a comment) with any questions, comments, whatever you may have. 🙂
email is in the about section but here it is again for good measure: thewanderingskull@gmail.com
Cheers!
Skull
Wandering Skull 