A Peek at my Idea File

Issue #5 - Idea Files Workshop, 2 of 3

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

In Issue #3, I discussed the concept of starting an idea file, then in #4, I offered definitions and suggested content for your own file. Here I’ll share the personal idea file I use for my own writing and look at two examples inside it.

Then

You can do an idea file either old-school or using tech. Mine used to reside in a three-ring notebook complete with dividers with different areas for characters, dialogue, setting or short story treatments.

Now

Today I have trimmed it down to a single word processing file labeled, originally enough, Ideas. Here I combine sights, observations and overheard conversations with numerous three-or-four sentence treatments for potential short stories or novels. Anything, as mentioned in issue #3, which might provide “fodder for fiction.”

A Peek Inside

Let’s look at the first two items in my file and learn what became of each.

The first was a sketch for a story.

Ten-year-old girl is latchkey kid. Show one evening in which Mom comes home takes care of daughter. But Mom is an alcoholic and gets drunker and drunker. By the end of the night, their roles have reversed and the girl is taking care of her mom.

This short treatment came to me in a daydreaming session several years ago, so I wrote down those four sentences and let ’em sit. Recently I was poking around the file and noticed it again, and its potential energized me. I particularly liked the opposing arcs of the two characters (a concept we’ll discuss in future newsletters), and how the players in the parent-child relationship change roles in the end.

I won’t get into the process here by which I converted this treatment into a story. Again, we’ll cover those steps in a future newsletter. Suffice it to say I titled the tale “Symbiosis,” fleshed it out and wrote it up as a short story of just under 1K words. Some material cries out to be longer, but some concepts only seem suitable for a compact format, and this was one of them. The tale needs further revision, but at this point the primary draft is complete. Just for fun, here’s the first page.

The second entry in the file is simply a short bit of memorable dialogue I overheard during a library visit.

Spoken by a male in a semi-whisper and a heavy Scottish accent: “…at that time I were mainly charged with killin’ sheep. All day every day for hours, I killed ’em. Had to call it quits after less than half a year. See, the daily slaughter was doin’ me soul no good...”

That was the extent of this one. Not all idea file entries need be complete stories. This one, as you see, is far from it.

At the time I recall turning, curious (and a little leery) to see the speaker and/or his supposed listener, but they were passing through that room of the library. I missed catching so much as a glimpse. But those strange incongruous lines were haunting, and still are, when I reread them now, almost like a Poe poem. They are the definition to me of elegiac, which is the expression of sorrow for something past. I wrote them down, taking care to preserve the way the accent came across to me.

I have never used these lines in a story, and they are so oddly specific I doubt I ever will. But the punch they pack is still powerful to me, and I occasionally read them over because of the mood they evoke. It’s worthwhile to keep fragments like this. I find that any words which bring strong emotion might inspire creativity, sometimes in a completely unsuspected direction.

Incidentally, if you look back at the pic of the computerized version of my file, you’ll see a number of other ideas. Feel free to use them as prompts, if anything strikes you. You and I, being different writers with different approaches, would no doubt produce two completely unique stories from these same beginnings.

In the future, I’ll show more ideas from this file. I’ll also share the more involved step-by-step process of how I eventually converted some of them, much-changed, into the stuff of novels, including The Spider Bite Murders (publishing date TBD).

And now, let’s have

I’ve spoken at numerous Author Presentations at schools for my “Scary Stories for Sleepovers” books. This issue’s question was posed by a student who attended one of these.

Q: What’s the strangest place you ever got an idea for a story from?   

A: My honest answer? From a dream.

I told the auditorium of a nightmare I’d had. I was walking in a snowy nighttime forest with the anxious sensation I was not alone. I couldn’t see anyone or anything. I had somewhere to go, so I kept walking, there in the cold darkness, feeling more and more unsettled. Finally, I looked high up in the pines overhead at the shapes of…something. Whatever it was, it seemed threatening. Before I could identify the shapes, I awakened.

It was a dream which made a real impression, so I turned and wrote it all down right away. Soon the basic idea captured my imagination. It turned into an adult horror story I titled “In the Trees” which was later published in an anthology called October Dreams.

Have you ever had a dream (or nightmare!) which is particularly striking? It’s another candidate for your idea file. But like promising thoughts, you have to act quickly and get it down.

Background pic by Pisit Heng on Unsplash

Okay, let’s save an endangered word! I defined it above. If you recall (or already knew) it, the word will be saved from possible extinction and join your own vocabulary. If you don’t recall it, you might—shall we say—look back and be sorry. Click and learn.

What is elegiac?

I really needed to hear the pronunciation of this one. It’s embarrassing to know the definition of a word and then mispronounce it when saying it aloud. And interestingly, knowing how to say a word has always help sink it into my mind.

Action Plan

My friend C. Elyse has a fun, eclectic Substack project complete with tips, links and exemplary fiction. I highly recommend that you take a look—starting, perhaps, with her August 14 offering, “Controversial Humanization,” in which yours truly suggests a few bullet points on avoiding writer’s block!

Next up:

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

#6) Ideas: How to Bring ‘em Back Alive. See you in two weeks!

Craig