Writing Excuses 7.51: Brainstorming with Mary

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Writing Excuses 7.51: Brainstorming with Mary

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/12/12/writing-excuses-7-51-brainstorming-with-mary/

Key Points: Start with several thumbnail sketches, short ideas for different stories, and see which one grabs you. Brainstorm it! What are the key elements in the thumbnail sketch. What are they like? What is the conflict? What is the ending? What is the beginning? What are the stakes? What can you handle in the form you want to write (short, novel, series)? Can you borrow something from the Hero's Journey or other plots?
( Forecast: Brainstorms and Lightning Flashes of Wit )

[Brandon] That was great. So what can we do...
[Howard] For a writing prompt?
[Brandon] What did we throw out that you didn't like? You didn't like the reverse, that he's from the dark... Leaving the moon for the first time and going to the side with the sun...
[Mary] I didn't like that.
[Howard] You didn't like speciation.
[Mary] Well, the magnetic...
[Brandon] No, she didn't.
[Dan] It was the magnetic...
[Mary] It was the magnetic.
[Dan] Threshold.
[Brandon] Okay. Let's do that. Magnetic fields cause sickness when you leave your region and go into another. Write a story about someone who is dealing with that sickness in an interesting way. All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

[Brandon] Hi, all. This is Brandon. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I just wanted to give you a special reminder. Audible has my novella, Legion, up for free in audiobook. So since they're a sponsor of the podcast, I thought I'd give an extra shout out. They actually have, if you go to www.audible.com/sanderson, they have Legion up there. You... there's no trial, there's no strings attached, you just get it for free. So I hope you guys go give it a listen if you haven't already. You can go to audible.com/sanderson to download it and give it a try.