No wrong answers
Letting your imagination run wild is an important part of the creative process.
I did an author visit on Wednesday with a middle-school book club that is reading The Thirteenth Circle. I spoke to eight kids—seven sixth-graders and one seventh-grader. Most of my author visits are for large groups of multiple classes, and consist of a traditional slideshow presentation + Q&A. When I get to meet with a much smaller group of students, I prefer to treat the visit as a creative workshop.
After I talked for a few minutes about my Recipe for a Story and how that applied to writing The Thirteenth Circle, I divided the kids into two groups to brainstorm science-fiction stories of their own. I asked them to choose an “unnatural phenomenon” around which their story would revolve; one group went with a tsunami created by an evil zombie, and the other decided on time-travel. Then, I asked them to come up with the plot’s inciting incident and a few key events; a main character and some supporting characters; a setting (time and place); and a motivation—a why.
Both groups got busy building their stories, but they went about it in two very different ways.
Team Tsunami wrote down everything I asked for, almost like an outline. They finished our time together with an easel-page of clear, concise story details, along with some doodles in the margins. Team Time-Travel, meanwhile, wrote down very little—but spent the time vigorously verbally debating plot, character, setting, and motivation details. Team Tsunami asked to stand up and present their entire outline at the end of the session. Team Time-Travel shared only their basic premise, and then concluded, “…and it’s going to be awesome.”
Which group did the activity correctly?
Both of them.
One of the things I tell kids during this type of workshop is, there are no wrong answers when you’re brainstorming. That includes how you brainstorm. As long as your creative brain is engaged in working on your story, you’re on the right track.
It’s like the “Plotters versus Pantsers” debate: how much planning and outlining should you do before jumping into actually writing your book?
As much as it takes for you to write your book.
The process that gets you across the finish line is the correct process for you.
And this can change from book to book! I’ve had books where I’ve heavily plotted before beginning to write, and I’ve written books in a much more intuitive fashion, figuring important details out as I go along. Also, context matters: when I have a tight deadline, I’m much more likely to plot beforehand. When I have all the time in the world, I may choose to noodle around a bit more.
One process is not inherently better than the other.
Especially early in the creative process, there are no wrong answers.
As an aside, I also think it’s important to give students, middle-schoolers in particular, an opportunity to let their imaginations run wild. Tweens spend their school days in structured, even rigid environments. In most classes, there are wrong answers—as well as consequences for not getting things precisely right. So, when we’re doing a workshop together, I want them to let go of the fear that there’s a wrong way to create. Whatever ideas they throw out, no matter how outlandish, I validate those ideas and ask them to go even further.
For instance, Team Tsunami added a mermaid as a secondary character. “So,” I asked, “if the zombie’s goal is to destroy humankind and the human main character is trying to save humankind, what’s the mermaid’s role?” They thought for a second before one kid blurted, “To save fishkind!” Fair enough! And honestly, why not have a zombie and a mermaid in a natural disaster story?
Of course, as a story takes shape, and certainly during revisions, you may discover that you’ve made some wrong choices along the way. I’m approaching the end of my very rough first-draft of my first-ever adult novel, and just this week, it occurred to me that my female main character’s professional side-plot might be all wrong. But realizing I’ve gone astray now doesn’t necessarily mean I made a mistake a few months ago. Perhaps I had to write this side-plot the wrong way in order to realize what it actually needs to do in the story.
Writing a book often involves trial and error.
That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
So! Maybe you need to hear this, this week: however you brainstorm and create, and whatever wild ideas your imagination offers…try to go with it. Validate your own way of working. See where the process leads you.
Maybe you’ll even have a bit of fun along the way.
~Kathryn