Ideas Machine Part 2
My ideas machine is broken, so I have been trying to find out out how it works, so that I can replicate it's operation manually.
The first stage is to input a title, or a phrase, and some of you have kindly given me some suggestions: thankyou; I will use them all eventually, but for now I'm starting with "Duality", which was mentioned by bothmonocat and discipline_lad.
The second section of the machine appears to be resposible for generating lists. I can't remember who it was who observed simply that "lists are word generators": it may have been Anne Lammott in her excellent book about writing, "Bird by Bird". Or Charlie Moritz in "Scriptwriting for the Scene". It doesn't matter: every decent book about writing advocates writing lists and lots of them.
Because my machine is broken, I am having to do this bit by hand. The first list is the stuff that just pops into my mind as an immediate respose to "Duality":
If the strip is destined for Stripfight, or a themed anthology, I'm pretty confident that these will be the things that popped into eveybody elses head too. So the premises, characters or themes on this list are now out of bounds.
Next, all the lists I can think off:
Sometimes, the things that crop up on my lists give me visual ideas, but I become too distracted if I start drawing at this stage. Just keep on with the lists, as many as I can, ready for the next stage...
The first stage is to input a title, or a phrase, and some of you have kindly given me some suggestions: thankyou; I will use them all eventually, but for now I'm starting with "Duality", which was mentioned by bothmonocat and discipline_lad.
The second section of the machine appears to be resposible for generating lists. I can't remember who it was who observed simply that "lists are word generators": it may have been Anne Lammott in her excellent book about writing, "Bird by Bird". Or Charlie Moritz in "Scriptwriting for the Scene". It doesn't matter: every decent book about writing advocates writing lists and lots of them.
Because my machine is broken, I am having to do this bit by hand. The first list is the stuff that just pops into my mind as an immediate respose to "Duality":
If the strip is destined for Stripfight, or a themed anthology, I'm pretty confident that these will be the things that popped into eveybody elses head too. So the premises, characters or themes on this list are now out of bounds.
Next, all the lists I can think off:
- People who might be concerned with Duality.
- Things that happen twice.
- Things that are mulitfunctional.
- Famous 'Dualities'.
- People who might NOT be concerned with Duality.
- Things that DO NOT happen twice.
- Things that are NOT mulitfunctional.
Sometimes, the things that crop up on my lists give me visual ideas, but I become too distracted if I start drawing at this stage. Just keep on with the lists, as many as I can, ready for the next stage...