your own questions

[mrissa]

Earlier this month I was the author guest for Literacy Night at a local grade school. My presentation (repeated three times-though never the same) was half an hour to kindergarteners through fourth graders and the adults they had in tow, about how to take an idea to the point of being an actual story.

It was great. The kids were great. At one point

Comments

[teadog1425]

I too would warmly welcome your thoughts on the types of questions help lead you from an idea to a story if you were able to share them with us too? <3

[mrissa]

A large part of this process has been automated by my subconscious by now, I should be clear, so I skip tons of steps on the conscious level because I have made my brain into a story making machine. I think this is why people get frustrated with, "Where do you get your ideas?" "From having spent most of my life training my brain to do this; next!"

However, you can start with, "how is this different?" You can keep asking that at any stage of the process. "How is my dragon different from other dragons or the expectations people have of dragons? How is this family different, how is this confrontation different, how is this fall down a well different?"

"What does this character want/need? are the two the same? where do those align imperfectly with other characters'?" is another one.

[zelda888]

One of my favorite lines that I get to deliver to my tutoring students, after half an hour of walking them through problem-solving:

"You notice that I actually haven't told you anything. All I've done is ask you questions. When you learn to ask yourself those questions, you won't need me anymore."