A Card Trick for Memoir Writers

By Mary J. Breen

When I begin a memoir piece, I usually start by brainstorming. This helps me get to some of the important aspects of the story that I’m not yet aware of, and it helps me uncover forgotten memories that can get me closer to the story I want to tell. Best of all, brainstorming often shows me what the piece is really about.

At the beginning of the brainstorming process, I always feel overwhelmed by the number of words/ ideas/ images/ memories that arrive almost all at once. The first ones are usually aspects of the topic that I’m already aware of, but soon after, newer ideas, the ones I hadn’t predicted, start to show up. These ideas and images come all jumbled together, randomly linked and definitely not in a nice orderly fashion. In order to try to sort them, I used to use a Mindmap spread out over one large piece of paper, but that didn’t work very well. I realized that the diagram itself was restricting my thinking. It was pushing me towards finding an order and a plan much too soon. Now I use index cards instead. This way I can turn off the organizing part of my brain for a while, and just listen to whatever pops up. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it works.

Step 1: Brainstorming

• Get a bunch of index cards or small pieces of paper. You’ll probably need 50 or more to start with.
• Think about your topic, and start jotting down any thoughts and ideas as they come to you, one on each card/paper. Let your mind wander, and write down anything and everything that comes: feelings, memories, images, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings (both physical and emotional).
• Use few words and simple words.
• Don’t worry about repetitions. Just keep going.
• Don’t censor or judge your ideas as good or bad. If something comes up that seems to matter but you don’t know why, jot it down.
• Don’t think about which ideas are peripheral and which are central at this point; just keep going.
• Don’t rush. Keep going as long as ideas are coming.
• PS: You may notice that ideas and images will come to you later—when you’re making dinner or drifting off to sleep. Keep some blank cards handy so you can capture these too.

Step 2: Organizing

• Give yourself space to spread out: use a large table or the floor or a wall.
• Scramble or shuffle or throw your cards in the air to mix them up. Then spread them out, and start looking for ideas that fit naturally together. As topic areas emerge, choose names for them, and make a card for each group or category. You’ll probably find categories you knew would be there, as well as some you hadn’t predicted.
• Put your category cards across the top of your table, and start sorting all the cards into categories. If something seems to fit into two areas, make a duplicate card and put one card in each pile. If you find you’ve got an idea or two that don’t seem to fit anywhere, don’t discard them yet. Make a “What to do with?” pile, and decide on them later.
• Since this process often uncovers ideas and issues below the surface, a whole new major topic might emerge. If this happens, brainstorm that topic too.
• After you have the cards sorted, start putting the cards in some kind of order within each category; perhaps in chronological order, or according to the points of view of different characters, or perhaps reflecting an overarching theme. If you find that some ideas would fit better in a different category, just move the cards. Take some time and try to sort them well at this stage.
• Once you have sorted the ideas in each category into what seems like a good working order, read the cards aloud. Listen to whether or not the ideas flow naturally from one to the next. Keep going until you reach that point where you feel the little thrill of knowing you’re getting close to what you want to say. Then start typing.
• Don’t throw out your cards. If, after you start writing, the order doesn’t seem right, go back and rearrange your cards or the whole categories. You’ll find it’s much easier to move your cards around to produce a better flow than it is to reorder a long piece on your computer screen.

This method works well for me; try it and see if it works for you.

-----

Mary J. Breen is the author of two books about women's health. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in national newspapers, essay collections, travel magazines, health journals, and literary magazines including Brick, The Christian Science Monitor, Ars Medica, The National Post and Persimmon Tree. She was a regular contributor to The Toast. She lives in Peterborough Ontario Canada where, among other things, she teaches writing and is trying to complete a memoir collection.

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2 comments brainstorming, brainstorming memoir, index cards, Mary J. Breen, memoir ideas, Memoir writing, note cards

Brainstorming: Consistently Generating New Ideas Pays Off

Throughout the month of January, I’m taking part in an idea generation challenge called Storystorm. Participating writers agree to come up with 30 new ideas in 30 days. The ideas can be for picture books, adult novels, magazine articles or whatever you write.

While I’m never entirely without ideas, I have to admit that the first few days were a challenge. Yes, I came up with an idea a day but it was a struggle. Still, I read the blog posts, scrolled through photos on Pixabay, and piddled around until I came up with my daily idea.

I’d often heard the advice that sitting down to write on a regular basis opens a creative tap. Sit down to write 10 minutes a day and for the first few weeks those ten minutes may be torture. But eventually the words will come more easily and you’ll find yourself writing for 15 or 20 minutes. Before you know it, you’re writing two pages at a time.

I’m here to tell you that the same thing applies to brainstorming. Not only is coming up with my daily idea much easier this late in the month but I often come up with more than one idea per day. During shavasana in yoga one day, I came up with not one idea but nine. Granted that wasn’t great for my shavasana, a pose that is supposed to be a time of relaxing meditation, but it was amazing for my idea list.

Brainstorming regularly is also paying off in terms of my problem projects. I’ve been beating my head against a novel for quite a while now. About a week ago, I got out my outline and realized that the ending just did not work. And the beginning? Awful. Horrid. I gave up. I dramatically announced it to my family. I told my critique group.

And the next day while I was on the treadmill the PERFECT opening scene popped into my head. Yes, I still need to fix the ending but the new beginning? It contains the solution for a lot of the pacing problems, it notches up the stakes, and more. I only have two pages written so far but that’s two pages more than I had before I quit.

Brainstorming. It’s definitely a good practice to develop and I’m going to be doing it long after the challenge ends on January 31st. I may not need 365+ new story ideas in one year, but it seems to be shaking loose a range of creative energy. Who can say no to that?

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.

Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults which starts again 2/6/2017.

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2 comments brainstorming, idea generation, story ideas, Storystorm

What Should I Write? Finding Ideas for Freelancers

Most writers have an abundance of ideas—all of them are not publishable. If you don’t have a ton of ideas or you don’t think yours are going to get you published, what can you do? Ideas that sell need to be original or a new spin on an old favorite. Articles need to be specific, targeted to an audience, and fit the tone of the publication.

Here are some tips to find article ideas:

Study the Markets: If you're writing for magazines, make a list of all articles published in the magazine for the past six months. Group them into categories, and then study this list. How can you add to it? How can you shine? Don't forget to notice any upcoming themes. Finally, do a Google search for interviews with editors/writers to see if they suggest any upcoming articles they would like to see. You can also study newspapers if they use freelancers and of course, ezines and blogs should be a very similar process to print magazines mentioned above.

Brainstorming techniques:  Take a subject you are familiar with and find the unique angle. Here is an example for an article I did for a family magazine.

• Theme: Gardens and Spring
• So, what do I know would be a good article for this audience (for Families magazine)?
• POSSIBLE IDEAS FOR ARTICLES (writing down any that come to mind--good or not)
• Parks are popular in spring.
• People like to plant with children
• Are there unusual plants I could write about?
• Planting veggies w/kids for healthy eating.
• Recent book I read SHADOW GARDEN & how to make one* (Here is my best idea.)   

So I turned in a query about creating a shadow garden this summer, and they took it. I mentioned the book too as another reference for families with small children.

Ask Yourself What If: This is a technique often used by fiction writers to come up with ideas for stories. Basically, you keep asking what if? until you get a good idea—one that will sell.

• EXAMPLE: Traveling with a dog
• What if you have to travel with a dog?
• What if you have to travel with a large breed dog?
• What if you have to travel with a large breed dog that has separation anxiety? 

The last question is a great story idea, and it is one that I sold to a newsletter about traveling with dogs. 

Everyone gets stuck in a rut--but with a few simple tips and tricks, you'll have plenty of story ideas to query in no time. 

Margo L. Dill is a published author, teacher, and editor in St. Louis, MO. Find out more at http://www.editor-911.com . 

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5 comments brainstorming, freelance writers, ideas, Margo L. Dill

Brainstorming How to Make the Most of My Book

It’s only March but already 2015 has been big writing year for me. In addition to writing and turning in two books, my first book, Ancient Maya, is out from Abdo. That’s the plus and it really is a big one, but until recently I was seeing on the short term advantages.

All three books are work for hire. Once the final manuscript is approved, I’ll collect my check and that will be that. There’s no long term gain except for the by-lines that need to convince a royalty-paying publisher to take on my work.

At least, that’s what I thought until I read Nina Amir’s Authorpreneur. Another Muffin blogger, Jodi Webb, asked me to read the book as part of the blog tour. I agreed because I thought it would give me a solid blog post, a big deal when you blog 5 times a week, and I might learn something.

I actually learned quite a lot. If you’ve read Authorpreneur, then you know it is all about building your income by building an entrepreneurial enterprise around your book. In doing this, you not only make income based on the book itself (royalties or work-for-hire) but on a variety of things that build on your expertise as a writer and the writer of THIS particular book. Amir suggests that we do this through supplemental books, classes, workshops and more.

Why am I writing about this if Jodi has already written a post about the book?  Because Amir's suggestions have changed how I look at my book. Instead of just putting it on my shelf (how pretty!), I’m brainstorming other possible opportunities based on my expertise.  This possibility has been open based on every other sale that I've ever made but after reading Amir's book, I've been motivated to do something about it.

According to Amir, I can write and speak on the Maya and writing. Here is the list that I’ve brainstormed so far.

E-books:

• A book of late grade school/middle grade writing activities with a Mayan theme.
• A book of classroom activities using Mayan art to teach literacy, critical thinking, and history.
• A book on how we use history, archaeology, linguistics, chemistry, genetics, and forensics to learn about the Ancient Maya. Might feature expert interviews.
• A book on what life is like for modern Mayan peoples.
• A book about how, based on their own preconceptions, early historians and archaeologists got so much about the Maya wrong.

Lectures/Workshops:

• Researching Nonfiction: How Much is Enough, Gathering Sources and Understanding What You Read
• Writing to Reader Interest and Reading Level
• Rewriting Based on Editorial Feedback
• A classroom experience based on each of the books above.

Social Media:

• Update Site (almost done)
• Pinterest (working on my Maya board)

After reading Amir’s book, I’m beginning to understand how short-sighted my approach to my writing has been. Yes, I write daily. Yes, I get my work out there and I make sales. That's great for the short term but I'm selling my expertise short.  Amir has given my ideas about how to capitalize on my sales.

If you'll excuse me, I have a plan to outline.

--SueBE

Find out more about Sue's writing on her blog, One Writer's Journey.

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1 comment Authorpreneur, brainstorming, Jodi Webb, Nina Amir, revenue streams, work-for-hire

Brainstorming Ideas: 4 tips on idea generation

In just a few weeks, I’ll be participating in an idea generation challenge called PiBoIdMo, or Picture Book Idea Month. Throughout the month of November, participants are challenged to come up with 30 unique picture book ideas.

This is the sort of writing challenge that I love because I’m a champ when it comes to generating ideas. I have to do it when I pitch lists of craft ideas to my Education.com editor. I do it when I take part in something like PiBoIdMo. I do it when I get ready to write a stack of narrative nonfiction pieces for an educational publisher.

If brainstorming ideas is tough for you, here are four tips that will soon have the ideas flowing.

Brainstorm regularly. Whenever I haven’t brainstormed for a while and then sit down to make up a list of 30 ideas for an editor, the flow is just a trickle. When I brainstorm regularly, I can usually come up with several ideas fairly quickly. One way to do this is to set yourself up with a regular tip such as Illustration Friday. This challenge is issued for illustrators to come up with an image based on a weekly theme. As a writer, I’ve also used this to come up with ideas.

Don’t go with idea #1. Whenever I use Illustration Friday to come up with 10 picture book ideas, the last 5 ideas are consistently better than the first five. I take a while to warm up my creative muscle. The first ideas always feel like something the editor may have already seen before. By idea #10, I’m putting my own unique twist on things.

Check out the competition. When I need to come up with activity ideas, I often head over to Pinterest and check out the most popular pins in DIY and Crafts. Wedding crafts and decorating DIY help me come up with ideas for teenage girls. How would I do something similar that is less expensive or suitable for a dorm room?

Combine ideas. Whether I am scanning book lists or looking at popular pins, I think about ways to combine ideas. What do you get when you combine a silk flower dipped in plaster used as a votive holder with a painting of a Halloween pumpkin? What about small plastic or foam pumpkins dipped in plaster? It might not work, but, then again, it just might. I do the same thing with book ideas, article ideas and more.

Over the next week, practice generating a variety of ideas for upcoming projects. You will find that as the days go on, more and more ideas flow onto the page and, hopefully, into the world of publishing.

--SueBE

Sue teaches our class, Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins in November; places in the class are open.

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Leave a Comment brainstorming, idea generation, Picture Book Idea Month

Accountability

Maybe it’s because writing is a solitary task, but we writers love programs and challenges that hold us accountable.  Sign up and you have a public statement of your goals and a group of writers to hold you to them.  There are several programs to help you get your ideas and initial drafts down on paper.

NaNoWriMo. This one is going on right now and is for novelists.  National Novel Writing Month challenges writers to draft a new novel in one month.  Because novels can vary in length, that’s 50,000 words or just under 1700 words/day. 

12 x 12. This program is run by Julie Hedlund.  In it, she challenges authors to write a finished first draft of 12 picture books in one year.  Ideally, writers can break this down into one manuscript a month but I didn’t spot any monthly deadlines. 

PiBoIdMo. Picture Book Idea Month, obviously, is another one that targets picture book writers and author/illustrators.  As the name suggests, everyone is challenged to come up with 30 picture book ideas by the end of November.  They can be ideas for characters, plots, titles or all of the above.

While these three programs are good, they do after all, provide external deadlines and accountability, they don’t provide it in the area that I most need it.  I’m a champ at idea generation.  And first drafts are tons of fun.  After all, the idea is still perfect until you get it on the page.  That’s when you realize you have more work to do and you face a decision.  Revise or start something new? 

If you are anything like me, you have file drawers and computer files full of drafts.  Some of them are first drafts.  Others just need that final polish.  But there they sit while we run off in pursuit of the next perfect story.  Fortunately, there are also groups that hold us accountable in our attempts to rewrite.

ReviMo 2014. This is a one week program organized by fellow Missouri author Meg Miller.  Throughout the week of January 12-18, she challenges participants to write (as in complete) picture book revisions.  Half a revision doesn’t count.  To add your numbers to the total, you need to start and finish a revision and you are encouraged to do more than one revision over the course of the week.

NaNoEdMo.  National Novel Editing Month provides novelists who participated in NaNoWriMo with an opportunity to spend 50 hours revising what they drafted in November. 

While none of these programs guarantee a submission ready product, they do get you one step farther along. 

If you know of any other programs that provide some level of accountability, add them in the comments below. 

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards blogs about writing at One Writer's Journey.

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4 comments 12 x 12, accountability, brainstorming, NaNoEdMo, NaNoWriMo, PiBoIdMo, ReViMo 2014, rewriting

3 Ways to Reuse Your Research

How often have you finished up a nonfiction project only to realize that you spent more time doing the research than you did on the writing itself? Put this research to work again and earn some additional income by brainstorming multiple projects with different slants and audiences.

Let’s say that the editor at your local conservation magazine has asked you to do a piece on waterfowl, specifically on their nesting patterns. You’ve researched Canada geese, mallards, and wood ducks. Now that you’ve turned in your manuscript, you can start your next project, which will require researching invasive plant species, or you can get some more mileage out of the hours you spent on ducks and geese.

Change the Geography
Because you did the work for a regional publication, such as Missouri Conservationist, you might be able to market a similar piece to a noncompeting market in another region. Possibilities might include Illinois Game and Fish or Wild Ohio. Because the editor of these publications will want quotes about and data specific to their region, it will take a bit more work but not nearly as much as a whole new project.

In addition to marketing it to another regional publication, consider giving your topic a broader appeal, nesting issues nationwide. This would make it possible to market a piece to a national magazine such as Bird Watching or Wild Life.

Change the Topic
In addition to changing the geographic focus of your work, you can also reslant the topic. You’re first article was for a conservation magazine. Conservation publications focus on wildlife management and encouraging wild life to live in specific areas. What about someone who wants to discourage these particular animals from nesting in a certain place?

Canada geese in particular can be a nuisance in any area that has a pond or lake, actually confronting people on playgrounds and the parking lots of office parks. Playground Magazine or Property Management Magazine might be markets for article on discouraging geese from nesting in your immediate area.
The problem isn’t always the safety of nearby humans but can also include animal safety. You could market an article on keeping ducklings out of the pool to Pool and Spa News.

Change the Audience
These publications all cater to adults. Move into other noncompeting markets by looking at magazines for children. Perhaps your research included interviewing a scientist, or you actually had the chance to work with a scientist that was banding birds in the field. Highlights for Children publishes article about personal encounters with various animals as well as interesting professions.

You might also look at children’s special interest magazines. Add a Christian slant and you could have an article for Nature Friend Magazine. If you can find a something to do with your topic that works with a Boy Scout badge such as Bird Study, Fish and Wildlife Management, or Nature, you might be able to write an article for Boy’s Life.

Check out magazines with themes. Boys Quest wants pieces on birds (water fowl are indeed birds), Hopscotch has an issue on ducks, and a piece on making a nesting box would work for Fun for Kids issue on “making things.”

No matter what topic you have researched, you use your research for more than one piece of writing by changing your regional focus, your topic slant and your audience.

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards is teaching the WOW! course Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next section of this course start on May 6, 2013.

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6 comments brainstorming, research, reslanting

Mind-Mapping for the Brainstorm-Challenged

Did some online surfing and came across an interesting site called bubbl.us, which is a free web application. With the tagline, ‘brainstorming made easy’, bubbl.us (pronounced ‘bubble’) can help to make the process much smoother. There’s nothing to install or download and it’s just as easy as brainstorming on paper.

To get an idea of what the application offers, click on ‘Features’ under the Examples listed on the homepage to find a map to walk you through each mapping step. There are also maps of team members and of future plans for the application, all produced by the site’s creators.

Let’s say you’ve a bunch of ideas for your next writing project and want to see how to order them. Or perhaps you’re attempting to plot out your novella or travel article. You might be in the process of crafting characters and feel it’s necessary to construct a family tree for him or her. Click the ‘Start Brainstorming’ button and a bubble appears. A help box with easy-to-follow instructions appear in the lower right of the screen and you can begin your brainstorming session. bubbl.us allows you to share your work with other users, along with embedding your map into your website or blog.

I’ve started using this tool myself as I have more than a few ancient notebooks with the notes of various characters’ family trees scribbled between the pages.

The next time you need a bit of help in figuring out the next steps for your work-in-progress, give bubbl.us a go. It may become a favorite resource in your writer’s tool kit.

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3 comments brainstorming, bubbl.us, Jill Earl, mind-mapping, Writer's Tools

Twist On an Old Topic

Last time I posted, I discussed writing articles that had a different slant for topics that have been done a million times like water safety or Abraham Lincoln. That post also made me think about novels and plot lines, and I've decided that the same concepts can be applied to longer works.

At one critique group I belonged to, somebody told me there are no new stories. All plots can be categorized in to one of four categories: man vs. man, man vs. God, man vs. nature, or man vs. self. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I do know there are some topics that have been written about time and time again, and they continue to be written about--but with a little spin.

Take for example Katherine Howe's debut novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which centers on the Salem witch trials. There have been countless books written about this period of history. So if it interests you, how do you come up with something new? Howe did by asking an interesting question or two: "What if magic were real? What if there really were witches in the world (Salem)?" She explores these questions as she weaves together the present-day life of graduate student Connie Goodwin and the 1680s and 90s life of Deliverance Dane. She took an old topic--the Salem witch trials--and put a new twist on it--maybe some of the women really were witches.

I tried to do this myself with the middle-grade novel I wrote titled Finding My Place (which is currently under contract with White Mane Kids). My story is set during the United States Civil War, and we all know how many hundreds of books--fiction and non-fiction--have been written about this time period. I read a lot of kids books, and what I discovered is most are set in the North and most are about soldiers or a child in the army. So, I decided to do a twist or two with my story--I set mine in the South, tell the story from a Southern girl's point of view, and keep it mostly about the citizens. Hopefully, it worked--I guess it worked enough to be noticed by a publisher.

So, if you are interested in writing a book about a topic that already has several titles about it listed on Amazon, then don't give up your dream. Look for an unusual story in your research that no one knows much about and expand on it. Try writing from a point of view that most people don't. Ask questions that are unusual or not often thought about. You can still write about that common topic and write a great novel--just put a twist on it.

post written by Margo L. Dill , http://margodill.com/blog/

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Leave a Comment brainstorming, fiction, Katherine Howe, Margo L. Dill, novel writing

Writing Articles with Unique Slants: A Nonfiction Writing Exercise

Last week, WOW! team member Jodi Webb wrote an excellent blog post about getting your query noticed. If you missed it, check it out here. Today, I thought I'd continue the theme of queries with a writing exercise about creating unique article slants. (Hopefully, light bulbs will be going off above your heads soon!) I recently gave this writing prompt to my children's writers online class I teach for WOW! Here's the prompt:

An editor whom you've worked with before wrote an email to several writers and asked for someone to come up with a unique article idea to teach children water safety rules for the summer. She explained it's a topic that's been covered many times during past years in the magazine, but the managing editor thinks it's important to remind kids (and new readers) the importance of water safety in the summer. She invites you to turn in a query for an article with a different slant on water safety. The best idea/query will get the contract for the article.

I talk with my students about how important it is to cover subjects that have been written about excessively but that some readers new to the age group or magazine haven't read about before. I've been to conferences where editors talk about how they still need articles about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington (a subject that's been covered time and time again), but they need an article for kids with a new slant. I imagine the same is true for a magazine like Good Housekeeping--the editors still need articles about tips for saving money or household cleaning secrets, but the article slant needs to be new and original.

One of the best ways to think of new article slants is to just engage in old-time brainstorming techniques of lists or word webs or brain maps. I like to put my subject, such as water safety, in a circle in the middle of the paper, and then create branches off the center with any idea that pops into my mind whether it's been done before or not. I keep going until I get an idea that is new or fresh or important and then write my query. As a matter of fact, I did this very exercise for the next WOW! issue on fiction writing and came up with an article about dialogue tags, which Angela accepted and will be in the July/August issue.

If the above writing prompt doesn't fit your genre or freelance writing career, you can substitute almost any topic for water safety and get your creative wheels moving. Here's wishing you have many light bulbs go off this weekend!

post by Margo L. Dill, http://margodill.com/blog/
photo by thomasbrightbill www.flickr.com

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Leave a Comment brainstorming, Creativity, magazine articles, Margo L. Dill, Query Letter