Brainstorming

Sometimes a book comes to me fully formed. In some sort of flash I see the entire thing--beginning, middle, end. It's as if the main character walks into my bedroom, sits in the big chair in the corner and says, "Now Orloff, let's have a little chat because here's what I'm thinking." I listen, stare at the ceiling, and eventually nod. "Yup. I think that'll work."

Other times? I have the hook, the main character, but beyond that . . . nothin'.

And it's not that nothing comes to me. It's just not the RIGHT thing that comes to me. Ideas float in. I toss them out.

Sometimes, fortunately, I will hear a song, or see something, or dream something and it starts to gel a bit more.

Lately, I've been doing some brainstorming. My best friend Pammie sent me some thoughts on a recent idea I had. Someone else shared coffee with me yesterday and tossed out some WILD ideas. No filter. Just out there. And you know . . . something about the wild ideas . . . seemed right. Not perfectly gelled, mind you. But . . . something.

Brainstorming plot with writer friends is like that. I think of it as being on a road, and coming to a fork in the road and you can't decide which direction to go. And then someone shows up with an all-terrain vehicle and says, "Forget the damn road and just go off into the wilderness." Brainstorming takes me out of MY brain's pathways and jostles me a bit. One friend even recommended a song to listen to.

And ultimately . . . ultimately, I had a moment where I asked myself, "What do you intend to say with this novel? What is drawing you to it?"--that theme thing again.

Thanks to brainstorming, I think I know.

Someone recently saw me talking to myself and asked if I did that when I was nervous. I told him, "Nope. It's just something I do. I think it's because I'm a writer." Hell, sometimes, I just brainstorm with me, myself, and I. Anyone else brainstorm? Alone? With a friend?