Hello my fellow artists! Last Sunday, I challenged myself to generate 7 story ideas in 7 days by utilizing the story generator exercise in chapter one of “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story” by Jeffrey Alan Schechter. Here is the link to that blog entry: 7 Story Ideas in 7 Days. Part 1.
And as promised, here is part two where I update you all on how it went! Below, I have italicized Jeffrey’s prompts for context. I also copied and pasted the story generator website at the end so that you can try it at home!
Pick a description from Column A such as “ugly,” “creative,” “brave,” etc. Turn that word into the ultimate expression of that description: “ugliest,” “most creative,” “bravest.” Pick a profession from Box B such as “astronaut,” “soccer coach,” “school teacher,” etc. The first few times I did this, I wanted to be intentional with the pairings. Meaning, I went through the descriptions in column A until one resonated with me. Once that happened, I went through the list of professions in column B until one resonated with me as well. Then, I paired those words together to arrive at a newly-invented character. For example, Bravest Disc Jockey. Keep reading below.
Set the timer on your phone for five minutes. Without stopping to think, crank out a story idea for the “somethingest character” you just randomly invented. The “ugliest blacksmith” or the “most fearful pilot.” Once I invented a character, I was on go. I followed whatever impulses came to me. I did not question or critique the spontaneous story idea I was generating in real time. Once my five minutes was up, I let it go. I didn’t dwell. I moved on to generate the next character combination and story idea. There were a few moments where I stopped in the middle of a story idea, and it was in those crucial moments that I made sure not to get in my head or become critical. I just told myself to be patient and see what else occurs. There were a couple of times where I chuckled (in a good way) to myself because the story I was generating was so fun, wild, and imaginative. I was like, “Wow, look at what I’m writing down. This is pretty funny and cool!” Keep reading below.
The next few times I did this exercise, I decided to just pick a description from column A and a profession from column B without thinking about it. Just quickly pick one thing from each column and generate a story idea. I wanted to see what would happen if I went with this approach versus the one above where I was more intentional with the pairings. I was pleasantly surprised with this approach because I still found myself generating a story idea for each character I created. Keep reading below.
I ended up generating 12 story ideas! I’m proud of myself because I came up with something each time around, no matter the type of story, the genre, the boldness of it, the simplicity of it, etc. Now that I have done this part, I need to tackle the next steps of the chapter one exercise: Try to give your story ideas a strong wish fulfillment, emotional dimension, market-savviness, and originality. Any that don’t hit all four points, take out behind the barn and Old Yeller ’em. Of the ideas that survive, put the best one aside for later. Keep reading below.
Let’s see how this goes! Hmmm, I feel a part three coming up. Here is the link to Jeffrey Schechter’s story generator exercise: http://mystorycanbeatupyourstory.com/mix-match/
Chasing The George 