Brainstorming

My eldest and his family were over for dinner last night. After the usual family stuff, we chatted about my new project. I love brainstorming with other people. It is so much better than trying to figure things out on your own. You sit there an look at the blank sheet of paper and ask "what if..." and you may come up with several ideas, but when you add another person into the mix, the ideas seem to flow fast and furious. What if this happens? Yeah, but then what if that happened?

I love it. And especially with these two. They are both so creative. I know neither one has the time or energy to write a full novel. But oh, what a story they could write. My son publishes a (more-or-less) weekly cartoon and his wry wit always has me chuckling (look under "links" for Zoidland). They write skits for their church and are the creative directors for much of what goes on there. This, in addition to working and raising my wonderful grandson.

But back to brainstorming (okay, it's early and my mind tends to wander sometimes) - I've seen this happen any time creative people get together to talk about their stories. Someone throws out an idea and everyone runs with it. You may end up with nothing, but more often than not, you end up with an idea that you hadn't thought of - but it is so good that you have to use it.

But someone else thought of it - isn't that a problem? Nope. That's the cool thing about brainstorming. All the ideas are out there for anyone to try. And even if multiple people use the same idea, trust me, no two stories will be alike. That happened at a small group meeting I was at one time. There were five of us and we threw out an idea - and came up with five different ways to approach the same thread. It was amazing. None of us came up with the same way and we had a ball looking at each other's solutions.

So if you're stuck and don't know a way to go - get friend or a group of friends and throw out a 'what if' and see what happens.

Today's author birthdays: Lewis Carroll

Today's thought: "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

Today's teaser: One of your characters keeps something in a box, buried where no one will find it. What is in there? What is the significance of the object or objects? Where is it buried? What will happen if someone ever finds it?