brainstorming – Becky Levine

brainstorming, Dreamscapes, Getting Organized, Picture Books, Writing Goals

Getting My Dream Ducks in Order

Posted on 11 Jan 2020 by beckylevine

As good as I am at multi-tasking, my natural, happy mind-state is to think and act in a linear path. One thing at a time, put it down, pick up the next, work on that, repeat. And for many years that has worked for my writing. Until recently, I was never popping with story ideas–I could pretty much put all my focus onto wherever I was in whatever novel I was struggling with at the time.

Then picture books came along to say, “Hi!” Storystorm is a huge part of my idea generation, but also–these days–some muse (maybe the Muse of Overwhelmedness) sends ideas to me on a regular basis. And you know what?

I CAN’T WRITE THEM ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Add to this that I am moving toward querying agents. And while I would like to just dive in head-first, some very wise people recently reminded me of the important steps involved in a smart agent search. And..guess what?

I CAN’T DO ALL THE STEPS AT THE SAME TIME!

And once more piece–now my looking-forward is a mix of dreams, goals, and actions. That’s about as non-linear as you can get. Some people could work it into a flow chart and feel comfortable dropping onto any arrow. But not me.

I CAN’T FOCUS ON MULTIPLE BIG-PICTURE VISIONS AND TINY DETAILED TASKS AT THE SAME TIME!

It was a busy week at the day-job, and I had to push the ALL down to the bottom of my brain for a few days. (No, of course it didn’t stay there, which is why I ended the week feeling like I had gone ten rounds with…Yes. The Muse of Overwhelmedness.)

So…I went to bed early last night, and I slept in this morning. I let my mind gently roam its way to a couple of Storystorm ideas, and I had breakfast and caffeine. And then I played with dream-scaping.

Typically, these brainstorming-circle tools don’t work for me. The fact that this one has, at least in having filled up a page with bright colors and actual text, is–I guess–reassuring. In an oh-good-I-am-finally-deep-enough-into-this-writing-thing-to-have-my-head-explode way.

How I turn this dreamscape into process(es), I’m not sure. In my past, free-to-be-linear life, my lists were a straight line of numbered tasks, and I got to happily cross off each one as I finished it. This new world is filled with tasks that connect to each other backward and forward, get to be repeated time after time, and play a role in various and sundry scenarios. It’s as if a nice, simple If…Then statement met up with Wile E. Coyote.

But I think this is my new normal, and it’s a normal I have been aiming toward for years. So I’m celebrating by being grateful and breathing deeply. And I’m keeping the nice paper and pretty pens near at hand.

Uncategorized

Knit-Thinking

Posted on 27 May 201927 May 2019 by beckylevine

Knit-thinking is what I’m calling my writing sessions during which I use yarn to get me away from my actual computer, making brain-room for actually brainstorming ideas about whatever isn’t working in a WIP.

For years, I’ve heard other writers talk about the activities they do to clear their head so their minds can wander around and some writing problem. A lot of people garden. Not me. Others cook or bake. Nope. Many go for a walk. I love walking with a friend, not so much just me and my brain. So I kept sitting at my computer, forcing myself to keep my fingers off the keyboard for a while, trying to just…think. It wasn’t and still isn’t a completely unsuccessful technique–I do get the occasional idea, and some even work out. But it can be painful to just stare at the screen or off into space, waiting for something to come.

Then one morning, I was really stuck on a WIP and I was craving some knitting time. I decided I would see if I could do any actual thinking, while my hands and eyes were focused on the current knitting project. I put on some music that I wouldn’t be able to sing along to–maybe The Duhks, maybe it was some Klezmer. (I can bop along to music with lyrics when I’m actually typing words onto a page, but not while I’m thinking about what those words should be. The Duhks aren’t lyricless, the words blend in so well with the music, it amounts to the same thing. And I don’t speak Yiddish.) And I pulled out the yarn and needles.

And it worked! It is still working–beautifully. Oh, of course, there are days when I stay stuck, and there are days when I get distracted and mess up on the knitting so badly that I have to let the writing thoughts go and catch all the stitches that are threatening to drop. But the majority of days, I have to keep a notebook and pen handy (along with my morning tea, sometimes a bit of breakfast, and the cat–it becomes a pretty crowded couch). Because the ideas come. When I’ve collected enough, I schedule myself some writing-without-knitting time, take myself back to my computer, and see where the new thoughts take the story. Sometimes they go nowhere, which can mean more knitting, or–if the wall I’m pounding my head against feels particularly hard–picking up another WIP to play with. Which also means more knitting.

I think, even when I don’t make a lot writing progress, I’m still less frustrated. Knitting has become something relaxing for me to do, a bit meditative. And even when I don’t spark with new story ideas, I do make progress with my knitting. (Despite the dropped stitches.)

Do you have a “thing” that keeps your hands busy and your brain active that lets you escape the tension of BIC? What’s your equivalent of knit-thinking?

Uncategorized

Monday Morning Brainstorming: In Which I Take My Own Advice

Posted on 22 Aug 2011 by beckylevine

In The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, I’ve got a chapter titled, “Brainstorming.” It’s not a long chapter, but I think it’s an important one, because I do think brainstorming is one of the biggest gifts critique partners can give to each other. I’ve talked to some beginning critiquers who haven’t realized that it’s an option for their group–and a great one. If they get stuck in a story, they struggle along by themselves trying to get past the block. And too often, this just puts them in a position in which they’re not writing, not submitting, and just feeling worse about how much they’re not getting done.

Meh.

This morning, my group’s having an all-brainstorming, all-kicking-ideas-around session. For various reasons–some of being in between projects, some of us dealing with end-of-the-summer business, some of us (who, me?!) in that stuck place I just talked about–there were no submissions this week. It only took a quick email around to find out that there were several of us who thought this was a great opportunity to raise a hand and say, “Over here! Ideas welcome!”

My personal goal: To stir up the mud that has been the one big, LAST story problem of the picture book. The one I stare at and stare at and say, “Huh” about, over and over and over. Maybe someone in my group will have THE brilliant idea (fingers crossed!). If not, though, I know I’ll come out of the session with thoughts I haven’t had on my own, ideas I didn’t know were out there. And that, my friends, is a step forward.

Critique Groups

Critique Groups: Keeping the Spark Present

Posted on 20 Jul 2010 by beckylevine

So I didn’t work on my WIP all last week. I had deadline for an article, and I was focused on pulling it together into something more interesting than just a bunch of data points and dry information. Because, really, who’d want to read that?

Anyway, so I took a week off from writing the YA, and then yesterday headed off to critique group to share my feedback about my crit partner’s work and hear their comments about the one scene I’d managed to send off to them before the break.

Lots of stuff was said, good and not-so-good, as per usual. They liked stuff I hoped they would and caught problems I hadn’t even thought about, which is why I love them. And they asked questions, one of which was…did my hero like a particular young man. As in, you know…like like.

And my basic answer, at the time, was lots of groans and a bit of head-pounding against the table.

Then, last night, I was reading through some more of my current research book, which did not have to do with love or crushes or romance or kindred spirits. And all of a sudden, I knew exactly how my hero feels about this boy at the start of the book, why she rejects him, what she discovers about him as the story progresses, and why she….

Oh, no, no, no. You’re not getting the rest of that sentence until this book is finished.

Anyway…my point is that after my critique partner (I can’t remember which one!) asked the question, it sat in the back of my brain, even though I hadn’t thought about my story in a week. It simmered and bubbled, and the minute I turned the focus back to the WIP, even toward a totally different part of it, the spark caught. The lightbulb glowed, and the answer pushed itself to the top of my brain and…out.

THIS is what a critique group does.