Wednesday Writing Exercise: The Big Idea

Note: This exercise was originally written for About's (now defunct) Creative Writing for Teens website. Although it was aimed at teens wanting to get better at writing, I hope it will be useful for all writers.

The Big Idea: An Exercise in What It’s All About 

Instructions: This is a fairly straightforward exercise, but one which requires much thought. You can do the whole thing in one sitting, but it might be better to work on it a little at a time. If you get inspired, keep going; if you need to stop and think, then take a break. You may even find that you have better results letting this stretch out over several days. Figure out as you go along what will work best. This exercise works best for novels, but it is possible to use it for short stories as well. Try it and see what happens. See the notes for an alternate way to use this exercise.

1. Assume you have decided "I want to write a novel," but you don't yet know what your novel is going to be about. Think about some of the ideas and problems that intrigue you and make a list, summarizing each idea in a sentence or two.

2. Take your favourites from the list and think about how each one could play out in a novel. You don't need to know all the details, just the overall idea, the big picture. What you are trying to get at is the essence of what the story is about, plus a few things that make your story unique. Make some notes, if you find it helps organize your thoughts.

3. Take the one idea that seems to have the most promise (though you can certainly do this exercise with as many of your ideas as you like) and write a one-paragraph description of the essence of the story. This may, as yet, be a bit vague about what will actually happen in the story.

For example (this is from my own work):

In a semi-nomadic barrenlands culture that accepts a magical landscape and ancient shapechanging beings as natural, if rare, a young woman strives to discover herself and her place in life. She loves the traditional culture of her people, but at the same time she chafes at its restraints. As she struggles for the freedom to be whoever she decides she must be, she also learns about duty -- to her family, her friends, her people and her land -- and about how she can balance that duty with her personal freedom. 

4. Expand this idea further, perhaps using your paragraph from #3 as an introductory paragraph. Incorporate more plot and character elements so someone reading your description would get some idea about whether or not they would want to read your novel. If you've come up with a title by now, use it. If you haven't got a title, it's a good idea to come up with a temporary or working title, in order to have something to call the novel. Remember that writing things down doesn't mean you have to do them, so if you haven't got things quite right, don't worry. You can always change things later.

For example:

In a semi-nomadic barrenlands culture that accepts a magical landscape and ancient shapechanging beings as natural, if rare, a young woman strives to discover herself and her place in life. She loves the traditional culture of her people, but at the same time she chafes at its restraints. As she struggles for the freedom to be whoever she decides she must be, she also learns about duty -- to her family, her friends, her people and her land -- and about how she can balance that duty with her personal freedom.  

White Foxes, Full Moon is the story of Maring Darkberry, one of the reindeer-herding people of the barrens. One night Maring, her brother Seri, and her friend Del spy on a group of Folk, ancient shapechanging beings. Both Maring and Seri also have a small amount of magic -- Seri can take the shape of a reindeer whenever he wishes, while Maring's shapechanging ability is confined to the three days of the full moon. Seri surrenders to the call of the Folk's magic and is stolen away. Now Maring and Del must find a way to get him back without violating the tenuous peace between the Herders and the Folk.  

In the process of rescuing Seri, Maring gains the gift of another shape from the Folk -- the shape of a red fox that she can take whenever she wishes by putting on a red fox skin. This gift gives her a freedom she has longed for, but, like many gifts from the Folk, it also carries a curse. The skin must be worn on a certain number of days in every month or the Folk will take Seri back again. Maring has gained freedom from the cycles of the moon, but she also has an added duty -- to her brother, that he may keep his freedom, and to her people, that they may continue to have peace with the Folk. In the end, Maring will learn who she is, what she wants, and where she fits in. 

5. Now you've got a good basic direction for a novel. If you're happy with what you've come up with, go ahead and write the whole thing. If it isn't something you really want to work on, set it aside and try again, or edit it further. Chances are, many of the details will change as you write the novel based on your "Big Idea," but the core thing that it is about will probably stay much the same (though you may find even that changes by the end). I'm currently half-way through the novel summarized in #3 and #4, and the plot has expanded twice -- the second time by about ten chapters worth of material -- but the Big Idea is still pretty much the same.

Notes: This exercise was based on one I did in a third-year university writing workshop with instructor Peter Such. It's intended to get you thinking about stories and the kinds of things you might want to write about, but it is possible to do the exercise in reverse. In that case, you'd take a novel already written and write a paragraph about it. Take the essential characteristics and plot elements and perhaps some of the thematic elements to write your summary. This is the kind of thing you might come up with if you had to answer the question "What is this novel about?" Try this with novels by other authors to see how well (or not) a story can be described in a short blurb. Genre stories tend to be easier to summarize.

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