Solve Your Writing Problems Creatively

Creativity is a basic skill for being a writer.
 
Your imagination is what creates stories. Every best-selling book started with an idea popping into the head of the author. The author then nurtures and feeds the idea until it starts to gain form and flesh, in the shape of sentences, paragraphs and chapters.
 
No two authors are alike, so the techniques that each author uses to create their story will be different. We are familiar with the terms “plotters” and “pantsers”, but those are only two types that form the extremes of a very broad spectrum.
 
Sometimes, regardless of whether they are plotters, pansters or somewhere in between, authors run out of ideas for taking their story forward. They may call it writer’s block, or they may use another term, but for some reason they just can’t come up with what is going to happen next in their story.
 
But all is not lost.
 
You don’t have to sit there looking at a blank screen (or a blank sheet of paper if you are more “old school”). There are tools and techniques that can be used to stimulate creativity. 

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I would love it if creative problem solving techniques were taught in schools, as they have a direct application in any workplace. But they aren’t. What you can do, however, is take a few of these techniques and maybe make them work for you as an author.
 
The best creativity comes from working with others. By combining brains and “bouncing” ideas off other people, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
 
However authors are, by nature, solitary workers. That solitude presents a challenge, but one that is not insurmountable.
 
Last week we heard from Gene Ramsey about how to unlock some of your creativity by taking control of your writing environment. This week we would like to take things one step further and suggest some practical techniques you can use to create new ideas.
 
So, enough preamble, let’s get into the details.

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“What if” scenarios.
 
This does what it says on the tin. If you are stuck thinking about what your character should do next, asking “What if they did this …” allows you to test ideas out.
 
The basis of “what if” scenarios is rule breaking. You are going to make your character do something that may be physically impossible, morally or ethically wrong, might get them killed, might get someone else killed and a whole lot of other things that might, normally, prevent you from considering taking the character in that direction.
 
But that is OK.
 
Having created the scenario, you can then challenge the idea not in terms of not doing it, but in terms of still doing it, but in a way that will make it work. You are building up, not knocking down.
 
In creativity it is always about building up, not the other thing.
 
My character can’t do “that” because they would burn to death. OK, how about I find a way of them doing it without burning to death?
 
Can I give them a fireproof suit?
 
Can they find a way to extinguish the flames?
 
Can I use magic to protect them?
 
You get the idea.
 
So, the character will still take the path you imagined with your “what if” scenario, because you have found a way of making it possible.
 
But the key barrier to the what if scenario is assumptions. We make them all the time, sometimes without thinking about them. You have to learn to not only identify assumptions, you have to learn to challenge them. You will be surprised how often assumptions are actually wrong. Scientists and engineers find that out every day.
 
And if you doubt me, remember that only 120 years ago it was assumed that it was impossible for humans to fly.

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Quantity, not quality.
 
This is the basis of one of the best-known creativity tools, brainstorming.
 
Basically, you generate idea after idea, without worrying whether they are good, bad or indifferent.
 
Normally this is seen as a team activity, but you can do it yourself. All you need is a pad of sticky notes and a surface on which to stick them.
 
Write your ideas on the notes and slap them on the white board, wall or whatever. Lots of them. They don’t even have to have anything obvious to do with your book.
 
The whole idea is to get your brain spewing out ideas in a constant stream, because amongst the thousands of bad ideas that may come out, there will be a few golden nuggets.
 
When you have finally run out of ideas (you should try to keep going for at least an hour) you can start to group the ideas together in terms of common themes.
 
Those themes can then be examined more closely to see what they have to offer. Maybe you didn’t come up with “the” idea, but perhaps by combining ideas a, b and c together, you may have something you can work with.
 
A similar technique involves writing the ideas on a pad, page after page of them. Then tear up the first two pages, because they will be too “normal”. The real gold will appear on the later pages, when you started to get desperate for ideas and your brain had to keep going, drawing more and more from your subconscious mind.

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Flip the Point of View (POV)
 
Authors sometimes get so hung up on what their protagonist is doing (or not doing) that they sometimes forget that there is more than one character in the book.
 
By switching your point of view to see the problem through a different pair of eyes, you may see the flaws in your character’s (your) thinking (the paradigm they (you) are working within) which will allow you to break them out of the status quo.
 
For example, if your protagonist is a cop and the paradigm for a cop (an honest one, at least) is that they can’t break the law, then the way forward for the protagonist might be blocked
 
But if you view the problem from the POV of a lawyer, you might find that there is a loophole in the law that would allow your protagonist a route out of their problem. But you won’t see that loophole if you are still thinking like a cop, so you have to think like a lawyer.
 
You can also look at the story from the antagonist’s point of view. What is the thing the antagonist would least like the protagonist to do? That is what you should have your protagonist do.
 
You can look at the problem through the eyes of several other characters, to see how they would deal with it.
 
Shifting the paradigm in this way is a fundamental in organisational problem solving.

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Use Analogies
 
I’ll start this section by asking you a question.
 
What has Formula One (F1) motor racing got to do with the airline industry?
 
The answer is very simple when you think of the question as an analogy.
 
A feature of F1 racing is the speed at which pit crews are able to get a car in and out of the pits for tyre changes etc. It depends on two things: (1) having everything where it is needed, when it is needed and (2) having well practised drills, so everyone does their job instantly without having to think about it.
 
Back in the late 1970s, when cheap air travel started to become a thing, airlines were looking for ways in which they could get more flying hours out of their aircraft, because an aircraft sat on the ground isn’t earning any money.
 
They looked at the problem from the perspective of F1 racing, and realised they could adopt some of the same techniques to get their aircraft turned around at airports far more quickly, saving several hours a day in some cases. Now all the budget airlines use the same techniques to get their aircraft back in the air as quickly as possible.
 
Businesses use analogies of this sort a lot to come up with new ideas to streamline their performance. And you can use the same technique to come up with new ideas for moving your plot forward.
 
So, in terms of solving your character’s problems, what sorts of analogies might you use to stimulate your thoughts?

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Zoom Out From The Problem
 
How often have we heard the expression “can’t see the wood for the trees”? We are so stuck down in the weeds of the detail of a problem that we can’t see the bigger picture.
 
So, the solution is to “zoom out”, so we are no longer able to see the individual trees, but we can see the whole forest. And if we can see the forest, we can also trace all the possible paths through it.
 
I’ll give you a hypothetical situation.
 
Your character is stuck at the bottom of a well. There is no way for them to climb out and the rope that holds the bucket is rotted through, so they can’t climb it. They are shouting for help, but there is no one to hear them at the top of the well.
 
Because you are so close to the problem, all you can see right now is a deep dark hole with no way out of it.
 
But if you were to zoom out, you might see a church with a belfry. And the rope that attaches to one of the bells in the belfry is broken.
 
You might also see that on the other side of the forest lives the chief bell ringer. They know about the bell rope and they have a replacement. So, they cross the forest and their path takes them close to the well, where they hear the protagonist calling for help.
 
So, you now have a rope and someone to drop it down the well to rescue your character.
 
But you only got to that point because you zoomed out from the well to take in the wider picture.
 
OK, that is a literal interpretation of the theory. But it does work. If you can detach from the detail of the situation in which you have placed your character and look at the bigger picture of the story and imagine what else COULD be happening, you may well find the solution to your problem.

Incidentally, you can combine "zooming out" with the "what If" scenario to make it even more effective.

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Mind Mapping
 
Again, this is a long-standing technique that works for many people. Basically, you place the problem in the centre of the page and then map all the different aspects of that problem, to see where the barriers are lying.
 
For example, one branch of the map may relate to your character’s family constraints. Another may relate to their skills and knowledge. A third might relate to the resources available to them. Another may be their emotional entanglements. Another is the mental baggage that they are carrying around.
 
As you explore each branch you should be able to make smaller branches that deal with other aspects of the same problem and you may be able to link some of the issues in one branch with some of the ones in other branches, because they are connected in some way.
 
Once you have a detailed mind map, you should be able to identify possible solutions to what is causing your creative blockage. Mind mapping makes use of the key questions we always ask: who, what, where, when, how and why.
 
Here’s a link that describes mind mapping in more detail.
 
This technique isn’t just useful for overcoming writer’s block. It’s also a great way to get a new story idea worked out in more detail.
 
Conclusion
 
I have only been able to scratch the surface of the wide-ranging subject that is creative problem solving. Enough, I hope, to get you started. But if you go online and search “creative problem-solving tools” you will find a wealth of information. Some resources you may have to pay for, but others are available for free.
 
Images credit: pexels.com
 
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