What Techniques Do You Use for Your Storytelling?
fiction·@bucho·
0.000 HBDWhat Techniques Do You Use for Your Storytelling?
I ask of any genre, because pulling a story out of oneself can be done in a multitude of ways for a multitude of reasons in every kind of writing possible. If you've been following along, you'll know that I'm currently working on a third collection of stories, tentatively titled "Under A Black Rainbow." I've also spoken about how each book I work on comes into being in very different ways than the books that came before it. This one is currently no different.  Previously, I'd always kept a running Word document full of phrases and images and ideas for possible future stories. But then the longer I went on, the more I realized I rarely ever checked that Word document. Soon enough, I had taken up a philosophy that required no notes: "If a good idea takes you, and you forget it, then it wasn't worth writing. If an idea takes hold of you and never lets go, no matter how much time passes, then that story is begging to be told." And that's worked so far. It's actually kept my mind free to focus on the pieces that actually become stories rather than worry about the fragments constantly going unused. So I no longer write ideas down; if they stick around, they usually end up getting put to paper. Fast forward to this year where I've decided to utilize technology again in a way I previously haven't - using the voice recorder app on my phone. The fucker is always in my hands or nearby and I type WAY faster than I text and the the ideas come far faster than I can type, so...why not? And so I have. An interesting thing to note is how much more precise I am with language when sitting in front of the laptop and how much less so I am when walking around my apartment with the voice recorder. It's almost like because I'm speaking it, then I'm acting it out on a subconscious level. I'm storytelling more from a visceral/gutteral stream of consciousness style rather than from an emotional and intentional "every word counts" kind of way. I'm forcing the story out and making an ugly baby of it that can be swaddled and cleaned up later when there's more time to focus. I've been messing about with two stories in this way so far: "Into Dust" and one I began today that is, currently named "Bath Body," but which will certainly change once I get to actually writing it. And while this isn't an unusual tactic to pull a story from one's self, it's an unusual tactic for me in that I've never done it before. What kind of 'out of the box' techniques have you tried to use in order to tell the story you wanted to tell? What's the strangest thing you've ever done in order to tell that story? I'd love to hear the techniques of other writers, no matter their genre.  (Image from InsideHigherEd.com)