My favorite episode of MTV's Daria series was the one called "Write Where It Hurts," where she's assigned to write a story by her English teacher Mr. O'Neill. As part of the assignment, she has to use people she knows in the story. When she struggles with this, he adds that the story should include a game of cards and says that paradoxically, sometimes adding boundaries provides more creative freedom.
And I got to thinking, sometimes that really is true. At this point no one assigns me boundaries with my stories, but there are boundaries set by the marketplace. Some are set by Amazon and their Terms of Service--whatever it is--and some are set by the consumer.
Amazon says I can't write age regression stories anymore--though apparently everyone else in the known universe can, but that's a gripe for another time. I also can't include things like rape, incest, and bestiality, not that I would really want to do those things anyway.
As for the consumer, they don't explicitly tell me, but I know from experience and the sales numbers that they want a gender swap. And they're going to want at least one sex scene. And most of them want a happy ending.
So in coming up with stories, those are the things I have to keep in mind. And in a way it does help creatively because if someone tells you to just write a story about anything there can be so many things that you don't know what to do. When you add a few boundaries, it starts to focus the creative process.
And let's face it, a few boundaries make it more challenging. Maybe I make it look easy, but it can be difficult coming up with story after story without making them too similar. I've learned to take inspiration wherever I find it: other books, movies, TV shows, comics, and so on. I've used a lot of my favorite toy properties like Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man, and Voltron. Each time the challenge is how to convert it into a story that fits within the boundaries.
Next time you're having trouble with thinking of an idea--or you just find you can't focus on one idea--try setting yourself some boundaries and maybe you'll be able to find the right idea after all.
1 comment:
One thing I like about writing science fiction is that it does give you boundaries because you can't go beyond the science. Even in fantasy, it's not a good story if the magic doesn't have some rules and limits. You do make it seem easy to come up with ideas. The hardest thing for me is finding something I want to write and that fits it into what the readers want.
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