The Never-ending Brainstorm

The Never-ending Brainstorm

Taking your inspiration from a gentle breezeto a full-blown hurricane

Vincent H. O’Neil (aka Henry V. O’Neil)www.vincenthoneil.com

Mystery and Horror as Vincent H. O’Neil

The Frank Cole / Exile Mystery Series

Supernatural HorrorTheater Mystery Mystery Anthology

Military Science Fiction as Henry V. O’Neil

www.vincenthoneil.com

Purpose

Ever get halfway through writing a story and then think of a better way to tell it?

That might be because brainstorming isn’t just something we do in the planning phase:

Brainstorming is an ongoing process

Presentation Outline

• Standard brainstorming

• Developing the initial ideas

• Digging deeper

• Revisiting the story

• Other techniques

Brainstorming

• Even if you have a full-blown story in your head, ready to be written, take the time to brainstorm it

• Brainstorming lets one good idea lead to another

• It really pays off

Standard Brainstorming

• Do some research (if applicable)

• Write phrases and words on a sheet / sheets of paper in random order

• Jot down everything that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant it might seem

• Don’t try to connect the ideas yet

Example Topic

In this presentation, the example topic is a murder mystery involving a supernatural entity (helping solve the crime, suggesting the crime, whatever)

The resulting short story, “Secret Suggestion”, can be found in my mystery anthology Crime Capsules

Brainstorming: Include everything

Ghost

Entity

Suggestion

Emotion

Past

Communication Entity helps or h

inders?

Malevolent?

Detective a psychic?

Detective enlists a psychic?

Sympathetic character?

Insane? Afraid going insane?

Gender?

Ghost’s motivation?

Moment of awareness?

Associate Some of the Ideas

GhostEntity

SuggestionEmotion

Past

Communication

Entity helps or hinders?

Malevolent?

Detective a psychic?

Detective enlists a psychic?

Sympathetic character?

Insane? Afraid going insane?

Gender? Ghost’s motivation?

Moment of awareness?

Spirit

Add Different Thoughts as They Appear

GhostEntity

SuggestionEmotion

Past

Communication

Entity helps or hinders?

Malevolent?

Detective a psychic?

Detective enlists a psychic?

Sympathetic character(s)?

Insane? Afraid going insane?

Gender? Ghost’s motivation?

Moment of awareness?

Gender?

The detective?

The victim?

The entity?

THESE ARE GOOD FORSUSPENSE; DON’T

ANSWER THEM RIGHTAWAY

DETECTIVEVISITS A

PSYCHIATRIST?

Psychiatrist?

Spirit

Synonyms

5 HumanSenses

Sight Sound

Touch

TasteSmell

Example: The Diagram Approach

Pick an aspect of the story and write out various options.In this example, we ponder the ghost’s ability to communicate

Then expand on them

5 Senses

Sight Sound

Touch

TasteSmell

Transmitted memory

Blurred visionHallucinations

Tricks of memory

VoiceSomething that reminds

detective of another case

Hot / cold

Skin crawling

Unfamiliar taste

AdrenalineMetallic

Unfamiliar smell

Smoke Cologne /perfume

Supernatural Communication

Imagined communication? Words, but not heard. Sensed, but not felt

Developing the Initial Ideas

Take the results of the first rounds of brainstorming and start exploring the different questions that they raise

Communication explored --How could the entity solve the case?

• Saw it happen

• Did something similar in life

• Figures it out from what the detective knows / learns

• Has observed a LOT of murder investigations over the years

• Maybe saw it happen but still doesn’t know who did it

• Maybe knows who did it but just won’t tell (refuses to make it easy)

Note how this opens up entire avenues for telling the story . . .

Connection -- the entity and the detective?

The Ghost and

Mr. Detective

Direct – ancestor(or is that a lie?) Indirect – used to

be a cop

Direct – can tellthe detective what it sees

Direct but unusual –this is the first detective

it’s encountered whowas receptive

Indirect – it’s attracted tomurder scenes (ghostsattracted to the things

they enjoyed in life)

What is (was) the entity?

• A murderer

• A sadist

• A cop

• A judge

• Someone who enjoyed games or puzzles

• Maybe we don’t find out this time around

Brainstorming can provideideas for later stories too

What could the entity tell the detective?

• Killer’s motive—communicate by emotion?

• Remind the detective of one suspect over and over

• Point toward a similar case in history

• A case the detective could NOT know

• Maybe the entity avoids a case the detectiveMIGHT know (which could allow the detective toignore the message, or its source, at first)

This idea leaves lotsof room to run

News stories / books /flipping pages

How does the entity communicate?

Emotion: Rage

JealousyLoveHateFear

GratificationJoy

AccomplishmentGreedDesire

Anticipation

When does it first communicate?

Crime scene?

After it’s followed the detective?

At a revisit to the crime scene?

When interviewing someone involved in the killing?

Does the entity follow the killerand feed off the dark emotion?

Did it want to communicate with the killer?

Do its suggestions become a problem forthe detective? (dark suggestions)

A whole new ideainvolving the killer

Why would it help solve the case?

Malice (chance to send

someone to jail) Jealousy – didn’t get

away with its own crimes

Likes challenges

Wants to helpEnjoys causing pain

The entity’s motivation

Likes control(torments the detective)

Note how each of these leads to a VERY different story . . .

Digging Deeper

Right about now you’re starting to piece the results together into a story line.

Don’t stop there.

The Detective

Ancestor a seer?

Able to experience the

killer’s feelings?

So focused on the case that the detective missedthe first communication?

Merely a sympathetic interrogator?

Unaware of psychic

power?

Detective’s Sensitivity

Used psychic poweron other cases?

A good detective might seek out an expert on the topic . . .

The Psychic

Says spirits pursue the

things they enjoyed in life

Suspects the detective is

someone a spirit would

find sensitive

Tells detective thatspirits feel comfortable

around him / her

Asks questions whichwould indicate if the

detective had previoussupernatural experiences

The Psychic

Could the Psychic have selfish motives?

And if the detective would go see a psychic . . .

Detective goes to a psychiatrist

• Concerned about possibly going insane

• Already saw a psychic (psychiatrist is skeptical)

• Collecting information (psychiatrist senses this)

• Discusses strange sensations (anger, jealousy)at crime scene and during interviews

• Between them, the psychiatrist and the detectivecome up with a reasonable answer for everything

Then SOMETHING happens . . .

Revisit the Story

You’re well along now. You’ve got a storyline going from beginning to middle to end. You’re even starting to fill in the blanks.

Time to reconsider.

What about those dark suggestions?

• Can’t we do more with the suggestions?

• Could the entity overdo it? Bleed-over?

• When they arrest the killer, the entity pushesthe detective to kill him / her?

• Psychic suggests that the entity couldn’t communicatewith the killer; it felt his emotion but couldn’t motivatehim / her to kill again (otherwise, why help the detective?)

Suggested earlier

At Murder Scene

Detective never felt

anything like this before

Conflicting emotions at first

Anger

Resentment

Jealousy

Does the entitywant the detective toKNOW it’s a communication?Entity trying to communicate; gauges

reaction

Emotions communicated to the detective

Wonders wherethese feelings are

coming from

The message might not be clear at first. And the entity might not know what it’s doing, either.

At the Office

Resentment toward

boss If the detective DOESN’T

like the boss, the message

might get lost

Maybe feels it moreintensely than usual,or when the boss is

trying to be nice

The Feelings Bleed Over

The detective likesthe boss, so thisis troublesome

Exploring how this would work . . .

The Widow

Maybe the detective

feels nothing at all?

Widow is actually grieving

because she cheated

Widow lies aboutthe affair

Detective notices thatit’s easy to concentrate

when interviewing the widow

Interviewing the Widow

The entity isn’tpointing the detective

at the widow

The psychiatrist can point at this to disprove the detective’s theory of supernatural communication

The PI

Just hired?

Or knows a lot?

Victim met with his lawyer aboutdivorcing his wife if the PI ended

up finding something

Complication: The Private Investigator

Hired to follow the wife

PI tells the police

the dead man suspected

his wife was cheating

An outside player, about whom the police initially know nothing, provides motive for suspecting the widow

Other Techniques

The ‘Making Of’ Approach:

Imagine you’re being interviewed on a variety of topics, (characters, plot twists, settings, events, intentions) as if it’s a ‘Making of’ featurette—what are your answers?

The ‘Making Of’ Approach

The Setting

“I imagined the town as a living thing, a bodywith a fatal illness . . .”

The Tool

“At first the gun was just the murder weapon,but then I asked, ‘Where would this averageguy GET an untraceable gun?’”

“I wanted the killing to be simple . . . elemental . . . which supported the ghostcommunicating through emotion . . .”

The Murder

The ‘Decision Tree’ Approach

Start withthe big ones

Write out the pluses and minuses of the big decisions:-1st person versus 3rd person-‘Whodunnit’ versus a story wrapped around a murder

A little laterA little more specific (once you have some ideas):

-The murder weapon: Found / not found-Witnesses: Saw but won’t talk / saw but undiscovered

Circle back and reconsider:-What if they DID find the murder weapon?-What if there were no witnesses? (Play with this;

what could happen if there were no witnesses at first, but then they found one?)

Much later

You have LOTS of choices . . .

Be the Director

• Treat each scene as live rehearsal with actors

• Get the most out of it (action, thrills, drama)

• Hit the high notes in your story

• Imagine you’re discussing a scene with actors playing the different characters

Choices, actions, revelations

• Imagine you're convincing an actor to playone of the characters

Motivations, behaviors, big moments

Research as Inspiration

• The Complete Idiot’s Guides

• YouTube (how-to’s, interviews, music)

• Online imagery (Google, Bing, etc.)

• Keep your mind open to what these sources are suggesting to you

Mystery and Horror as Vincent H. O’Neil

The Frank Cole / Exile Mystery Series

Supernatural HorrorTheater Mystery Mystery Anthology

Military Science Fiction as Henry V. O’Neil

www.vincenthoneil.com